Finishing the Job

WANTED: A QUALIFIED SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE

Mercer voters have accomplished what many though would have been an impossible task several years ago, and that was ridding the Mercer School of an inept administrator and a corrupt school board.

The job is almost complete – almost except for one position on the board which is up for election this coming Spring.  The term of Hank Joustra expires, and someone who is well qualified needs to step forward and run for the office.

Candidates for the three-year term can file their Campaign Registration Statements and Declaration of Candidacy forms beginning this December 1 and have until no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, to submit them to the school district clerk.  The election will be held on Tuesday, April 6.  If more than three candidates file, a primary election will be held on Tuesday, February 16.

(A Mercer Town Board election is also coming up with the same deadlines, except that nomination papers are required.  Candidates can begin circulating their nomination papers beginning December 1, 2020, and will have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, to file them.  In that election Mercer voters will have the opportunity to replace John Sendra as town chairman.)

A purge of the old school board began with the Spring, 2017, election when voters ousted Denise Thompson and, in a subsequent election, dumped Kelly Kohegyi, the mother-in-law of former Administrator Erik Torkelson.   Another Torkelson cohort, Deanna Pierpont, left the board when her term expired, and then was soundly rejected by voters last Spring when she attempted a comeback.  The last of the Torkelson clique, Micki Pierce-Holmstrom, saw the writing on the wall and chose last Spring not to seek reelection.

We now have four well-qualified school board members and a new administrator who have been cleaning up the mess left behind by Torkelson and his “stooge board”. 

Regarding this coming Spring’s election, the deposed, former school board members or their “hangers-on” need not apply.