11/5/2009 7:55:37 AM

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By Kurt Nesbitt

Post-Bulletin, Austin MN 

The election of two newcomers to the Austin School Board on Tuesday completes a significant changeover in the membership of the panel in the past two years.

	What happened: Challengers took two of the three open seats on the Austin School Board, beating two incumbents. An incumbent won the third seat. Why it matters: The board's makeup has changed in two years with five of the seven elected being new on the board. What's next: Current board members finish their terms Dec. 31. Those elected will begin their three-year terms in 2010.

When the elected board members are sworn in next year, five of the seven members will have two years or less experience on the board.

Looking over Tuesday's school board election results, board chairman Don Fox said, "I thought it was going to be a very close race anyway, particularly for the third spot. That's the way elections go. It was a great race."

Austin school district voters appeared to favor new faces on the board Tuesday, when they ushered in challengers Aaron Keenan and Jeff Kritzer, who received 2,303 and 2,104 votes respectively. Keenan received the most votes in five of six precincts. Richard Lees, an incumbent, won re-election with 1,961 vote, just 49 votes ahead of the third challenger, Jeff Ollman. Incumbents Mary Kleis and David Simonson rounded out the voting with 1,841 and 1,587 votes apiece.

In 2007, three new board members were elected along with Kathy Green, an incumbent, who nabbed the fourth seat by just 39 votes. Green was chairwoman of the Austin School Board in 2007. Fox, Curt Rude and Diana Wangsness were challengers who won seats two years ago in a race that seemed to be more of a referendum on then-Superintendent Candace Raskin than on any other issue. Daniel Heins, an incumbent, did not get re-elected. A total of 12,377 people turned out that year.

Austin Superintendent David Krenz said Tuesday night that he expected more people to show up for the election. He said the turnout of 4,306 was similar to the Sept. 15 primary, in which 1,479 voted out of a total of 13,000 registered voters. It was the first primary the district held.

This year, there was less of a divisive issue, although Green raised the issue of candidates' connections to teachers and the propriety of them guiding teacher contract negotiations and voting on a teachers contract.

For now, board members will most likely turn their attention to the failed levy request and other funding challenges that await them.

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