Tovar and Heythaler win seats on the Onaway school board

Voters of the Onaway Area Community Schools cast ballots for two new school board members during Tuesday’s election.

Incumbent president Sue Nelson came up eight votes short of re-election, as Daniel Heythaler, who won election in his second attempt, edged her.

Nelson had 200 votes, while Heythaler received 208.

The top vote getter in the race was former board member Marsha Tovar with 232.

“I’m very proud of that,” she said of receiving the most votes. “It gives me an encouragement to stay on the board.”

The Onaway school district had the only contested school board seats in Presque Isle County.

Overall voter turnout in the county was light, according to Presque Isle County clerk Sue Rhode.

RHODE SAID 6.13 percent of the county’s registered voters, or about 657 people, cast ballots. Only 33 people turned up at the polls in Posen.

Most of the votes casts in Tuesday’s election were in the Onaway school district.

“I wish more people would have voted,” said Tovar. “I would hope that more people were concerned about their school that they would go out and vote and make those choices.”

Kathie Nash was the fourth candidate running for a board seat in Onaway and received 149 votes. Heythaler hopes to bring insight that will advance education in the district. He realizes budget constraints will be an ongoing issue the board is going to have to deal with.

“I think that the school board is going to have to be real imaginative as far as being able to keep Onaway on the edge of technology,” said Heythaler, “and to providing a good quality education for the students, but that costs money.”

IN REGARD to the election, Heythaler believes voters wanted a change.

“I think that both Marsha and I rep

resent the change that the constituents in Onaway were looking for on the board,” said Heythaler. Tovar is looking forward to getting her feet wet again.

“I’m glad I have experience behind me, that’s good,” said Tovar. “I’ve gone to classes when I was on the board last time, and I would like to encourage the newcomer to take (school board) classes.”

Tuesday’s election was the first with new election machines, and the county clerk said it was a resounding success.

“It went very smooth, with very few problems,” Rhode said.

She said election workers took their time to make sure everything went well, so the next election should go quicker.

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