Wayland, Hopkins have 4 school board seats open, Martin 2

Wayland Board of Education President Tom Salingue announced Monday evening that the deadline for anyone interested in running for a school board seat has until July 26.

School board elections used to be held annually in June until new state laws went into effect. Now they are held on the same days as the November general election in presidential years and gubernatorial years. In this case that would mean Martin, Hopkins and Wayland will elect school board members in November this year and then have another one in November 2018 for those whose terms won’t expire at the end of 2016.

Four seats will expire on the board in Wayland this year, those held by Salingue, Nancy Thelen, Gary Wood and Vice President Teresa Dobry. Treasurer Toni Ordway, Secretary Janel Timmerman-Hott and Trustee Pete Zondervan were first elected in 2014.

Salingue mentioned he would like to see more interest from potential candidates this time around. The Wauyland Board of Education election two years ago featured the embarrassment of having only one candidate, Ordway, file for the three open seats. Both Hott and Zonderman were elected by write-in votes.

The election in Martin this November will be for only two seats, as the four-year terms of President Tom McLaughlin and Trustee Rosemary Andrews expire.

In Hopkins, the terms of Jeff Gilder, Bill Bauman, Mika Maule and Karen Ryan are expiring.

PHOTO: Members of the Wayland Middle School Jazz band, under the direction of Kelli Smith, performed “Deacon Jack’s Gospel Shack” by Paul Murtha at the start of the Wayland Board of Education meeting Monday evening.