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Schools

School Board Candidates Begin Filing for April Election

Filing opened on Tuesday for school board candidates in five St. Charles County school districts.

Candidates began to trickle in for school board seats up for election on April 3, 2012 in St. Charles County’s five public school districts.

Candidate filing opened Dec. 13 and will close on Jan. 17. Voters will elect school board members to serve three-year terms – with the exception of perhaps one school district.

Most of the filing activity on the first day of filing occurred in the . Five candidates, including two incumbents, had filed Tuesday for two open seats.

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The candidates filing Tuesday were incumbents Sheryl Cox and David Hurst along with candidates Michael Spiroff, Aaron Schaper and Saundra Garber.

Four candidates filed Tuesday in the Francis Howell School District for two open seats on the board.

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The incumbents filing are board vice president Stephen Johnson and member Marty Hodits. Two other candidates filing on Monday are Eric Seider, who ran as an unsuccessful board candidate earlier this year, and Marie Haupt, a retired district teacher.

In the Fort Zumwalt School District, former board president Michael Swaringim was among three candidates filing for two open seats on the board. The other candidates filing on Tuesday were incumbent Mike MacCormack and Jim Pepper. Barbara Story is the other incumbent whose term is up.

Swaringim and board member Jeff Kutterer were ousted in the district’s school board election finishing fourth and fifth in a six candidate race behind winners Laurie Schmidt and Renee Porter. Swaringim served on the board from 1999-2004 and rejoined the board in 2007.

Just how long the winners of the 2012 election will serve is up for discussion. Board candidates elected next April could serve six-year terms unless the school district receives an exemption from new state requirements.

Missouri has classified the Fort Zumwalt as an “urban” school district because of population growth. This may require board members to serve six-year rather than three-terms, and set term limits of not more than two terms.

District officials say local state legislators are crafting legislation to overturn the requirement.

In the St. Charles School District, long-time incumbent Wayne Oetting and candidate Marita Malone were the first two candidates to file for two open seats on the board.  Oetting and and Tim Bekebrede are the incumbents.

Oetting has served thirteen terms on the school board and was first elected in 1971. He is a former administrator in the Francis Howell School District.  Bekebrede was elected to the school board in 2009 and is in the construction business.

Malone, 61, is an assistant professor of criminal justice and security at St. Louis University. This is her first candidacy for a school board seat. She said Tuesday that she always felt a person can make a difference by working with children.

Long-time Orchard Farm board members and incumbents Fred Semke and Nancy Goeke have filed their candidacies for two open seats on the board. Semke has served five terms or 15 years on the board, and Goeke has served six terms or 18 years.

The basic qualifications for becoming a school board member include being a U.S. citizen, a Missouri resident for at least a year before the election, a resident taxpayer of the district, and at least 24 years of age.

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