By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Voters in the Stevens Point Area Public School District will go to the polls Tuesday, Feb. 19, to reduce the number of candidates for the Stevens Point Area Board of Education from 13 to eight.
The polls will open at 7 a.m. in the city of Stevens Point, the town of Hull, the town of Stockton and the village of Plover. The polls open at 8 p.m. in the town of Grant.
All the other polls open at 9 a.m. in the towns of Buena Vista, Carson, Dewey, Eau Pleine, Linwood, Milladore (Wood County), Sharon and Sherry (Wood County) and the villages of Junction City, Milladore (Wood County), Park Ridge and Whiting.
Polls stay open until 8 p.m. in all locations.
The 13 candidates for the board positions are Zach Shelton, Ted A. Johanson, Leo F. Trzebiatowski, Jim Gingles, Trudy Beth Peters, Ed Morganrath Jr., Chris Scott, Rory Suomi, James F. Harmon, Kit Kiefer, John Alekna, Mark D. Marti and Robert L. Larson.
The 13 are vying for four positions on the board, those held by Harmon, Deb Wilz and LeRoy Heiser, plus the vacated spot of Ray Haas who resigned in November. Harmon is running in his first election. He was appointed last May to fill the vacancy created by the death of Scott Schultz.
The eight top vote-getters will then face off in the April 2 spring election, with the top four vote-getters in that election filling the four positions.