New year, new school board members, new officers.
The Austin School Board on Thursday elected Jeff Kritzer as the new board chairman by a 5-2 vote over Don Fox.
Fox was elected vice chairman by a 4-3 vote over Aaron Keenan, and Kathy Green was elected as clerk by a 5-2 vote over Richard Lees.
Two of the biggest issues going forward for the board will be getting the new intermediate school built and following up with the modified, 45/15 calendar at Sumner Elementary School, Kritzer said.
"I'm excited to see what happens there," he said.
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Most of the officer elections had two nominees for each position, so votes were taken by written ballot. Greg Larson was the lone nominee for treasurer and won unanimously by a roll-call vote.
Also Thursday, four newly-elected school board members were sworn in.
Incumbents Don Fox and Kathy Green, and newcomers Angie Goetz and Greg Larson, took the oath of office given by Superintendent David Krenz Thursday at the board's organizational meeting.
Goetz is a property manager, lives in Austin and has three young children. Larson, a Certified Public Accountant, is the co-owner of an accounting firm in Austin, and he has two sons who graduated from Austin Public Schools.
"It's an honor and a privilege to get to be on the school board in this really exciting time," Goetz said.
Larson said he was looking forward to "just working as a team with the rest of the board members," and what will happen with the new intermediate school.
"I'm excited with the new building project coming up," Larson said.
Goetz and Larson replace David Ruzek and Diana Wangsness, who ended their terms at the end of 2011. Fox is in his second term, while Green has been on the board since 2000 and is in her fourth term.
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The terms for the newly-elected members will run from now through December 2014. They are three-year terms as the district continues to transition from odd-year elections to even-year elections (to align with city elections). Terms are usually four years.
