The ballot has been set for this fall, and voters will have several options for who should get their vote.
Voters will still be deciding four contested races on four school boards: Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant, Edinburgh and Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools. They will also be voting in local races for county council and county treasurer.
And their ballots will also include choosing the next governor, president and a U.S. senator.
Next up, election officials will decide where vote centers should be located on Nov. 8, Election Day.
Officials are already considering at least three new centers, Clerk Susie Misiniec said.
She is expecting a big turnout this fall, with lots of interest in races for president, governor and senate, and she also expects voters will want to have their say in who should make decisions about their school district, she said.
Filing ended last week for local school board seats. School board members set the budget for their school district, hire and fire the superintendent and are in charge of long-range planning for their schools.
For example, in the last year, Clark-Pleasant school board members approved a redistricting plan that moved about 29 percent of elementary students to different schools and changed the intermediate school to an elementary school. Center Grove approved a $10 million student activity center with an indoor track and four courts, and construction has been ongoing on new schools for Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson and Greenwood.
Those issues have often been big drivers to get voters to cast ballots in school board races.
“School board races are just as important (as other races). Those folks are making decisions for our children,” Misiniec said.
The county also is deciding how many and what locations should be open for early voting, and how long they should be open.
Misiniec is encouraging voters to cast ballots early, or expect to wait in line on Election Day, she said.
“We are giving voters a lot of opportunity to vote early, and they need to take advantage of it,” she said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Here is a look at who has filed for school board:
Center Grove: 2 at-large seats
Rob Daniels
David W. DeGraaf
Pingnan Shi
Carol Tumey
Nathan T. Williamson
Clark-Pleasant: 1 at-large seat, 1 seat that represents Pleasant Township
At-large
Brian Bair
Vernon S. “Butch” Zike Jr.
Pleasant Township seat
E. Curtis Harris
Edinburgh: 2 seats that represent the town
Cathy J. Hamm
William “Bill” Jones
Curtis Rooks
Alice Taulman
Franklin: 1 seat that represents Franklin Township, 2 seats that represent the city of Franklin
Franklin Township
Andrew Lamm
City of Franklin
Kristine Ott
Bryan Wertz
Greenwood: District 1 seat, District 3 seat
District 1
A. LaDawn Weston
District 3
Steve Moan
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson: 2 at-large seats, 1 seat that represents Nineveh Township
At-large
Ed Harvey
Greg Waltz
Amanda Wilkerson
Nineveh Township
Thomas Burgett
[sc:pullout-text-end]
