BENTONVILLE -- Voters on Tuesday re-elected an incumbent in the race for a Bentonville School Board seat and gave a woman with a long history of volunteer work a chance to serve on the Rogers board.
Rebecca Powers, Bentonville's Zone 1 representative, held off challenger Eowyn Francis-Moore, winning by 202 votes (82.8 percent) to 42 votes (17.2 percent).
Other races
Here’s how other school board races in Benton County finished Tuesday, according to unofficial results:
Decatur, Zone 4
Darleen Holly received 15 votes (68.2 percent); Loyd Smith received 7 votes (31.8 percent)
Gentry, Zone 3
Nikki Rayburn-Still received 31 votes (59.6 percent); Clarence Kreger received 21 votes (40.4 percent)
Source: Staff report
In the Rogers district, Paige Sultemeier earned an even more impressive victory, receiving 292 votes (89 percent) to Dulce Aguirre's 36 votes (11 percent).
The winners receive five-year appointments to their respective boards. All results are unofficial until certified by the Benton County Board of Elections.
Powers, who's served on the board since 2012, was celebrating her 47th birthday Tuesday when she got word of her victory.
"I don't think I'll ever have another birthday like this," said Powers, a program and process manager for the merchant training talent development team at Wal-Mart.
She added she was honored by the voters' support and was surprised the election wasn't closer.
"But I'll take it," she said. "There are so many things to be excited about in the Bentonville School District. We've got so much going on. It's the best time to be on the board."
Francis-Moore was at the Benton County Election Commission late Tuesday when the results rolled in.
"I fought a good fight, and I did it on a positive note," said Francis-Moore, who works for the Benton County Juvenile Detention Center. "I wish (Powers) the best of luck. There's no hard feelings behind it."
The two candidates differed over the recent proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the district's anti-discrimination policy. That proposal was voted down last month by a 4-2 margin. Powers opposed it; Francis-Moore supported it.
Powers earned significant monetary support for her campaign, including two $1,000 donations. One of those donations came from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of Tontitown, who are known for their television show 19 Kids and Counting.
In Rogers, Sultemeier will take the place of Jerry Carmichael, who opted not to run for re-election to his Zone 5 seat. Sultemeier, 54, has volunteered hundreds of hours of work per year for the past eight years running concession stands as part of the Rogers Athletic Booster Club. Her dedication earned her Rogers High School's Bonnie Grimes Scholarship Award for the 2013-14 school year.
Sultemeier also has experience on a school board. She served for 12 years on the board of the First Baptist Christian School in Rogers, which offers prekindergarten through fifth grades. She has two sons, one of whom graduated from Rogers High School in 2010 and another who's a senior at the school this year.
Aguirre, 50, was seeking to become the first Hispanic member of the Rogers School Board. She and her husband, Fernando, run a heating and cooling business based in Rogers.
NW News on 09/16/2015