West Ada schools won’t have May trustee elections for lack of challengers

West Ada School District’s school board election set for May 16 is cancelled because no challengers showed up to face two incumbents, Ada County election officials say.

Write-in candidates had until Monday to file and other candidates had to submit their intent to run by March 17.

The two board members up for election were appointed last June to replace Tina Dean and Carol Sayles, who were recalled in May 2016. Both had one year left on their terms.

Steve Smylie, a former teacher and state legislator, and Ed A. Klopfenstein, a software development company owner, were appointed by the board to fill Dean’s and Sayles’ positions from a field of 14 applicants.

May would have been the first election in which voters would have elected trustees since four of the five were appointed last year as previous board members resigned or were recalled following a controversial year in which then superintendent Linda Clark resigned and then was fired by the previous board. The district ended up reaching a $160,000 legal settlement with Clark.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 10:22 AM with the headline "West Ada schools won’t have May trustee elections for lack of challengers."