School election offers bare minimum of candidates

With two candidates running for two available board seats in Posen and Rogers City, it is once again an election devoid of board candidates, but the reasons why people decide to not run for office may be wide ranging. Dennis Budnick is running for a seventh consecutive term in the Posen Consolidated Schools in Tuesday?s election, while Timothy Horn is running as a write-in candidate in the Rogers City Area Schools.

As of earlier in the week, the Presque Isle County clerk?s office was reporting no competitors for the four-year seats in each respective district. Each term begins July 1, 2006. Budnick is retired from O-N Minerals (formerly Michigan Limestone Operations Inc.), while Horn is a quality engineer at Cadillac Products. He has worked for the company for 20 years. The circumstances of the election could change before the Friday write-in deadline of 4 p.m., but the lack of candidates is baffling, said Budnick Monday. Budnick believes the tough financial decisions that have needed to be made the last several years is keeping people away. Today, candidates are just not coming forward; instead they are being recruited.

ROGERS CITY superintendent Paul Mancine said it is a ?sign of the times.? He said there is a lot of stress on the people who make decisions on boards. It does not get much tougher than the tough decision the RCAS board had to make earlier this month with the layoff of six teachers and the cutting of the K-12 art program. Mancine added that the people that are typically involved in everything are the ones that decide to run for school elections. ?Some of those people are learning to say ?no? a little better,? Mancine said. It was hoped that election consolidation a few years ago would increase voter turnout for school elections, but that has been far from the case in Presque Isle County, at least this year. All three districts have the minimum of four candidates running for four seats. Retired Posen superintendent Mike Murch, who served as the school?s top administrator for 15 years, said Posen always has had a problem filling out the ballot with names.

?THERE NEVER has been an abundance of candidates,? Murch said. ?We rarely had competition.? As is the case today, Murch said people who had shown an interest i

n making decisions were contacted to see if they would be interested. Officially, Rogers City does not have a candidate on the ballot, because Horn declared his candidacy after the deadline, but only as a write in. One explanation might be the busy schedules that people have these days. ?That has something to do with it, but some people use that as an excuse,? Budnick said. ?I?ve made time.? Before retiring, Budnick, who along with serving nearly a quarter of a century on the Posen school board has served for two decades on the Intermediate School District, would request shift changes so he would not miss a meeting.

With two daughters, 11 and 13, who will be soon attending RCHS, Horn decided to come forward to stay involved and have an opportunity to provide input that somehow will offer a better education for his daughters and other students.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.