Wright City School incumbents clinch hotly contested race

Posted 4/5/22

In what ended up being an extremely close race for office, two Wright City School Board members will retain their offices following Tuesday's elections.

Austin Jones and Mary Groeper were both …

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Wright City School incumbents clinch hotly contested race

Posted

In what ended up being an extremely close race for office, two Wright City School Board members will retain their offices following Tuesday's elections.

Austin Jones and Mary Groeper were both re-elected in a contest that had just a 32-vote gap between second and third place, in an election with over 1,400 voters. The longtime board members were challenged for their positions during a wave of unusual focus on local school district elections.

Challengers Frank Zykan and Elizabeth Dean ran on a platform of making the school board more responsive to concerns which parents have expressed in recent years. Both candidates also staked out positions based on 'hot-button' concerns about how schools handle topics like race, sexuality and gender.

Here are the vote counts from the April 5 election:

  • Elizabeth Dean -- 649
  • Frank Zykan -- 571
  • Austin Jones -- 681
  • Mary Groeper -- 732

NOTE: These are unofficial election results. Final election canvassing and certification will be done on Friday.

Correction: Our original reporting unintentionally omitted around 150 ballots that were cast  in Lincoln County, which have now been added to our count. The updated numbers don't affect the outcome of the election, but we regret this error in our reporting.

Election, Wright City School Board

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