The Chimacum School Board has found itself with three seats up for election this fall, and while one has an incumbent candidate, the other two are already vacant.

Board Chair Mike Gould declared March 13 he would not run for re-election, putting his Director District 3 seat up for election this fall.

Because Michael Raymond was appointed to the board Jan. 15, his Director District 4 seat was already slated to appear on that same November ballot. Raymond does plan to run to retain the seat.

And because LuAnn Rogers’ move within the Chimacum School District has taken her outside of the Director District 2 area she currently represents, she resigned her seat March 27, which the rest of the board accepted that same day, although her resignation does not take effect until November.

While the seats of Director District 1 and 5 seats of Sarah Martin and Jack McKay, respectively, are not up for election until 2021, this still leaves the Chimacum School Board with three out of its five Director District seats up for election this fall, which Thompson pointed out constitutes a quorum for decision-making on the board.

“This becomes a fairly complicated electoral situation,” Superintendent Rick Thompson said. “There are fewer than 1,500 school board members in Washington state. Our board members represent discrete geographic sections of the district. We currently have no at-large seats. And school boards generally do not have all of their members elected or re-elected in a single year or election cycle, in order to maintain stability.”

Thompson reported the Chimacum School District has been speaking with the Washington State School Directors’ Association and the Jefferson County Auditor about the timing of Rogers’ replacement.

“The newly elected board will need to appoint her successor, if no one has filed in May to run,” Thompson said. “Her seat would then be up for election in 2021, due to the cycle of her election and the time of her appointment in 2017. This means the Chimacum School District is likely to have a new look to its board, or a new quorum, in the fall.”

Thompson wants to get the word out because filing for these seats must take place next month, from May 13-17.

“For any of these three seats, if you live in the district and you want to run for school board, you must file in May,” Thompson said. “If a seat is declared vacant, the existing board has 90 days to fill that seat by appointment, or to inform the Educational Service District of the vacancy.”

There is no filing cost, but candidates will need to file with the state Public Disclosure Commission as the winning candidate, or if they run a campaign for office. Further information is available at www.pdc.wa.gov.

Jefferson County Election Coordinator Betty Johnson explained that, if more than two candidates file for any seat, a primary election will be held Aug. 6, as happened in the case of McKay’s election to the Director District 5 seat two years ago, when three candidates filed for that seat.

The general election is Nov. 5, and while Thompson recalled how “we usually have a good sense of the election results that evening,” he added that it takes “about two weeks” to get the final results.

Thompson steered interested citizens to the information sites (listed in the Fact Box beside this article) “And I’m happy to meet with anyone, to give an overview of board service,” Thompson said, adding the board meets twice a month, for about two hours per meeting. “A complete orientation will be provided for the winning candidate.”

Shortly after the election, the board will conduct internal elections, to assign roles such as board chair and legislative representative.