School Board Can't Certify Election Results...Yet

While the 2024-20245 Whitehall School Board elections took place via mail-in ballot earlier this month, the results are still in the air. At the May board meeting on Wednesday, May 8th, Whitehall district superintendent Hannah Nieskens reported on an issue that she and school clerk Allissa Christensen had been dealing with for several weeks, which affected the election results.

According to Nieskens, she had been contacted by the county superintendent that board member Laura McDonald needed to be removed from her seat, as she was actually in the Cardwell district, not the Whitehall district as previously thought. When ballots were mailed for the Cardwell position on the board, several of McDonald’s neighbors, including her father, received ballots - though they pay taxes to Whitehall, not Cardwell. About 18 ballots were sent to voters who should not have voted for who represented the Cardwell position on the board.

However, after much research, it was discovered that an error on a map from 2008 was the source of the problem. Nieskens detailed that the 1965 map of the district boundaries was recorded and then authenticated in 1984, but the compiled version of the map in 2008 “made a very squiggly district line very straight,” she said. When McDonald filed for the seat in 2020, she was certified in the Whitehall District. However, a new map in 2023 again repeats the error in 2008, showing McDonald's in the Cardwell district, not Whitehall.

As this issue exists, the school board could not certify the election results and seat new board members.

As the week continued after the meeting, new information became available.

“The consensus is that Laura McDonald is within the Whitehall Elementary School District,” Paula McKenzie, Madison County Election Administrator, said in a May 10th email to Nieskens. “Madison County GIS, School Administrator, Department of Revenue and Deputy County Attorney (DOR) are now working to get our school district boundaries updated and a new legal and map given to MSL [Montana State Library] and DOR so all areas can be updated for levies and voting areas within ElectMT. I will supply the updated map and legal description as soon as it is finalized.”

“After provisional ballots were counted yesterday [May 13th], the tally of the votes for the Whitehall High School Trustee Election is Robin Becker: 80, Questa Edwards: 79, Write In: 0, Overvote: 0, and Undervote: 1,” said Jefferson County Election Administrator Ginger Kunz in an email to the Whitehall Ledger. “I will be providing the School Board all the materials needed to canvass the results and certify the election, which they have until May 31st to do so.”

OTHER ITEMS:

• Shauna McCoy was hired as the Family Consumer Science teacher for the upcoming school year. Traci Nuckols was also hired as a first-grade teacher; this hiring will then move Martha Farrand to fifth grade and Katie Christensen to fourth grade.

• The Board voted to spend about $182,000 on resurfacing and overlaying the school’s parking lots. This was nearly twice what they thought the bids would be, though the update should last between 10 and 15 years with maintenance.

• Elementary principal Kurtis Koenig reported that kindergarten roundup brought in 21 students and reminded parents of four-year-olds that they MUST have their potential student accessed before June to participate in the TK program.

• Jenna Gill, a parent of a seventh grader, voiced her concerns over a recent health class presentation brought to the school by the Friendship Center of Helena.