Candidates file for local school board elections

CENTER LINE/WARREN/STERLING HEIGHTS — On Nov. 5, residents will be asked to cast their votes in local school board elections and for the Macomb Community College Board of Trustees.

A number of incumbents and newcomers filed to run for school board by the July 23 deadline. Candidates had until 4 p.m. July 26 to withdraw from the race, after the Warren Weekly went to press. Write-in candidates can file by 4 p.m. Oct. 25.

According to the Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office, the following individuals are running for school board.

Five four-year terms are open in the Center Line Public Schools district. Six individuals filed to run: Robert Boccomino, Shelley Harenski, Kevin Louis, Karen Pietrzyk, Fahmida Rahman and Wendy Jo Watters. Harenski, Pietrzyk and Watters are incumbents. Rahman was appointed to the school board earlier this year when Daniel Snyder stepped down.

In the Fitzgerald Public Schools district, four individuals filed to run for the two open six-year terms: incumbents Judy Lynn Furgal and Julia Yokel, and newcomers Zsa-Zsa Booker and Khaja Afzal Hussain.

Unless a write-in candidate comes forward, the Van Dyke Public Schools election will be uncontested with three incumbents filing for the three six-year terms: Diane Boehm, David Cowlbeck and Mark Kedzior. The Warren Consolidated Schools election also is uncontested with current board members Leah Berdy and Brian White running for the two open six-year seats.

Warren Woods Public Schools will have two separate ballot items. Scott Hiller, Jenny Nitz and Michael Schulte are running for the three open six-year terms. Hiller and Schulte are incumbents; Nitz was appointed to the board in December when longtime board member Jere Green moved out of the district. In Warren Woods, incumbent Kay Walsh and challenger Nicole Spicer will run against each other for the district’s one partial term ending on Dec. 31, 2028.

Five candidates will run for the two six-year terms on MCC Board of Trustees: incumbents Roseanne DiMaria and Joan Flynn, and challengers Joseph Backus, Eugene Groesbeck and Jon Lafferty.

The new terms are scheduled to begin on Jan. 1, 2025.