By Lori Ehde
Contested seats in all of Rock County's school district s brought additional voters to the polls Tuesday.
In Luverne, incumbents easily won in the eight-way contest for four seats.
Becky Walgrave took 16.2 percent of the votes with 1,714 tallies. Bill Stegemann (1,646), Daniel Kopp (1,391) and Cary Radisewitz (1,356) followed closely behind. They will serve another four years on the board.
Challengers were Colleen Nath (1,341), Greg Aubert (1,157), Bruce Baartman (1,146) and Tim Burns (763). Luverne board members Don Bryan, Colleen Deutsch and Steve Tofteland are not up for election this year.
Ellsworth School District saw the most interesting race with nine candidates filing for four open seats on the six-person board.
Layton Gruis (40), Dave Goedken (36) and Rhonda Groen (34) were elected to the three open four-year terms. Korey Meester (29), Don Kramer (26) and Lynn DeBerg (24) were the other challengers for those seats.
Verlyn Timmer (38) was elected to fill the vacant two-year term on the board. He beat out Kelly Kramer (19) and Jody Hinrichs (10) for the job.
None of the Ellsworth incumbents, Dan Boltjes, Arnie Timmer, Brenda Deutsch and Jeff Deutsch, filed for re-election.
Cliff Schilling, whose seat is not up for election this year, said so many candidates filed because departing board members announced their decisions early and encouraged others to run.
Board member Jeff Boltjes holds the other seat not up for election this year.
In Adrian, newcomers garnered more votes than the two incumbents, displacing one of them. Patrick Thier (706), Tim Honermann (603), incumbent Gene Metz (579) and Mark Bullerman (485) were elected to the board for four-year terms.
They beat out Pamela Konz (395), incumbent Joe Wieneke (369), Kate McCann (327) and Joan Pater (294) for the job. Board members Dennis Kruger and Brenda Sailor did not file for re-election.
Current board members whose terms are up in 2004 are Mark Lonneman, Ted Reisdorfer and Aileen Tweet.
The Hills-Beaver Creek School District conducts its board elections in odd years - not concurrent with general elections. The next election for that board will be in the fall of 2003.
Elected school board members assume their duties Jan. 1.