Rod Maxfield, a member of the South Summit Board of Education, has an uphill fight ahead of him to win re-election in November.
Maxfield survived Tuesday's primary for the Precinct 1 seat (Francis/Woodland area) with 29 percent of the vote, but challenger Lorie Pearce was easily the first-place vote-getter with 47 percent."Lorie has worked hard at it and is a good candidate," Maxfield said. "I've been so busy with other things I haven't worked as hard at it as I should have."
School board races are nonpartisan, so the top two vote-getters in each race pass on to the general election. Results were complete but unofficial.
Pearce, a former secretary for the 1,200-pupil district, attributed her strong showing to the voters' desire for change.
"I talked to a lot of people and that's their main thing," she said. "They saw that the last four years aren't exactly what they wanted." In Precinct 3 (Kamas area), incumbent Kathleen Gordon was the top vote-getter. Challengers Kevin Page and Randall Taylor tied for second at 26 percent (28 votes each), meaning that if the official tally and a recount come up with the same numbers, there will be a coin toss to determine which challenger moves on to the general election.
In Precinct 2 (Oakley area), where no incumbent was running, heavy-equipment operator Ken-dell Woolstenhulme (35 percent) and former teacher Glen Jones (33 percent) survived the three-candidate primary.
Architectural firm executive Steven Maynes (32 percent) was edged out by only two votes.
A small property tax hike in North Summit School District passed easily by nearly a two-to-one margin. The increase will raise $35,000 to put a new lining in the district's swimming pool in Coal-ville as well as to conduct other repairs, said Superintendent Ronald Stanfield.
The property tax increase will come out to about $18 on a $100,000 home.