Great night for Cd'A challengers
<p>Christa Hazel points toward her supporters at the Fort Ground Grill after reading the unofficial results to Tuesday's election for the Coeur d'Alene School District board of trustees seat for zone 1 which showed her winning with 63 percent of the votes.</p>
<p>Dave Eubanks celebrates with his wife Sherrie at the Fort Ground Grill after unofficial results Tuesday showed him winning the Coeur d'Alene School District board of trustees seat for zone 4.</p>
<p>Ann Seddon discusses options for communicating her political message after results Tuesday showed her behind in the polls to Dave Eubanks for the Coeur d'Alene School District board of trustees seat for zone 4.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - There will be three new faces on the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees come July 1.
Christa Hazel won the Zone 1 seat with 1,414 votes, representing 63 percent of the 2,237 votes cast. Brent Regan received 823 votes.
This is the first time voters have selected a Zone 1 school trustee since 2009, when Edie (Brooks) McLachlan defeated Jim Purtee by seven votes. Since then, there have been three appointments to the seat, and Hazel sought, and was denied, the appointment each time.
"I think the Coeur d'Alene School District voters felt we needed more than a party label," Hazel said. "They took a stand to say we need qualifications and transparent motives."
All five seats on the school board have been filled for nearly a year by trustees supported by the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans. Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour were elected with the political group's support in 2011. The remaining three seats were filled over the course of the last year by self-proclaimed conservative Republicans. Jim Hightower was on the Reagan Republicans' board when he was appointed to the Zone 5 trustee position last August. Hightower did not seek election.
The results started trending upward for all three winning candidates early Tuesday evening.
"The energy around this campaign has felt good," said Zone 5 winner Tom Hearn when the returns started coming in. "I hope the votes continue to reflect that."
They did.
Hearn handily beat Bjorn Handeen for the Zone 5 seat. Hearn earned 835 votes, or 70 percent, to Handeen's 364 votes.
Dave Eubanks defeated Ann Seddon for the Zone 4 seat.
"The kids won. The families won. Our community won. Our educators won," said Eubanks, who retired from teaching in March, shortly before announcing his candidacy.
Eubanks won 1,195 votes, 60 percent. Seddon, who was appointed to the Zone 4 seat last May, received 813 votes.
Kristi Milan, president of the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, said she thinks a lot of teachers got out to vote for Hazel, Eubanks and Hearn.
"I think this is a victory for the children of Coeur d'Alene," Milan said. "I think everyone wanted a board that's diverse and cares about educating children."