New faces to join school board

New faces will be joining the Creston Community School District board in January according to unofficial county results from Tuesday’s election. Results will remain unofficial until the board of supervisors approve them Nov. 18.

The school board had three open positions with only two incumbents, Amanda Mohr and Galen Zumbach, running. Two newcomers join Mohr in earning enough votes for a place on the board.

Kathy Thorne Ralston held the most votes for the night with 915 votes. Also gaining a seat was small business owner MaKenzi Vonk with 831 votes. Mohr retains her seat with 870 votes.

Unable to garner enough votes were incumbent Zumbach with 726 votes and Susan Weight with 672 votes.

Mental health and special education were a main topics of conversation in the school board race this year. During the candidate forum Oct. 16, Thorne Ralston shared her own experiences with a a child in the special education system and as a previous educator herself.

“The teachers are passionate, but I do know that they don’t feel supported. Secondary level special education nationwide is suffering, so it’s not just in Creston,” Thorne Ralston said. “Our experience in Creston with the secondary level is, every single year we had a new teacher for our son. Every single year. There was no systematic curriculum he used coming up from elementary through middle school through high school, so those are the places we need to start. We need to invest in teachers and even incentivize special education teachers.”

As the chief nursing officer at Greater Regional Health, Mohr highlighted the progress she’d seen in mental health services.

“One thing that I’ve realized that I feel like is the most important issue facing our district is our students’ mental health, our teachers’ mental health and our administration’s mental health,” Mohr said. “We’ve had a lot of discussions about types of counseling, how to get things in the doors, how to make sure students are safe, what opportunities we provide them to make sure they’re safe, how we make sure teachers are safe. Having lots of conversations about what are other opportunities we can do to meet the needs of the students and different types of classrooms are important.”

Transparency and accountability were also topics of interest for the candidates.

“Real leadership starts with showing up and listening,” Vonk said. “I promise to always lead with heart and to keep the well-being and safety of our students at the center of every decision, but I also believe accountability matters from students, staff and parents, because when everyone is held accountable, teachers can focus on teaching and kids can focus on learning.”

These three will be sworn in to the CCSD school board in January, with the school board meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 19, 2026.

There were no contested races for the two Southwestern Community College Board seats. Incumbent Jane Ernst won for District 1 and incumbent Zach Gunsolley won for District 6.