MEEKER I Four seats on the Meeker Board of Education are up for election or re-election Nov. 7. The seats held by current school board president Bud Ridings, member Todd Shults, and current board secretary Bill deVergie, are up as the four-year
terms of these individuals come to a close. Also up is Davey Smith who was elected in 2015 to the remaining two years of an unexpired term.
The other three current board members—Tom Allen, Kevin Amack and Bob Dorsett—were elected in 2015 and have terms that don’t expire until November 2019.
In the Nov. 7 election, voters eligible to vote are those registered who reside within the Meeker School District boundaries. The opening date for candidates to pick up and begin circulating petitions is Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the school administration
office, 555 Garfield St. A qualified candidate must be a registered voter and school district resident for at least 12 months prior to the election and cannot have been convicted of a sexual offense against a child.
In a district with less than 1,000 students, like Meeker, a candidate must file a nomination petition signed by at least 25 verifiable eligible district electors.
Completed petitions are to be returned to Janelle Urista at the School District office. Urista, otherwise the district finance director, is the designated election official for the Meeker School District. The completed petitions must be returned to Urista at the admin office by Aug. 31.
If only four or fewer candidates file verifiable petitions by the deadline, the BOE can cancel the election. Those four or fewer qualified candidates would then be automatically elected and any vacancies would be made by appointment of the existing
school board. Any such appointee(s) would serve until the next election.
At press time, board incumbent and president Ridings has reported that he does intend to run again. Incumbent deVergie reports he’s yet undecided while neither Shults nor Smith have responded.
