Updated noon Nov. 10

The School Board will have two new members in addition to incumbents Claire Harding and Mark Chrislip after complete but unofficial results show them in the lead Friday. 

School Board Unofficial Results: 

Claire Harding – 610

Kelley Woods – 591

Mark Chrislip – 566

Zachariah Brooks – 540

Becky Plate – 515

Lynn Reazin – 434

All results are unofficial until the canvass Nov. 20.

Harding said she is excited to continue her position. 

“I am so grateful to Eudora voters,” Harding said. “I’m really proud to continue to get to work for these students and staff and this community for the next four years.”

Woods said she is excited to see where the results are at.

“It’s just kind of overwhelming to see all the support and trust that I’ve gotten,” she said.

Chrislip said he is surprised that incumbents Reazin and Plate weren’t re-elected but thinks Woods and Brooks are going to do well. 

“I think we’re still gonna have a really good board, and we’re just gonna move forward,” he said.

Brooks said Wednesday, ““I’m excited. If the numbers stay where they’re at, I’m ready to go work for Eudora and for the school district and see what I can do to help out.”

The Eudora Times left messages with Plate and Reazin for comment Tuesday night.

In previous interviews with the Eudora Times, candidates discussed Panasonic growth, teacher retention and the bond projects passed last May.

Harding said the school board has already started preparing for the anticipated Panasonic growth by using the bond to build new infrastructure, specifically by increasing services for early childhood education.

“I think that we’ve already laid the groundwork by this bond work that we’re undertaking and sort of shoring up our foundation, infrastructure work, expanding classrooms in the high school. We’re really getting ready by building a high-class early childhood education center. That’s gonna be really critical for new families when they come,” Harding said. 

Brooks is a lifelong Eudora resident and ran for election to help ensure students feel comfortable within the district.

“I just want to make sure that the school district has a nice, safe, comfortable, respectful environment for all kids,” he said.

Brooks said the board needs to start looking at the size of the schools and seeing what the impact of new families will be.

“We need to check to see where we’re at with our school sizes – is the elementary school big enough, the middle school, the high school? Start planning for that now so we don’t get caught not being ready. Planning for the future knowing what’s coming,” he said.

Woods is a substitute teacher and ran for election in hopes of being more involved in the community and being an advocate for students, teachers and staff. 

“I just want to be more involved and be a bigger part of just doing what’s best for our kids’ community. That’s the No. 1 focus and the children,” she said. “Also, I’m an educator myself. I used to teach many years before I started and that’s, you know, just to be the advocate for the teachers, the staff.”

As an educator, she said she knows there are flaws in the system. Focusing on listening to teachers and their needs can help the national struggles with hiring and retaining staff, she said. 

“I just feel like my knowledge in that and the struggles that were there when I was teaching permanently, I just feel like maybe that will help with the future and to help with that, the knowledge of that,” she said. 

Chrislip said passing the bond was good preparation for Panasonic growth, and the board will continue to understand and plan for what the district will look like in five years. 

“How do we get to the place that we need to be to be able to serve the community?” he said. “It’s going to be difficult to understand the growth and the impact until we see what happens with housing in Eudora. If the housing doesn’t support the growth, then we won’t see the growth.”

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