Early, unofficial returns in Tuesday's annual school elections had incumbents Debbie Ugbade and Karen Reese winning their positions in the Hot Springs School District, but races in the Jessieville School District were too close to call.
Ronald Graves also apparently won the Position 2 seat on the Mountain Pine School board. Votes from the Jessieville school election were still arriving at the Garland County Election Commission building at presstime Tuesday evening.
Ugbade was re-elected to a fifth-straight term. Reese, who was appointed to the board twice in 2013, was elected for the first time.
Ugbade won over challenger Myra Young by a 328-141 margin, including a 169-61 edge on Election Day. Ugbade led 149-68 in early voting. Young received 12 absentee votes and Ugbade received seven.
"We knew we had to work for it," Ugbade said. "People just kind of came together and we worked. We worked hard."
Ugbade had no inkling one way or the other about how the election would turn out on Tuesday.
"I didn't know, because you never know what people are going to do until they actually go in there and cast their votes," Ugbade said.
Ugbade's three children graduated from Hot Springs High School. She is an instructor in the Adult Education department at National Park Community College after retiring a year ago from her position as public affairs specialist for the Ouachita National Forest, U.S. Forest Service.
Ugbade represents Garland and four other counties on the Arkansas School Boards Association Board of Directors. She will run again for the ASBA board this fall.
Reese defeated challenger Chris Skrivanos 231-155. Sindy Webb, who filed for the Position 3 seat but rescinded her candidacy earlier this month, received 43 votes.
Reese carried a 119-86 lead into Election Day from early and absentee votes. She carried the majority of votes, 113-69, on Tuesday. Webb received 17 early votes and 20 votes on Election Day.
Reese was an instructional aide for 21 years at local schools, but is now retired. She was re-appointed to the board a year ago after no candidates filed for the seat.
Graves defeated David Terry 109-31 for Position 2 on the Mountain Pine School Board. Graves and Terry were first-time candidates.
Graves won 77 percent of the votes on Election Day with a 106-31 tally. Terry led in early voting 4-3. No absentee votes were cast in the Mountain Pine election.
Graves is employed by Vickers Pipe & Tank in Hot Springs. He is a graduate of the district and has two sons who attend Mountain Pine.
Results from polling sites in the Jessieville School District were unavailable at press time. Challengers Nicholas Sarver and Sam Ault held narrow leads in the two contested races.
Ault led appointee Chris Robertson 37-31 after early and absentee votes in Position 5. Four years remain on the term of former board president Joey Herrington, who resigned in April.
Sarver edged appointee Steve Garrett 28-27 in early voting and 8-4 in absentee votes. Two years remain on the Position 3 term. Garrett was appointed last fall after the resignation of Rodney Ivers.
Two Fountain Lake candidates were unopposed for the two seats up for vote. Board member Greg Frank will begin another three-year term. Sheila Ford will also begin a three-year term on the board.
Eddy Slick ran unopposed in Cutter Morning Star, as did Vance Dobyns in Lake Hamilton and John Pennington at Lakeside.
Local on 09/17/2014