FAYETTEVILLE — Tim Kring, a Zone 3 Fayetteville School Board member who has served six years, said Thursday he will not run for re-election.
Kring said Thursday he plans to step down from the board when his term ends in September.
“My departure is solely for personal reasons,” Kring said in e-mail. “My service provided me an opportunity to repay, in a small way, the debt I owe the teachers and staff of the Fayetteville School District in educating my own children.”
Kring said he believes every resident should serve the community in some way and added he quickly learned his personal interest and that of the board differed.
“As a parent, my focus was on the education of my child, and the focus of the district is on every child,” he noted. “That difference profoundly effects how each and every problem is approached.”
Kring was appointed in 2004 upon the resignation of board member Shannon McCuin, who moved out of the district. He was elected to a five-year term the following year, running unopposed.
“I won by 14 votes,” he quipped, adding he voted for himself as did his wife and son.
Kring is a professor in entomology at the University of Arkansas.
Besides Kring, the term of Howard Hamilton, who represents Zone 2, also expires in 2010.
Hamilton, who has been on the board 10 years, said he is undecided whether to seek a third term.
Washington County Clerk Karen Combs-Pritchard said school board candidates can begin circulating petitions to declare their intention to seek a school board seat June 23.
Prospective candidates should pick up their petitions in the school administration office in the district where they reside, she said.
The filing period begins July 16 and ends at noon July 23.
The annual school election is Sept. 21.