School board races heat up in local counties

Eleven contested school board races are scheduled for Tuesday across the region.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Scott and Perry counties.

Delta has four people running for three spots including incumbents Ken Cook and Scott Bond and challengers Troy Smith and Michelle Ikerman. Cook is health, safety and environmental leader at Procter & Gamble -- Family Care Plant; Bond is a registered nurse in the emergency department at Southeast Health; and Ikerman is a stay-at-home mom. Smith did not return a candidate questionnaire.

Jackson has eight people running for three spots including President Terri Tomlin and members T. Wayne Lewis and Bruce Thomas. Challengers are Jamie Pfefferkorn Nipper, Kristi Uhrhan, Larry L. Koenig, Will Adams and Brad Noel.

Tomlin co-owns Senior Health Care Benefits; Lewis is a dentist; Thomas is a retired teacher who owns Coach T's lawn service; Nipper is a pediatric occupational therapist; Uhrhan is a registered architect; Koenig is assistant city administrator for the city of Jackson; Adams is a manager at Procter & Gamble; and Noel is a water plant lab technician for the city of Jackson.

Kelly school district has incumbents Greg Birk, Amy Tackett and Tammy Wadlington and challengers Paul Ruff, Bobby Sides and Neal LeDure.

Wadlington is controller at Auto Tire & Parts in Cape Girardeau; Ruff is an auto broker at ROK Auto Brokers; Sides, who ran for the board three years ago, does maintenance at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau and owns 2 Sides Grillin'; LeDure is a service technician at Neumayer Equipment Co. and owns Crowleys Ridge Concrete and Construction.

Birk is a farmer.

Tackett did not return a questionnaire.

Oak Ridge has five people running for three spots including incumbents Linda Schoen, vice president Tom Schreiner and Scott Hahs. Challengers are Lindsay Berry and George Below.

Schoen does secretarial and bookkeeping work at Erlbacher Gear & Machine and Brune Custom Feeds and previously owned Novus Auto Glass; Schreiner is technology director for Jackson R-2 school district; Hahs does warehouse work for Do It Best Corp. and owns a farm. Berry is a self-employed child care provider; and Below is heavy equipment and lead instructor for Mingo Job Corps and owns a farm.

Oran has three openings sought by incumbents Vance Todt, Judi Henson and Wesley Jones, and challengers Dan Hahn, Chad Schott and Garrett Cook.

Todt, currently Oran school board president, is an AutoCAD operator for Industrial Systems and is owner-operator of Lit Pits, which offers custom fire pit outdoor cookers; Jones, a former Oran board vice president, is a production scheduler for Manac Trailers in Oran; Hahn is a farmer; Schott, who does transportation and logistics for Schott Transportation, also owns J. Marie's Flowers & Boutique, both in Chaffee; Cook is a police officer for Scott City Police Department.

Henson owns the Oran Quik Shop.

Perry County District No. 32 in Perryville, Mo., has six people running for three positions. Incumbents Jeff Weibrecht and Scott J. Hotop are running, plus hopefuls Richard Dix, Betty S. Laws, Kathy Carron and Tina M. Littge, who has served on the board before.

Dix is a procurement manager for Holcim (US) Inc., a large manufacturer and supplier of cement and mineral components; Laws is a retired educator of 31 years, 25 of which were spent teaching in the Perry County school district; and Littge is an ophthalmic technician for Eye Consultants Inc. in Cape Girardeau.

Weibrecht, Hotop and Carron did not return candidate questionnaires.

Scott City will have five people going for three spots. Incumbents Sally Porch and board President Scott Amick are running, plus challengers Jeremy Pruden, Heraleen Bowers and Brad Uelsmann.

Porch is a registered nurse for Anthem; Amick is a funeral director and Scott County Coroner; Pruden is an estimator for James Auto Body & Glass; Bowers is an information technology consultant for Heryan Services in Scott City; and Uelsmann is a real estate appraiser for his company, Uelsmann Appraisal Service in Scott City.

The Leopold school district race will feature incumbents Keith Brotherton and Bryan Stroder and challengers Chris Horrell and Alyssa Vandeven. Horrell owns Bug Zero in Cape Girardeau and Springfield, Mo., and Stroder is an estimator for American Railcar Industries in St. Charles, Mo.

Brotherton and Vandeven did not return candidate questionnaires.

Woodland R-IV will have six people running for three positions including incumbents Kenny Rhodes and Harley Eddleman Jr., plus challengers Angie Davis, Jeff Scott, Douglas A. Lindley and David McCormick.

Davis is an administrative assistant/office manager for Bowen Engineering and Surveying Inc. in Cape Girardeau; Lindley is communications chief at the Bollinger County Sheriff's Department; McCormick is in sales for McCormick Tire Brokers Inc.

Rhodes, Eddleman and Scott did not return candidate questionnaires.

Altenburg has two spots up with three people running. Incumbents Lucas Hager and Rick Mueller are going for re-election and Claudine Leimbach is the challenger. None of the candidates could be reached.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639