DARRINGTON — Tim Lovell remembers school board elections when no one wanted to run. Members had to recruit people from the school’s five districts in order to fill the open seats.
He hopes those days will soon be history.
A proposition on the Nov. 6 ballot would reorganize the way school board members are elected. Currently, the 515-student Darrington School District is divided into five districts. Voters in each district then choose one member for the school board.
Proposition 1 would merge the five districts into three. The school board would then consist of one member from each district and two at-large members who can live anywhere in the school district.
“This will enable us hopefully to give more opportunities to more folks,” said Lovell, president of the Darrington School Board. “We’re not a demographically different district. It’s pretty homogeneous up there at the end of the valley; so it’s not like we’re going to lose representation of some specific group by going to three districts.”
Boundaries for the new districts aren’t set yet, but would be drawn if the measure passes, said Darrington School District Superintendant Larry Johnson.
He supports the ballot measure because he believes it will encourage more people to participate in school decisions.
“For small communities it really makes sense,” he said. “With a small district, it’s just going to make it easier for people to be involved.”
The measure requires a simple majority to pass.
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