Sparta School Board Primary Coming February 15th!

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Sparta School Board Primary Coming February 15th!

January 29, 2022 - 06:26
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What a difference a year makes! In early January of a year ago there were fewer candidates than seats available on the Sparta Area School District (SASD) Board of Education. At the last minute a couple of more citizens registered as candidates and suddenly there were four candidates for two seats.

In the year since then much has happened in the SASD. Certainly the attempted recall followed by two resignations say a lot about the SASD School Board. Public input has been a concern to include caustic comments by a School Board member followed by a citizen initiated motion at the Annual Meeting. Parents Rights are being demanded by the public. Many people questioned the Administration and School Board concerning the mask and school closing policies. The quality of education is questionable. An expensive renovation project for the football field and a pending $2.1 million referendum are in the news.

Now, January 2022, the citizens of the SASD have enough School Board candidates to require a February 15th Primary to reduce the field to eight candidates; two candidates for each available seat. The nine candidates include a three-year incumbent, the two appointed members, and six challengers.

The best candidates for the SASD School Board appear to be the newly formed “VOTE 4” team of challengers: Amy Lopez, Pat McKenna, Marla Leverich, and Jason Perry. Together, they have the experience and energy to bring excellence back to the SASD. Together they will be more effective than if only one or two of this group are elected. Together, in all they say and do, they will be for the education of all the children. If you live in the Sparta Area School District remember to VOTE for the children with a “VOTE 4” Lopez, McKenna, Leverich, & Perry on February 15th!

EDITOR's NOTE: Shortly after this article was posted our team received this attached press release related to the election.

There are 7 Comments

What's the best way to find information about these candidates ?? Particularly re. their "political stripes". Yeah, I know the election is published as """non-partisan""". (Of course if anyone believes that, I have a NY bridge to sell them.) Any public forums planned ?

My wife and I have met Marla Leverich, and would be interested in supporting her (and most likely, "The Four"), certainly with phone calls, if needed / desired.

How to get yard signs ?

Is the order of listing the candidates on the ballot submitted yet ? When Burns - Gilbert was on the ballot, he was listed first. ( ! ) I discussed this with some Sparta official at the time. Apparently the order is set by the School Board, and then submitted to Sparta, whoever does the elections, and they use the order submitted to them by the Board. There are published studies showing that order on the ballot makes a difference with, specifically, school board elections, and other elections of small magnitudes. Which Board members are responsible for setting the order of the candidates on the ballot ?

I'll look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time taken in reading this.

Thank you for asking questions! The personal bios of the candidates will be uploaded to the VOTE4 Sparta School Board Facebook page this week. I can tell you that the other 3 candidates on my team have conservative values, like me. We want parent input on curriculum, responsible spending, policies and other decisions being made with regard to their children.

We have distributed all of our yard signs right now. After the primary on Feb. 15, we will be ordering more signs and will notify everyone on our Facebook page when they are available.
As for helping us out, please spread the word to all your friends, family, co-workers, etc. that Sparta needs a change in their school board. Word of mouth is a great way to alert everyone of the right candidates to vote for in the upcoming election. In order to make a change, we need to elect more than just 1 or 2 of us. We need all conservatives to VOTE4: Lopez, McKenna, Leverich and Perry to change the direction of the Sparta school board.

In regards to the ballot order, the Sparta school district announced when they were drawing names for the ballot. The district clerk put all the candidate names into a bucket and randomly drew the order of the names for the ballot. This is the order:
Amy Lopez
Pat McKenna
Ed Lukasek
Tanya Morene
Anthony Scholze
Todd Wells
Marla Leverich
John Hendricks
Jason Perry
Write-In.
The primary is being run to limit the number of candidates from 9 to 8, so 1 name will drop off. I'm not sure when the ballot order will be re-drawn for the April 5th election date. Stay tuned.
Thank you, Marla Leverich

Thanks for inquiring about the SASD Primary Election and, in particular, the "VOTE 4" team. Let me summarize your two concerns -- first about the "VOTE 4" team. The news release referenced in the Editor's Comment (published at the end of the original article) has more information about the candidates, a phone number, and a Facebook for the team. Please communicate with the VOTE 4 Team with specific questions and your offer to help.
The second concern is the arrangement of names on the ballot. The names are drawn from a hat to establish "randomness" and/or "fairness". The names have been drawn, but I do not know in what order.
Thanks again for inquiring about the "VOTE 4" team and the upcoming SASD Primary Election for school board. And, please communicate with the team.

Our schools are very important to our future, our children must be safe and receive a Constitutional education. We must be sure to limit interference of a negative agenda, often present at our schools. Our children are the future of America, we need to preserve our classrooms.

Conservative, right wing anti-maskers Sparta school board members. 2 resigned citing personal safety. Now they want these tactics to be rewarded with their own board membership? I don’t think so, Marla.

It’s ok to lobby against masks. I’m okay to disagree with anyone about that. Peacefully. But that’s not the case.

Student safety comes first. Your political affiliations are not even a factor, so flaunting them is indicative of your true reasons for running. It’s politics. Not our kids. Their future their safety. Their education.

Won’t be fooled by these 4 fools.

I know Marla personally. She would never threaten or hurt anyone. But the fact remains that there 2 vacant school board seats due to resignations by those who were threatened. Because they voted in favor of masks.

We deserve better board members than those 4. Ones who know you can’t simply forbid talking about racism or their fellow students who are LBGTQ.

We know racism still exists. And that LBGTQ people exist. Addressing these issues within the classroom or the administration of the school
System is necessary. Outlawing that they not even be mentioned won’t make them go away. Students are adults in training. They will need to be prepared to live in the real world, which has touchy problems and sensitive issues they will need to deal with and be subjected to.

I have made the effort to attended the Sparta School Board meetings this school year. I heard many people present concerns about the Sparta School Board policies and those concerns seemed to fall on deaf ears. Student safety comes first. Does their Mental Health come second by making them wear masks and keeping them six feet apart?

I am voting for the Vote 4 Team. We need board members to work for the Education of our Students in all grades K-12.

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