Challengers: Trust was a factor

COLUMBUS -- Some challengers to the Lakeview Community Schools Board incumbents who earned top spots in the runoff election Tuesday cite a lack of public trust in some of the current board members as the reason for their success.

District voters could vote for as many as three candidates from a field of eight with the top six vote-getters moving on to the general election. Four positions will be filled in November. At least one new face will be on the board come January.

Although the election results reported by the Platte County Election Commissioner’s office are unofficial, Timothy Mueller received the largest number of votes followed by fellow challengers Dan Pabian and Jerry Korte, who received the same number of votes, and Dan Lutjens.

Incumbents John Wurdeman and Larry Mohrman rounded out the top six, while fellow board member Ron Keller was knocked out of the race with the fewest votes. Challenger Dan Humlicek received the second fewest number of votes and will not advance to the general election in November either.

Mueller cited his 47 years in the district as the primary reason for his success, but the remaining challengers said skepticism from patrons toward the board was probably a big factor.

“Maybe some of the voters are ready for a change, ... maybe a change in leadership and direction and, hopefully, more openness,” Korte said.

Lutjens agreed, stating, “I think a lot of it comes down to trust. The last couple of years I think they (the incumbents) have just lost the trust of the patrons. I think the patrons have lost faith and have to have a change to get that trust back.”

Pabian said through his conversations with patrons, many think they are not receiving sufficient information.

The board developed multimillion dollar projects with little detail, he said, and in doing so that might cause patrons to question if the board is working will all the facts.

When asked whether or not they thought the election was based on single issue voting -- each of those three expressed support for a standalone school in the Sunrise area as a resolution to the issues facing the district -- each thought it was more about a lack of confidence from the public.

Korte said some information has been labeled “privileged” but there has been inconsistency in such a practice, especially because a legal opinion of the school district’s attorney was not released until little more than a week ago.

He did say the facility issue is paramount to how the district will operate in the future, and such a decision will impact the future direction of the district.

Korte said once the facility problem is resolved then you can start to address things such as the needs of special kids, budget, curriculum improvements and other areas to improve the district.

“You can’t plan anything until you know where you are planning it,” Korte said. “The facility is the first thing and then we can start to take care of the other issues.”

Pabian said the whole of the district involves more than providing a solution on a single issue but the issue requiring the most precedence is the facility issue.

Should neither of the two remaining incumbents survive the general election, the board would consist of three freshman members, two sophomore members and one senior member, but Pabian said with the administration’s help the level of experience would have little impact.

“In the short run there may be some concern with stability, but in the long run we would eventually work thorough it,” he said.

But also, with the fresh faces and voices, he said, new ideas could be developed, such as more diligent long-term planning, and the board could provide greater divulgence of information for the patrons.

“I will continue to find the facts as I can and help to get information to others if it is not coming out openly,” Pabian said.

Lutjens said he was pleased with Tuesday’s election results and was confident that if the results carried into the general election in November that the district would be in good shape.

“If the three guys in front of me get the nod I would have no problem,” he said. “I am confident we all have the ability to do a good job for the district.”