Voters took to the polls Tuesday needing to write in a candidate for the third seat on Creston Community School District’s Board of Directors – the overwhelming majority of those votes were cast for Terry Freeman.
Since only two candidates ran for re-election, a write-in vote was used to determine who would hold the third seat.
Freeman, who decided to run just days earlier, garnered a majority of write-in votes. The results of the 254 write-in votes for the election became official late Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m looking forward to learning the process like I’ve done with city council,” Freeman said. “There is always more with behind the scenes stuff.
“I am always excited about learning that. I think Creston has a great school system and I want us to keep moving in the right direction and to keep doing what we can to make sure we are giving the best opportunities for our kids.”
Freeman currently serves as an at-large representative on city council and initially wasn’t sure if he would be able to hold that seat and a seat on the school board.
“I didn’t know if I would be able to, being on the council and all that fun stuff,” said Freeman. “I encouraged them to find another candidate to fill that role. In the meantime, I did some investigating and found out that I could hold that position while being on city council.”
Once he decided to run for the seat, Freeman sent out a blast announcement in hopes to draw as much support as possible.
Freeman was approached about two weeks prior to the election.
“I started getting a few messages and phone calls saying, ‘Hey it would be really awesome if you would run,’” said Freeman.
Other names were written in, but the Union County Auditor’s Office referred to those results as “scattered,” meaning nobody else tallied a significant number of votes compared to Freeman.
“You know it’s humbling when I got the phone call from Billie Jo Green, from the school board, she called me and told me I had been deemed the winner,” said Freeman.
Board members are elected to four-year terms.
Sharon Snodgrass and Galen Zumbach ran unopposed and were re-elected, now serving alongside Freeman.
Freeman expects to be sworn in on Monday as he replaces Tom Eagan.