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Hoke, Wiatt at North Putnam through 2020
Incumbent school board member Mark Hoke will maintain his position within the North Putnam School District after defeating his challenger by nearly 500 votes Tuesday.
Defeating fellow at-large candidate William Buescher 2,027 to 1,569, Hoke said he is very grateful to his supporters for looking after his efforts these past four years.
“It’s been a tougher-than-normal campaign -- we had to go out and visit with people and get some more signs,” Hoke said Tuesday at the Putnam County courthouse. “So I’m just feeling thankful that things turned out the way they did.”
Alongside wife Jennifer and sons Grant and Alex, Hoke said his family helped greatly with a win that will allow him to oversee several projects with which the district is currently involved.
And with an ongoing partnership with Indianapolis-based mechanical contracting firm Johnson-Melloh, Hoke was happy to see that residents are confident in the board’s recent actions.
“I definitely appreciate the opportunity to continue serving the community,” Hoke said. “I love serving on the school board and I try to always keep the students and the staff first in all the decisions that I make. I’m glad I’ve been able to convey that to the people and (evidently) they thought I was telling the truth -- so I just appreciate the way they voted.
“Right now we’re talking about renovations -- that’s been kind of the hot-button issue because of the amount,” Hoke continued. “The proposed amount is close to $8 million but we have the opportunity to scale it back. We can do some now and some later, it’s not all going to be at the same time. We’re going to have two new members starting so we’ll have to get them up to speed -- so the (renovation) is going to be down the road.”
Hoke also expressed interest in the implementation of technology for students, exemplifying an issue that was a highly-debated topic between him and his fellow contestant.
“The other thing we need to look at, once we get all of the infrastructure in place, is what I was talking about with my opponent, Mr. Buescher -- 1:1 with iPads for kids,” Hoke said. “We’ve done renovation projects for the last four or five years -- getting our elementaries and our middle school new ventilation and other infrastructure -- and now we’re finally getting set up so that, hopefully, we can tackle that 1:1 initiative and get that for our students.”
Taking 44 percent of the 3,596 votes cast Tuesday was Buescher, whose campaign centered greatly around the acquisition of iPads for students.
“I just want to congratulate Mr. Hoke on his win ... people must have wanted him back,” Buescher said Tuesday evening when the results became final. “I (also) want to thank people for their votes and encourage them to be more active in our school.”
Hoke will begin his second, four-year term on Jan. 1, 2017.
Incumbent Russell Township representative Darrell Wiatt will also keep his seat for four more years on the North Putnam school board.
Winning 55 percent of the total vote Tuesday over challenger Jacquelyn Simpson, Wiatt said he looks forward to continuing the collective efforts of his fellow board members as well as his own.
“I feel very humbled and honored,” Wiatt said shortly after the race was called at the Putnam County Courthouse. “My family was very supportive and really helped me, putting up signs and getting the word out on Facebook.”
Winning exactly 1,877 of 3,407 votes cast, Wiatt’s close victory over Simpson can largely be credited to Russell Township’s results, through which Wiatt took his largest margin of 218 to 112 in the northwestern Putnam community.
“I’ve lived there all my life and I really do appreciate their support,” Wiatt said. “There are a lot of good people there.”
Wiatt went on to explain what he hopes to accomplish with his next term.
“We want to just continue what we’ve been doing,” Wiatt said. “When I started four years ago we were a ‘C’ corporation and now we’re an ‘A’ corporation.
“Bainbridge (Elementary) and Roachdale (Elementary) have been renovated and we’ve got a lot of things done at the middle school,” Wiatt continued. “We also have a lot going on at the high school -- we want to continue those projects such as air conditioning and heating, and the morale I think has really improved so we just really want to continue what we have going.”
Wiatt will be joining fellow winners Dustin Osborn, Amber Greene and incumbent Hoke at the beginning of 2017 for another four-year term.
Challenger Simpson, who contacted the Banner Graphic Tuesday evening, saying “I want to wish Mr. Wiatt another four years of good luck.”