The votes are in, and the Poplar Bluff R-I School Board’s three contested seats have gone to incumbent Michael Price, David Elledge and Larry Kimbrow. Price won the most votes with 1,258, Elledge came away with 1,219 votes and Kimbrow won 1,140 votes. The fourth candidate, Anthony Curnutt, trailed behind with 833 votes. Despite backing out of the race, Boys & Girls Club of the Heartland President Raymond Webb received 568 votes. There were 5,018 votes cast in total.
Each seat has a three-year term.
Price
Price, a retired dentist, previously served six years on the school board. After a hiatus, he rejoined it last year when Alanna Robertson stepped down.
Price said he was pleased to be chosen by the public and looked forward to working with Kimbrow and Elledge, whom he described as community-minded. He believes Poplar Bluff R-I’s positive track record made people vote for him.
“Most people believe we have a very good school system. They want to see us continue to do it, and they want us to be fiscally responsible with their tax money. I think we’ve done it in the past and I hope we’re going to continue to do it,” Price said.
His first order of business will be retaking a 16-hour training course from the Missouri School Boards’ Association as a refresher on school legislation, the Sunshine Laws, finances and more.
Alongside the rest of the board, Price plans to use the rest of this school year to build a three-year plan toward various district goals through the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. A CSIP meeting was held Tuesday night with board members, staff, high school students and others in attendance, including new superintendent Dr. Aaron Cornman. The meeting was led by outgoing superintendent Dr. Scott Dill.
“Tonight, they did what was called a SWOT, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,” Price explained, which helped everyone share ideas and priorities.
He was grateful to everyone who voted in Tuesday’s elections for carrying democracy forward.
“I’d like to thank all the public,” he said. “I think that this is very important, for people to get out to vote and make their voices be heard. And I hope that people always come out and vote for every election, not just school boards.”
Elledge
Elledge’s reaction to winning a school board seat was a “pleasant surprise,” he said, since this was his first school board election. He thanked his supporters throughout the community for voting, putting up signs and sharing social media posts.
“Those are the folks that help get the message out,” he said.
Elledge is a co-founding pastor of The Bluff Church, the chapter president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace and a board member on the Buddy Ball committee.
In a previous interview, Elledge told the Daily American Republic his primary reason for running was to serve the community. He believes this is what resonated with voters.
“My whole thing was just talking about service, and being there to serve the school system, the community, the students,” he said.
His first order of business will be to “get a lay of the land” on the board, and his priority for the rest of the 2022-2023 school year will be getting to know the new superintendent.
“Getting to know him and the way that he runs things I think will be important for the board, just to be able to get in sync with him as we get ready for the new school year in the fall. I think that’ll be a huge priority,” Elledge said.
Kimbrow
Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Larry Kimbrow previously served at Three Rivers College as the executive vice president of academic affairs, and dean of career education and workforce development. He and many of his family members are graduates of Poplar Bluff schools.
Though he was happy to earn a spot on the board, he was also bracing himself for the inevitable difficulties of teamwork.
“You can’t please everybody, so I just have to go with my own moral compass and do what I think’s right,” he noted.
Kimbrow wants to first familiarize himself with his fellow board members and their stances, as well as the district’s strengths and weaknesses.
His main priority for the remainder of this school year is student safety.
“The number one concern is safety and security of the children, the faculty and the staff,” he said, “Because if they’re not safe and secure, nothing else matters.”
He believes this emphasis is what struck a chord with his voters.
“They also were very positive with my number one priority, that safety and security. They already know we have a great school system,” he said.
Retaining staff will be his second priority.
“We have some issues with recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, being able to pay them,” he said, noting these costs are an issue for all public entities. “We have to do it judiciously, divide our resources that we have available and do the best we can find the employees.”
He thanked his wife, Amalia, for her support, as well as all his supporters online and in the polling booths.
“I want to thank everybody on my Facebook and social media network, (they) were so supportive, and giving me feedback... They just gave me so much support and kept me going day by day.”