Two challengers win Southern Boone school board seats

ASHLAND, Mo. - Lyn Woolford and Tammra Aholt will join the Southern Boone County R-1 Board of Education after finishing as the top two vote-getters in the three-person race.

Of the 1,636 votes cast, Woolford received 605 votes (36.9 percent of the vote) while Aholt received 543 votes (33.1 percent). Kris Harmon, the board's current vice president, will not retain his seat after receiving 480 votes (23.9 percent).

Woolford, a former Ashland police chief, has said school safety and flexibility in district plans are important. He also mentioned he would turn to Superintendent Chris Felmlee for advice, especially on teacher retention.

"I know that the parents love it when we have multiple kids and the same teacher for whatever grade has been the same for all the kids," Woolford said at a candidate forum. "It's just more community that way instead of new teachers all the time."

Aholt, who has two children in Southern Boone schools, will be new to the Board of Education. In a candidate forum ahead of the election, she noted maintaining or improving the teacher-to-student ratio in classrooms would be important for handling the district's recent growth.

She also said her background in higher education risk management and policy development would be helpful in a role on the board.

In a Facebook post the night before the election, Aholt said she was initially "hesitant" to run for the board but found public support to be "overwhelming."

"I don't have a lot of promises to make or a desire to flip the world on its head," she wrote.

Board members serve three-year terms.

Voters also passed a no-tax-increase $7.7 million bond issue for the district that will be used to expand its middle school, with 83 percent of votes in favor.

The addition will connect the school's existing two buildings, adding specialty classroom space and offices. The project will create a media center, science classrooms, a woodworking shop and rooms designed for family and consumer science and special education classes.

On the outside of the middle school, the bond issue will create more parking spaces and a new loop for student pickup and dropoff.

Felmlee said the Board of Education can begin awarding bids to contractors and begin the project before the end of April. The district plans to have the addition done before the start of the 2022-23 school year.

See also:

April 6, 2021, Municipal Election Results