Neelyville R-IV board elected

Berley Wayne Willcut received 272 votes to top the Neelyville School Board candidates in the Tuesday election. Robert W. Burgett got 242 and Harley Paul Petty picked up 174 votes.

Willcut, 66, is a retired self-employed saw miller.

Willcut said, “I just want to thank everybody in the county for voting for me and supporting me throughout this campaign.”

He credits his reputation, where he had been on the board for nine years previously, with helping him win.

“We will start a new chapter in the future of our school board and keep it going on an even keel and not let it drift like I think it’s been drifting in the past,” Willcut said.

Talking about getting “a little more on track,” Willcut said, “transparency is a big, big thing between the administration, the board, parents, teachers.”

Burgett, 55, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, said, “It was a great day. I saw a lot of people out voting. The last three years just being on the school board, we have made so many great milestones. When you look at the grants we got — getting an electric school bus, (plus) we budgeted for a gas bus and didn’t have to finance it. We got a medical clinic put in, we got education grants for college for our counselors (and) our Boys and Girls Club at Hillview.

“We’ll just keep things moving forward, just like we have. We’ve really crunched a lot of the numbers. There is so much fire in the school board we have right now and everybody works so well together. It’s great to get back on the team.”

Burgett also talked about the school’s budget.

“We’re still working hard for our students, our teachers,” he said. “We’re working hard to keep things moving in the right direction. It was a great win today and people’s got a lot of faith in us. They’ve seen what we’ve done in the last three years and they’ve got that faith in us.”

Petty, 51, works in construction and also is a carpenter and a furniture maker. He has served on the Neelyville School Board for nine years.

He called the election close and he congratulated the other winners.

“I really didn’t campaign much,” he said, adding he decided to run again since he didn’t think it would be fair to have the possibility of three new board members.

“We have a lot of things we still are working on,” Petty said.

Candidates also running were Marco Gavino, Chuck Reinbott, Amanda Wolfram and Adam Couch. They received the following votes respectively: 83; 164; 171; and 41.