School board filing begins

This fall, voters will select candidates who will decide who should lead their school system and vote on projects that could cost millions.

This week, candidates began filing for their names to be on the ballot for 15 open school board seats in this year’s general election.

School board races will join several other contested races on ballots this fall, including for U.S. Senate, state legislators, sheriff and other local offices.

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Shaping up the ballot

Local voters will be selecting candidates for all six of Johnson County’s public school districts this fall.

That includes three at-large members of the Center Grove school board, two Clark Township members and one Pleasant Township member for Clark-Pleasant schools, an at-large member and two Blue River Township members for Edinburgh schools, one member each for Union and Needham townships for the Franklin school board, two at-large members and a District 2 member for Greenwood schools and one Hensley Township member for Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools. A Jackson Township seat will also be on the ballot, but voters in Morgan County will vote in that race.

What school boards do

School board members are in charge of hiring, reviewing and firing the superintendent. They set policies for their schools, such as the bathrooms transgendered students should use.

And they approve and oversee projects by the school district, such as the implementation of new technology or a new school being built.

Whoever is elected to the Center Grove school board will oversee the ongoing construction of the new Walnut Grove Elementary School, set to open in the 2019-2020 school year.

At Clark-Pleasant, school board members will make decisions on how to handle the school district’s growth, when a new school could be needed and how to pay for it.

How to run

School board filing began this week, and ends at noon Aug. 24.

Only voters who live within the school district, and specific areas that seats represent, will be able to vote for the candidates that represent them.

Whoever wins will be paid a salary of up to $2,000 per year, typically attend one meeting a month and serve a four-year term that begins Jan. 1.