LSC, TSC, West Side school board races set for November
LSC, West Lafayette will have contested races on the Nov. 5 ballot. Tippecanoe School Corp. board is already set with four unopposed district races
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SCHOOL BOARD RACES SET FOR NOVEMBER ELECTION
Look for more in the coming days from the candidates for school boards in Greater Lafayette’s three public districts. For now, after Thursday’s filing deadline, Lafayette and West Lafayette wound up with crowded fields. Tippecanoe School Corp. essentially knows who will be on its school board long before the Nov. 5 election.
Lafayette School Corp.: LSC’s school board race got crowded at the last minute with five candidate filings on Thursday, the filing deadline. Two incumbents and five challengers filed to run for three at-large seats on the seven-member Lafayette school board. This year will be the first that LSC school board members will be elected as at-large candidates, meaning they’ll appear on ballots across the school corporation instead of on their home districts. Current board member Dave Moulton is not running for re-election.
The candidates, who don’t run with party labels, include:
Ebony Barrett, who was appointed November 2023 to replace Brian Wagner when he moved from the district, filed for re-election this week. Barrett is senior diversity, equity and inclusion consultant for IU Health.
Josiah Eller, who described himself as “a Christian parent who works at Caterpillar,” ran for Lafayette City Council as a Libertarian in 2023.
James Hass has run a number of campaigns for various offices, most recently as a Republican in Indiana House District 27 against Democrat Sheila Klinker.
Margaret Hass, a Lafayette Jeff graduate, is an educator at Purdue.
Rocky Hession is a former Fairfield Township Board member.
Gary Mueller, a father of three Lafayette Jeff graduates, has worked for Caterpillar for 35 years.
Julie Peretin, who was selected in February 2023 to fill the remaining term of board member Kay Walton, is running for re-election. She is programs administrator in the Office of Professional Practice in the College of Engineering at Purdue.
Tippecanoe School Corp.: Four of seven seats will be on ballots in TSC. Three incumbents have filed for re-election and will be on ballots unopposed. Another candidate also will face no competition in her bid.
District 4 (Wea Township and a portion of Fairfield Township): Incumbent Jake Burton will run unopposed.
District 5 (Sheffield and Lauramie townships): Incumbent Julia Cummings will run unopposed.
District 6 (Wayne and Union townships): Connie Harper, a retired teacher, has filed to run to replace Brian DeFreese, who did not file for re-election. Harper will be unopposed.
District 7 (Jackson and Randolph townships): Incumbent Brad Anderson will run unopposed.
West Lafayette Community School Corp.: Six candidates, including two incumbents, will be up for four of the seven, at-large seats on the West Side school board. Current school board members Brad Marley and Tom Schott did not file for re-election. Here’s who did:
Amy Austin, elected in 2020 and now the school board president, filed to run for a second term.
Maria Koliantz, a board member of the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation, filed Tuesday.
George Lyle, who works in IT security, will make a second run for the school board, after being among six candidates on the ballot in 2022.
David Purpura, a Purdue professor and director of the university’s Center for Early Learning, was among the 15 candidates on the ballot in 2020.
Beau Scott is a former Dayton Elementary teacher and now director of STEM Learning for a company called EES Innovation, which works to support K-12 schools across Indiana grow their STEM programming.
Yue Yin, also elected in 2020, filed for a second term, too.
The election will be Nov. 5. To register to vote or to check your voter registration status, go to the Secretary of State’s portal at www.indianavoters.com.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
This week, the Indiana Finance Authority released some preliminary findings and historic trends on water use in its North Central Indiana Water Study, ordered in late 2023 by Gov. Eric Holcomb amid pushback on the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s study of a pipeline to bring water from western Tippecanoe County to the LEAP district in Boone County. Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, writing for the Indiana Capital Chronicle had this account about the IFA report, which includes Tippecanoe County and a dozen others along or near the Wabash River: “North-central water withdrawals in decline, Indiana Finance Authority reports.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith had the news, and some of the blowback, on Jennifer McCormick’s pick of Terry Goodin as her choice for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. There already are two Democrats who have put their names in for the nominations. And with Goodin emerging – along with a socially conservative streak during his time in the Indiana House – state Rep. J.D. Ford, Indiana’s first openly gay state representative, was making noise about adding his name. Here’s Casey’s report: “Democrat Jennifer McCormick taps former Indiana Rep. Terry Goodin for lieutenant governor. Goodin, who hails from rural Indiana, has been criticized for his voting record on abortion and gay marriage.”
On that note, Indianapolis Star columnist James Briggs roasted McCormick’s decision and the scene for the party heading into the state Democratic convention in July. Here’s how he opened the column: “Indiana Democrats had one job: Don't divert attention from Republicans' disastrous nomination of Micah Beckwith for lieutenant governor. Great job, everyone.” It goes downhill from there: “Democrats stole Micah Beckwith's spotlight and put it on their own dumb infighting.”
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The inclusion of Mr. Goodin on the "ticket" is a deal killer for me if this comes to pass. As a man married to a man, I can't hold my nose and vote McCormick if Goodin is the number two. Unless, of course, he goes on camera and shares how he has dramatically changed on LGBTQ civil rights.
Why Mr. Goodin? Is this an attempt to reach the evangelical pro-gun demographic?