This is the first year that voters in many -- but not all -- Arkansas school districts will select school board members during the general election, in conjunction with selecting city, county, state and federal government representatives.
A 2017 change in state law ended the annual school board elections in September and gave the districts the choice of holding elections in May or November -- at the same times of the primary or general elections in even-numbered years.
Early voting starts today for this year's Nov. 6 general election.
In Pulaski County, North Little Rock School District voters will fill four of the seven seats on the School Board in the election. Two of those seats feature contested races.
The Little Rock School Board is operating under state control and has no locally elected school board.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board held its election in May.
The Pulaski County Special School Board has one open seat this year, but no one filed for it by the August filing deadline. As a result, by law, the incumbent seat holder will continue to hold the board seat until the next regular school board election in 2019 or the seat holder formally resigns. Alicia Gillen, who represents the Pulaski County Special district's Zone 5, has said that she intends to continue to serve for the time being.
The election ballots in each of the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts ask voters to vote yes or no on their district's current property tax rate. None of the districts is asking for a change in the property tax rate, but the Arkansas Constitution calls for districts to place their tax rates on the ballot annually regardless of whether there is a proposed change. Even if a majority votes against the current tax rate, the rate will not change. It falls back to what the rate was before the election, which is the same rate.
As for the North Little Rock board seats, Tracy Steele is unchallenged in his bid for re-election from the district's Zone 2. The former state senator and current director of the Arkansas Health Services Permit Agency, Steele has served one three-year term.
Former board member Rochelle D. Redus is unopposed for her return to the board. She is running for the Zone 3 position held for the past 12 years by Darrell Montgomery, who is not running for re-election. Redus, a disability services counselor at Pulaski Technical College, was on the board from 2000 to 2006.
In Zone 5, incumbent Cindy Temple is challenged by Latoya Morgan.
Temple, vice president of SP Environmental, was selected by her board colleagues last year to fill a vacancy but was actually appointed by the Pulaski County Quorum Court when the board failed to make the appointment within the time allotted by state law. As an appointee, Temple had to run, and must win, in this election to keep her seat.
Morgan is a media specialist at Sylvan Hills Middle School in the Pulaski County Special School District.
In Zone 7, newcomers Sarah Scanlon and Natalie Wankum are vying for the board seat being vacated by Luke King.
Scanlon is a consultant to individuals and organizations in state and out of state.
Wankum is a North Little Rock native and an administrative assistant for a dental group.
North Little Rock School Board terms are for three years and are unpaid.
Metro on 10/22/2018