Newcomers claim school board seats

COEUR d'ALENE - Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour have been elected to serve on the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees.

In Tuesday's election, Hamilton received 758 votes, unseating incumbent Stephanie Powers in the Zone 2 race. Hamilton earned 89 votes more than Powers, representing 52 percent of the 1,458 votes cast in that trustee zone.

Powers received 669 votes, 46 percent of the votes.

"I just spoke to my campaign committee, and I said, 'Everybody catch your breath because now the real work starts,'" Hamilton told The Press. "I'm honored to represent the people of Coeur d'Alene. I'm going to make sure I do the best I can to represent the students, the parents and the taxpayers."

With 31 votes, Brandon Austin captured the remaining 2 percent.

Zone 2 encompasses the area north of Dalton Avenue, east of Highway 95 to Honeysuckle, then west to Reed Avenue and north to the district boundary.

Seymour defeated Greg Rod in Zone 3. Seymour won 58 percent of the 989 votes cast in that race. She captured 574 votes, and Rod earned 415.

Trustee Bill Hemenway, who now holds the Zone 3 seat, did not seek re-election.

Zone 3 includes the area west of U.S. 95 to Atlas Road north of the Spokane River.

"I'm so humbled by the vote of confidence that the people have given me," Seymour said. "I appreciate, so much, their support and I will work hard to represent everybody, to do the best job that I possibly can. I just want to thank everyone that helped with my campaign, who supported me."

Hamilton and Seymour will each serve four-year terms that will begin July 1.

School district trustees receive no compensation for their service. They serve as volunteers.

It was the first school trustee election run by the Kootenai County Elections office, a requirement of Idaho's new election consolidation laws.

Previously, school districts ran the elections.

Voter turnout of 2,447 in Tuesday's school board races in Coeur d'Alene was more than double the turnout in 2009, the last election run by the Coeur d'Alene School District.

In 2009, 1,063 voters cast ballots in two zones with contested races - 424 in Zone 3, and 639 in Zone 1.

This year's turnout still wasn't quite as high as the turnout in 2007 when 2,722 voters cast ballots in contested races in two zones.

The increased voter turnout for the school trustee elections in 2007 may have been spurred by a school tax measure that was also on the ballot. Voters approved an $8 million supplemental maintenance and operations levy in that election.