After serving 12 years on the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees, Judith Hardwick will surrender her seat to Vicki Harden at the end of the year.
Hardwick had been representing District 2, but lost the seat to Harden by more than 900 votes.
“I was surprised. I feel like the sitting school board, we’ve done a lot of good for the schools. We have one of the top schools in the state now and that never used to be that way, so I felt that if you do a good job, people will vote for you, but evidently not,” Hardwick said.
“I think the sitting board has done wonders in the school system. But if you’re not involved in school you don’t see that, you don’t know that.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Still, Hardwick wished Harden the best. “I think she will do a good job,” Hardwick said.
Hardwick has been involved with the school corporation since 1981 when she began teaching Title I at Helmsburg Elementary School. She also taught at Nashville and Sprunica elementaries.
She continued to run for school board because she wants to help make the district the best. “That’s our school corporation for our county, and I want to have the best we can have. I think with the knowledge that I have, I have something to bring to the table,” she said. She said she isn’t ruling out running for school board again.
Harden was on her way to have Thanksgiving lunch at Van Buren Elementary School when she shared her reaction to the news.
She decided to run because 10 of her 12 grandchildren attend school in Brown County.
“I just thought, ‘OK, I would like to be more involved in what’s going on in the schools, so maybe I can help the grandkids,’” she said.
Harden said she doesn’t have any big plans for her time on the board. “I just want to try to fit in to what they’re doing and maybe just put in my word and maybe help them out. I’m going to be learning about the eLearning and all of that — just kind of go along with them until I kind of get my feet wet a little bit,” she said.
District 1 board member Carol Bowden and District 3 member Steve Miller Jr. held onto their seats on the board.
Bowden defeated Tabitha Hilligoss by more than 900 votes. She said she’s thrilled to continue the work.
“This is a real exciting time the next four years, with the ROI (Regional Opportunities Initiative) grant, and opportunities for our students to be career-ready and job ready with job offers coming the day they graduate, and good paying jobs with opportunities to grow in those areas,” Bowden said.
She said she was glad Hilligoss ran and that she had brought up valid points in conversation — such as concerns about bullying — which Bowden plans to follow up on during her next term.
Bowden has been a member of the school board since 2007 when she was appointed to fill a vacant seat. She continued to run because education is an important part of her life. She works as a physical therapist doing home care.
“I spend my days learning and educating patients to take care of their disease processes and to give them opportunities to improve quality of life. In order to continue to do a good job of that, I have to continue to educate myself, which I do,” she said.
Miller fell asleep at home before the results were final and awoke to find lots of text messages informing him of his win.
“I am absolutely thrilled to get elected again and keep working on the items we’ve been working on,” he said — “hopefully try to do something with the enrollment to increase that, make sure we use the referendum money as it’s supposed to be and get teachers their annual (pay) increases.”
Miller would like to reach out to families in the outlying parts of the county who are sending their children to school outside of the district to see if they “give us a better look.”
“I know we compete or do better in lots of academic areas with these other schools,” he said.
Miller had two other opponents vying for his board seat: Tim Clark and Linda Hobbs. Hobbs had served a previous term on the school board with Miller’s father. “They made me feel welcomed. They were just really fun to deal with and nice to deal with,” Miller said of his opponents.
Miller said part of the reason why he decided to run again was so that he could hand his youngest daughter her diploma on graduation day. School board members sit on the stage during the ceremony.
“(I want to) thank everyone for their vote,” he said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”How You Voted” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
District 1 school board
Carolyn V. Bowden: 3236
Tabitha K. Hilligoss: 2256
District 2 school board
Vicki Jean Harden: 3300
Judith Hardwick: 2323
District 3 school board
Steve Miller Jr.: 2372
Tim Clark: 1221
Linda L. Hobbs: 2159
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