School board

total tallies. Five ballots were counted by mail-ins.

Howe ISD had two seats open for the Board of Trustees as Board President Greg Akins decided not to seek another term. Jeff Denham's move outside of the district left his chair open as well.

Tamela Shadden was the overall leading vote-getter with 173 (35.38 percent of the vote). She was followed closely by Michael Doty who recorded 169 (34.56 percent). Others receiving votes were Jarod Brockelman (61), Dustin Leakey (49), and Randy Hayes (37).

Shadden and Doty will assume the open board seats at the next school board meeting.

Shadden says that her main reason for running was for the children of the community. After 32 years of teaching in Howe, she retired in 2016. While teaching, she was a mentor to teachers and served on the Howe ISD Campus and District Improvement Committees. She and her husband Scott have three children who attended Howe Schools from kindergarten through graduation. Currently, she's a substitute teacher at the Howe Elementary Campus and works after-school tutoring.

Doty's main message was that the Howe school district has grown significantly over the past five years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With growth comes new challenges. As our student population grows, we need to continue to focus on all students to ensure we have the right tools and resources available, so that they are career and/or college ready upon graduation.

Doty said that while Howe grows, we feels the school needs to continue to maintain our fiscal responsibilities and ensure efficient use of funds to maintain and enhance the quality of our district.

"We have great schools with wonderful and talented educators and staff. To retain the best staff, we need to ensure we have pay parity comparative to other AAA districts in Grayson County or

Continued from page 1 other counties within driving distance." said Doty in response to a questionnaire. "While our schools are doing a great job, we should always strive to be better. I hope to bring fresh ideas and perspectives that will help continue Howe ISD’s great history of success."

Grayson County had 67,417 registered voters for this election cycle. Only 3,779 participated in the voting which equates to a county-wide voter turnout of 5.61 percent.

Bells ISD had a school board election which produced 356 votes. Collinsville ISD clocked in at 176 votes in their highest seat election. Pottsboro ISD's contested race saw a total of 541 votes. Tioga ISD pulled 254 votes in the contested race. Tom Bean ISD's race finished with 248 total votes. Voter turnout was extremely high in Whitesboro after the non-renewal of longtime Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Eddie Gill. That coupled with a bond election saw a total number of 1,256 votes. Whitewright turned out 624 voters in their contested ISD school board race. Denison ISD's voter turnout was just barely over Howe's total with 497. Sherman ISD's turnout was shocking low with only 158 votes in the contested race.