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School elections get a vacation

by MAUREEN DOLAN
Staff Writer | February 10, 2010 11:00 PM

COEUR d'ALENE - Thinking of running for a seat on a school board this year?

Think again... if you live in Idaho.

The comprehensive election consolidation bill passed by the 2009 Legislature last year cancels out this year's school district trustee elections throughout the state.

"We have been told by all parties in authority that we will not be conducting trustee elections this year in order to transition into the terms delineated in the election consolidation law," said Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane.

Effective next year, all Idaho elections are limited to four dates annually, the primary election in May, the general election in November, and two additional dates in March and August for school levy and bond elections. Partisan races (federal, state and county) will be held during even-numbered years.

The new statute calls for school board and other non-partisan elections to be held during odd-numbered years. It bumps school trustee terms from three to four years and puts the county in charge of all school elections.

The law includes transition measures that extend sitting school trustees' three-year terms to four or five years, depending on when they were elected, including trustees whose seats expire this year, a year before the statute's 2011 effective date.

Idaho's Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst confirmed that his agency is proposing legislators make a change to the law that will clear up any confusion regarding 2010 school trustee elections.

Jerry Keane, in Post Falls, and Coeur d'Alene district board clerk Lynn Towne said their districts will follow the election law, whatever that is.

"I'm waiting for a directive from someone at the legislative level," Towne said.

On five-member school boards, the new statute extends the terms of trustees elected to three-year terms in 2007 for another year. Vern Newby, in the Coeur d'Alene district's Zone 2, would have been up for re-election this year.

Since Coeur d'Alene trustee Bill Hemenway's term in Zone 3 would have expired this year, he too will serve another year.

Diane Zipperer in Zone 4 and Sid Fredrickson in Zone 5 were elected in 2008. They will serve five years each, until 2013, the next odd-numbered election year.

Edie Brooks, elected in Zone 1 in 2009, will serve four years until 2013.

In Post Falls, Michelle Lippert's term in Zone 2 and Dave Paul's term in Zone 1 began in 2007 and were set to expire this year.

They will each serve another year.

Donagene Turnbow in Zone 4 and Julie Hunt in Zone 5, whose terms began in 2008, will each serve five years through 2013.

Steve Gobin in Zone 1 was elected in 2009 with a term set to expire in 2012. He will serve until 2013.