Four chosen to serve on school board
Riles was only incumbent running
By Bobbi Mlynar
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Tuesday was a good day for the Schreiber women.
In unofficial returns, Angie Schreiber led the voting with 1,647, in an eight-person contest to fill four seats on the Emporia Board of Education.
Her daughter, Gretchen, earlier in the day had received noticed that she’d received a scholarship from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul campus.
Angie and Gretchen had gone together to the polls on Tuesday to vote. It was Gretchen’s first time to cast a ballot and, though the ballot was secret, she readily admitted she had voted for her mother.
“It was really fun,” Gretchen said.
Mark Schreiber — Angie’s husband and Gretchen’s father — was pleased with the day’s events.
“I’m proud of them both,” he said. “They’ve just done a terrific job.”
Schreiber said that Angie’s passion for learning showed through during the campaign.
“She does her homework and really expresses herself well,” he said.
The Schreiber family were among about 50 friends and families who gathered at the Lyon County Courthouse Tuesday evening as the votes were counted.
Glen Strickland, Emporia State University professor who finished second with 1,605 votes, sat beside his wife, Carol, and watched his name climb from No. 4 to No. 2 during the evening.
He had been shocked at the low voter turnout when he and his wife, Carol, went to the polls about 1 p.m. Tuesday. They were the 14th and 15th voters at the site.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I’d never seen that low a turnout at Logan School.”
Incumbent board member and current president Grant Riles finished third with 1,574 votes. He was pleased with the quality of candidates across the school and city slates, an opinion that surfaced several times during the evening. He was equally pleased to be re-elected from such a strong field of candidates.
“I’m happy ... and looking forward to serving again,” he said. “We’re losing a lot of experience, but we’ve got a lot of good, qualified people.”
Mike Helbert, who ended fourth in the balloting with two fewer votes than Riles, was among the top four throughout the evening. With eight capable candidates, Helbert speculated on why the results varied little from start to finish.
“I think that they voted for people who had strong opinions — not necessarily the same opinions, but strong ones,” Helbert said as the last precincts were being counted.
Ty Wheeler was watching the screen as it updated periodically with fresh election results.
“I really wanted to do this,” Wheeler said. “If a couple more (precincts) come in and I’m still (in the bottom half), I’m going to be in trouble.”
Wheeler said that he had learned much about the value of the school board during his campaign.
“The more you get involved, the more you understand just how important it is,” he said.
Brent Windsor, who finished 47 votes behind Wheeler, said that his interest in the school board had intensified as he campaigned.
“As the whole election process has gone forward, I really became passionate about winning,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve gotten my name out.”
Windsor frequently had attended school board meetings before the election, and said that he planned to continue that pattern to stay on top of issues.
“If I don’t win,” he said Tuesday evening as the vote count went on, “I’ll be back in a couple of years.”
In the interim, as a citizen, he would be satisfied with the outcome.
“I think whoever wins, it’s going to be a good board,” he said.