Wednesday's Internet Edition, September 08, 2010.
Two newcomers,
incumbent earn
school board seats
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Julian Fields (left) and Taylor Godfrey show off their dance moves during a concert by Crossfire at the Heritage Days Festival. |
Publisher - Two newcomers and the only incumbent in the race were elected to the Roane Board of Education Tuesday.
Greg Boggs of Spencer and Chris Mealey of Reedy, each making their first bid for office, ended up leading the ticket. Tom Young of Looneyville, the only incumbent among the eight candidates seeking one of three seats, was re-elected by a narrow margin.
Boggs, 42, is manager of his family’s natural gas business. He is the father of twins who attend Spencer Elementary School and his wife teaches at Spencer Middle.
He led the non-partisan ticket with 998 votes.
“I’m optimistic we will hopefully be able to make some positive change,” he said after the results were in. “I feel we can look forward to four years of progress.”
Chris Mealey, 37, is a pharmacist at Roane General Hospital. He has three children, including two at Reedy Elementary and another who starts school next year.
He was second with 952 votes.
“I was kind of surprised at the numbers,” he said at the courthouse Tuesday evening. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I think the easy part is over and now we’ll have to roll up our sleeves. I hope we can improve the entire system.”
Both Mealey and Boggs said they were anxious to see what kind of changes the state legislature might make in a special session focusing on education that was to begin today (Thursday).
“I think a lot of changes are coming,” Mealey said. “I think we will have our work cut out for us.”
Young was re-elected in a hotly contested race with one of his opponents from four years ago.
When the election night totals were in, Young had 650 votes to 642 for Newton resident Joe Ross.
There were only seven provisional ballots, previously called challenged ballots, which will be considered when the canvass is conducted Friday at the courthouse.
“I’m glad it’s behind me now,” Young said Wednesday. “I’m happy I survived all the lies and trash thrown at me and the people of Roane County have the confidence in me to put me back on the board.”
Young said the board would have to face financial problems predicted for all county school systems in the next few years.
“We’ll have to look at the budget and see where we go from there,” he said, mentioning the possibility of putting an excess levy before voters to generate more revenue.
“We might have to see if the county will support it,” he said.
Young, 39, of Looneyville is superintendent for an oil and gas company and has two sons, one at Roane County High and another at Walton Elementary/Middle.
Where Young’s children attend school may have had an impact on the race, after he removed both his sons from Geary Elementary/Middle a few years ago and transferred them to Walton.
Young lost precincts at Left Hand, Newton and Linden to Ross and beat Ross at Amma by only two votes. Young carried both Walton precincts, although Ross did defeat him at Gandeeville.
Rounding out the ticket were Sally Moore, wife of current board member Russell Moore, who did not seek re-election, with 614 votes, Dr. Tim Metzger with 596 votes, retired school board treasurer and assistant superintendent David Kinison with 553 votes and Mark Kennell with 463 votes.
The three members elected Tuesday will begin four-year terms July 1, joining current members Paul Cummings and Joe Painter.
