Three out of four Republican challengers lead in Wichita BOE races (Updated: 10:25 p.m.)

10:25 p.m. update: Three out of four Republican challengers who ran together as a block ended election night with a lead in the Wichita School Board election. A fourth challenger, Brent Davis, finished behind Julie Hedrick.

With all precincts reporting, here are the latest unofficial results.

In District 1, challenger Diane Albert defeated incumbent Ben Blankley by 13 percentage points, 56% to 43%.

In District 2, incumbent Hedrick finished ahead of Davis 50% to 45%.

In District 5, Kathy Bond topped Mia Turner 53% to 46%.

In District 6, Hazel Stabler prevailed with 44% of the vote to Ron Rosales’ almost 30% and Holly Terrill’s almost 26%.

9:30 p.m. update: With 117 of 145 precincts reporting, here are the latest results.

Three out of four Republican challengers lead, the exception being Brent Davis, who is trailing Julie Hedrick.

In District 1, Diane Albert holds an 11 percentage point lead over incumbent Ben Blankley.

In District 2, Julie Hedrick leads 51% to Brent Davis’ 44%.

In District 5, Kathy Bond slightly strengthened her lead with 52% over Mia Turner’s 47%.

In District 6, not much changed. Hazel Stabler leads with almost 43% to Ron Rosales’ 30% and Holly Terrill’s 26%.

8:50 p.m. update: With 92 of 145 precincts reporting, here are the latest results.

In District 1, Diane Albert is holding a 55% to 45% lead over incumbent Ben Blankley.

In District 2, Julie Hedrick leads challenger Brent Davis 52% to 43%.

In District 5, there’s been a lead change with Kathy Bond at 51% to Mia Turner’s 48%.

In District 6, Hazel Stabler is holding on to her lead at 42% to Ron Rosale’s 31% and Holly Terrill’s 26%.

8:20 p.m. update: With 57 of 145 precincts reporting, here are the latest results.

In District 1, challenger Diane Albert holds a 53%-46% lead over incumbent Ben Blankley.

In District 2, incumbent Julie Hedrick leads Brent Davis 54%-30%.

In District 5, Hazel Stabler leads with 40% of the vote to incumbent Ron Rosales’ 32% and Holly Terrill’s 27%.

In District 6, it’s a much tighter race with the incumbent Mia Turner at 50% to Kathy Bond’s 49%.

7:55 p.m. update: Challengers saw a surge in votes from in-person voting as the second unofficial results of the night rolled in.

In District 1, Diane Albert passed incumbent Ben Blankley and now holds a 51-49 lead.

In District 2, Brent Davis cut into Julie Hedrick’s lead, which is now 57-37, with Justin Bjork drawing 5%.

In District 5, Mia Turner leads challenger Kathy Bond 53-47.

In District 6, Hazel Stabler passed incumbent Ron Rosales and holds a 37-34 edge. Holly Terrill has 29% of the votes with 35 out of 145 precincts reporting.

7:50 p.m. update: Incumbents held a lead in all of the Wichita school board races in the first batch of voting results reported by the Sedgwick County Election Office.

Just under 8,500 advance mail-in ballots had been reported by 7:40 p.m.

In District 1, incumbent Ben Blankley jumped out to an early 52-47 lead on challenger Diane Albert.

In District 2, incumbent Julie Hedrick had a 61-32 advantage on challenger Brent Davis.

In District 5, Mia Turner is off to an early lead with 56% of vote for advance voting ballots. Kathy Bond has 43%.

In District 6, the race is off to a fairly tight start among the three challengers. In early voting tallies, Ron Rosales has 35% of the vote, Hazel Stabler has 33% and Holly Terrill has 31%.

Original story

The future direction of the largest school district in Kansas hangs in the balance Tuesday as voters decide on a majority of the seven-member Wichita Board of Education.

Four seats are up for grabs. Polls closed at 7 p.m.

School board members are elected by voters across the entire school district.

Challengers have promised a change in direction of COVID-19 public health policy in the district; incumbents have promised a more measured approach.

Winners won’t take office until January 10. School board members don’t get paid for their positions. Terms last four years.

Wichita Public Schools has about 47,000 students, nearly 10,000 employees and an operating budget around $837.2 million.

Incumbents Ben Blankley, Julie Hedrick, Mia Turner and Ron Rosales are running on their experience as leaders through the COVID-19 pandemic, when decisions by Kansas legislature and Sedgwick County Commission forced school boards to take the lead on public health decisions for students and employees in their districts.

The Sedgwick County Republican Party recruited and supported a slate of four — Diane Albert, Brent Davis, Kathy Bond and Hazel Stabler — part of a nationwide Republican effort to mobilize voters around national wedge issues such as mask mandates, mandatory vaccination and critical race theory.

Democratic Party groups recently began promoting their own slate: Blankley, Hedrick, Turner and political newcomer Holly Terrill. Rosales lost favor with many Democrats when he opposed a statement of nondiscrimination protecting gay, transgender and gender-nonconforming students.

Hanging in the balance is the state’s largest school district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

School board members could be faced with difficult decisions surrounding vaccines in schools. On Voting Day, advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in elementary-school-aged children, ages 5 to 10.

District 1

In District 1, there are two candidates. Ben Blankley, 38, is an aerospace engineer at Spirit AeroSystems first elected to the Wichita School Board in 2017. Diane Albert, 40, is a Republican precinct committeewoman and homemaker.

Blankley was recently targeted in a social media campaign by talk radio host John Whitmer, who posted pictures of Blankley dressed in drag. Whitmer later deleted the photos after The Eagle reported that Blankley was posing in drag to raise money for local charities, including the Alzheimer’s Association and the Wichita Children’s Home.

Throughout the pandemic, Blankley has been a strong proponent of COVID-19 mitigation measures in schools, including a universal mask mandate for students and employees of the USD 259. Albert opposes COVID-related mandates and said she doesn’t think the benefits of the mandates outweigh the negatives.

District 2

In District 2, there are three candidates on the ballot, but one of them unofficially withdrew and threw his support behind the incumbent after the challenger, Brent Davis, proposed using the district’s schoolchildren as test subjects in an experiment that would separate students into masked and unmasked groups and then study their rates of COVID infection.

Incumbent Julie Hedrick, 65, is a retired facilities director for Wichita Public Schools. She was first elected in 2017 and said her top priority is the children in the school district.

District 5

In District 5, there are two candidates. Mia Turner, 50, an administrative assistant in the Wichita Police Department who has never previously run for office, is the incumbent after replacing Mike Rodee, who resigned earlier this year. Her top issues are making educational opportunities equitable, supporting teachers with benefits and training and aligning the budget with the district’s mission.

Challenger Kathy Bond, 63, is a retired business owner who has never run for office but has served as a precinct committeewoman. Bond considers furthering academic expectations to be her top campaign issue.

While Turner believes masks in schools are necessary, Bond believes they should be optional.

District 6

In District 6, there are three candidates. Ron Rosales, 56, is a public school teacher in Haysville who has served one term on the school board for District 6. He said his top issue is addressing teacher shortages. Rosales wants more analysis of infection rates at schools before requiring masks be worn.

Hazel Stabler is a retired small business owner who has never run for office. Her top priorities are improving student performance through innovative solutions and providing teachers with resources and training. Stabler said it is parents who should decide if their children should wear masks, not the school district.

Holly Terrill, 39, is the director of member support services at Meritrust Credit Union and has never previously run for office. Her top issues are diversity and inclusion, including providing education and resources for teachers and administrators to help with that. Terrill said following guidelines from the Center for Disease Control, which recommends masks for students and staff, is important to her.

This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 7:20 PM.