Female teacher joins Cowan school board
Seth Slabaugh
MUNCIE, Ind. — Angie Johnson, a teacher at Muncie Community Schools, won election Tuesday to what had been an all-male school board at Cowan Community Schools.
Incumbents Alan Wright of All Wright Farms and Mike Van Horn, who owns Countryside Landscape, won re-election, but Johnson edged out a third incumbent, Mike Downham, an employee at First Merchants. Two other Cowan school board members were not on the ballot this year.
Johnson was the only woman among the six candidates for three seats. The others who ran were Jesse White, who also works in landscaping, doing business as Coop's Lawn and Landscaping, and Charles "Rick" Jones, laboratory manager for the Muncie Sanitary District's Bureau of Water Quality.
►ELECTION: Final vote totals in Delaware County races
Another incumbent, Alice Jo Gillis, was knocked off of the Delaware Community School Board by Jacob Case, project manager at United Construction Services, a general contractor.
At Yorktown Community Schools, incumbents Pat LaVelle and Tom Simpson were re-elected and will be joined by newcomer Ryan Kelly, a real estate developer with a CPA background who received the most votes. Kelly will succeed incumbent Mark Clevenger, who is giving up his seat after taking an out-of-state job. Also on the ballot for one of the three seats up for election was Michael Behrendt, director of Midwest Operations for Black Gold Farms.
At Daleville Community Schools, incumbent Patricia Diane Evans, retired from Job Source, was re-elected. A second seat was won by Ronald Halbert Jr., an employee of the Indiana State Police, who ran ahead of Kevin Elam, an employee of Whitinger and Co.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834 or seths@muncie.gannett.com