LCS, Remsen, Hinton have new school board members

A total of 1,216 voters in Plymouth County school districts went to the polls Tuesday to make their choices for school board members.

Le Mars Community School District will have one new member on the board. Scott Kommes received 152 votes for the District 1 seat formerly held by Leon Scott. Scott is retiring from his board seat and did not seek re-election.

District 2 director Cris Collins was returned to his seat with 148 votes. District 4 director Brenda Phelan received 145 votes in her re-election bid.

In a race in the Remsen-Union School District, District 1 incumbent Travis Tentinger received 25 votes while his challenger, Michael Sparr, received 20 votes.

Cheri Nitzschke took the District 3 seat with 20 votes. There were six write-in votes for the seat, which was held by Rich VanDam, who did not seek re-election.

Theresa VanDam had 27 write-in votes to take the District 5 seat. Dave Bortscheller received 5 write-in votes for the seat.

Two Akron-Westfield board members were re-elected to their seats, while a third was declared the winner with a scattering vote.

Phil Parks returns to the District 2 seat with 63 and Josh Martinsen returns to his District 3 seat with 61 votes.

Kevin DeRocher, who held the District 1 seat, was not a candidate for re-election. He received 10 votes and was declared the winner.

Janet Willer received 6 votes to fill the unexpired term of the District 5 seat. She had previously been appointed to that seat until the 2009 election. There are two years remaining on the District 5 term.

Kingsley-Pierson School District voters returned two incumbents to their seats. Shari Seuntjens received 44 votes for the District 1 seat and Scott Bohle received 47 votes for the District 3 seat.

Hinton Community School District voters elected two candidates for director-at-large seats.

Incumbent Robert Held was re-elected with 535 votes, and John W. Reintzel was elected with 386 votes. A third candidate, Brett Stanley, received 355 votes.

Neal Adler received 241 votes in Plymouth County School districts for the Western Iowa Tech Community College Director 1 seat. Results from Woodbury County, which would declare a winner for the seat, were not available at press time.

Voter turnout by precincts was:

Akron - 57

Craig - 10

Le Mars Public Library - 11

Brunsville - 17

Remsen - 107

Westfield - 8

Merrill - 38

Hinton - 816

Kingsley - 47

Le Mars - 78

Absentee - 27

All vote totals are unofficial until canvassed by the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors. They will meet at 8:30 a.m. Friday to canvass the votes for both the school board elections and Hinton School bond issue.