Ferndale
November 07, 2012BOLD candidates pick up all four seats on school board
By Jeremy Selweski
C & G Staff Writer
It was a BOLD sweep in Ferndale Public Schools.
The Ferndale Board of Education election Nov. 6 was a decisive victory for four candidates running together on a common slate: Amy Butters (B), Jim O’Donnell (O), Raylon Leaks-May (L) and Kevin Deegan-Krause (D). The so-called BOLD candidates won all four open seats on the school board, defeating an opposing slate made up of three incumbents — board President Keith Warnick, board Secretary Katrina Collins and board Treasurer Jim Pfleger — plus newcomer Bradford Parks, by a wide margin.
Butters was the top choice for district voters with 5,773 total votes, or 18.37 percent; followed by O’Donnell with 5,442 votes, or 17.31 percent; Deegan-Krause with 4,610 votes, or 14.67 percent; Leaks-May with 4,472 votes, or 14.23 percent; Collins with 3,835 votes, or 12.2 percent; Warnick with 2,522 votes, or 8.02 percent; Parks with 2,357 votes, or 7.5 percent; and Pfleger with 2,230 votes, or 7.09 percent.
As the top two vote-getters in the race, Butters and O’Donnell will each serve for six years on the board, while Deegan-Krause and Leaks-May will serve four-year terms.
With the terms of Warnick, Collins and Pfleger expiring this year and board Trustee Darcey McLaughlin opting not to run for re-election, there were four open seats on the board on Election Day. It also marked the first time that Ferndale Schools has held its elections in November, following a board decision in late 2010 to make the switch from May elections, as well as the first time that some board members were elected to six-year terms.