All have children in PR schools
Three people — Leslie Jackson, Eric Rowlee and Sarah Saragusa — are seeking the Zone 3 School Board seat.
There are
11 candidates for four of the five seats available.
One seat, has one candidate who is currently a school board member and is running unopposed.
The zones and candidates are: Ryan Heckman, Chris Olson, Trenton Talburt and Adam Yager in Zone 1; Jessica Branham and Stephen (Drew) Rosser in Zone 2; Leslie Jackson, Eric Rowlee and Sarah Saragusa in Zone 3; Mindy Cawthon (incumbent) in Zone 4; and Melanie Christensen and Johnnie Dye in Zone 5.
Residents living within the Pea Ridge School District boundary must register to vote by April 25 to be eligible to vote in the May 24 election. Voters must live within the same zone as the candidate for whom they’re voting. Leslie Jackson
Leslie Jackson has been a senior client service associate for the past 10 years at a finance firm in Rogers.
She and her husband, Fredrick Jackson, have two sons, Devon, a senior at Pea Ridge High School, and Demarcus, a sixth-grader at Pea Ridge Middle School.
A native of Shreveport, La., she said she moved to northwest Arkansas in 1991 when she was in the first grade.
“This is my first time running for office in any form or capacity.”
Eric Rowlee
Eric Rowlee is director of Learning Architecture & Design for Walmart. He and his wife, Lisa, have seven children: Isabella, 20, Morgan, 19, Jocelyn, 17, Ricky, 15, Luke, 4, Hunter, 12, and Sawyer, 10.
“Our two oldest children graduated from Pea Ridge High School, and the others are all currently students in Pea Ridge schools,” he said.
He is a native of Illinois. He earned his bachelors degree in psychology from Brigham Young University, a masters degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Brigham Young University.
He and his family moved to Pea Ridge in 2011.
He said he has not run for office before.
Sarah Saragusa
Sarah Saragusa is a licensed mental health therapist.
She and her husband Jason have been married for 16 years and have four children. The eldest attended Pea Ridge schools from sixth to eighth grade and currently attends Founders Academy in Bentonville. Their twins are in sixth grade in Pea Ridge Middle School and the youngest is in fourth grade at Pea Ridge Intermediate School.
Saragusa said she grew up in Pencil Bluff, a small town in southwest Arkansas and graduated from Oden High School with a class of 27. “I continued my education at Henderson State University where I received a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in clinical mental health,” she said.
She and her family moved to Pea Ridge in September 2018.
She said this is her first time running for office.
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