Two of the four Edmonds School Board positions on 2015 ballots have three candidates each, meaning that the two positions will appear on the Aug. 4 primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters for each position advancing to the Nov. 3 general election.
One is the position that Gary Noble holds representing Director District 3.
The other is the contest to fill the last two years of the four-year term that Board member April Nowak holds by appointment to represent Director District 4.
The school district includes the cities of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier, the town of Woodway, and nearby unincorporated areas of south Snohomish County.
Citizens throughout the school district vote for candidates from each of five director districts, but all board members must live in the director districts they represent.
Nowak has represented Director District 4 since she won appointment in 2014 to replace Susan Phillips, who had resigned early this year for family reasons. Nowak said in late March that she intended to run in November for the last two years of the term, but Tuesday she said that her own family commitments will make continuing on the board impossible.
Now Phillips has filed for the last two years of the term, along with Michael Arendt and Monica Wheaton, both of Lynnwood.
Arendt, Phillips and Wheaton seek to replace Nowak in representing Director District 4 in the central part of the school district. Director District 4 includes parts of the city of Edmonds and most of the city of Lynnwood on both sides of Highway 99. It includes Edmonds-Woodway High School, College Place elementary and middle schools and Lynnwood Elementary School.
Noble also has two challengers to represent Director District 3. The challengers are Mary Murphy and Mark Norton, both of Lynnwood. Director District 3 in the northeast part of the school district, including the area around Lynnwood High School, Martha Lake Elementary School, Oak Heights Elementary School and Spruce Elementary School.
Two other board positions will appear on the November ballot with no primary.
One is the position that Kory DeMun is giving up representing Director District 1 in the southwest corner of the school district. Director District 1 includes Woodway, the south part of the City of Edmonds and nearby unincorporated areas, and the southwest corner of Mountlake Terrace.
The election matches business executive Bill Willcock and 32nd District Democratic chairwoman Carin Chase.
Incumbent Diana White will run unopposed in Director District 5. White represents Director District 5 in the northwest part of the school district, including the Lynndale and Meadowdale areas and the north part of the City of Edmonds.
The only board position not on 2015 ballots is the one that Ann McMurray represents from Director District 2 in the southeast part of the school district, including most of Mountlake Terrace and all of Brier.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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