Schools

Incumbents Maintain All Three Seats in School Board Race

With 100 percent of the votes in, the incumbents in RUSD led the race the entire evening. Incumbents their victory is a referendum on the board's direction.

Three incumbents will maintain their seats on the Racine Unified School District Board of Education.

Here's how the vote totals broke down: Kim Plache - 12,036; Scott Brownell- 6,776; Brian Dey- 7,836; Don Nielsen- 10,307; Roger Pfost- 7,358; Gretchen Warner - 9,935.

The top three vote-getters earned a seat on the School Board.

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Don Nielsen, who will serve his third term, said he's happy about maintaining his seat on the board.

"We had support from almost the entire school district," Nielsen said. "I think they value continuity on the board."

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Nielsen also pointed to seeing evidence of success in the school district with state testing scores.

"We have an uphill battle in the district and in the country with the economy and the impact that has on student achievement," Nielsen said. "The correlation of poverty and student achievement is directly related...the districts that have the highest tax base have the highest level of achievement...and we're fighting an uphill battle. But we also need to find a way of funding education that gives some relief to the property taxpayers."

Warner said she looks forward to working with her two colleagues.

"We have the experience and ability to work together to have a successful few years," she said.

Plache said the win was a referendum of sorts on the direction the Village Board should take.

"This is confirmation by the voters that though times have been tough, voters have confidence in the direction of the board," she said.

But Dey said he knew the election would be difficult to win against incumbents.

"Not one incumbent has been unseated in 15 years," he said. "They had a lot of money behind them and it’ll be interesting to see how much when the campaign finance reports are in."

The outcome of the race is not official until the Board of Canvass meets.


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