Seamon, Steele Decide Against School Board Re-Election Bid

Richard Seamon.

Margaret Steele.

Laurie Merris.

Only one of three Board of Education members whose seats are in contention this November will run for re-election.

One of those open seats is being eyed by a former member whose re-election bid fell short last year.

School board members Laurie Merris, Margaret Steele and Richard Seamon are up for re-election in November. Of the three, only Merris has chosen to run.

Former board president Ed Potosnak, who lost a re-election bid in 2017, has said he will file a petition to run this year.

Board petitions are due by July 30.

With his decision not to run, Seamon ends a more than 10-year career as a board member.

He was first elected to the school board in 2000, then did not seek re-election after his first term due to a change in his employment.

He won again in 2010, chose to not run for re-election again and started his latest stint on the board in 2015, when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of former board member Richard Arline. Later that year, he won a full three-year term on the board.

“I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been fun to participate and support the children in the township,” Seamon said. “I continue to do that with the Franklin Township Soccer Club, but it’s time for someone else” to serve on the board.

Seamon is a commissioner on the FTSC.

Steele said she decided to end her time on the board because, “I just feel that God’s taking me in another direction.”

“It has nothing to do with the board,” she said.

Steele said that she enjoyed serving on the school board.

“It was very enlightening, because I don’t have children it opened up my eyes and ears to how everything runs as far as schools and teachers, the difference between when I went to school and now,” she said.

Steele said the board members “are pretty much on the same page, wanting to make the district the best that we can.”

Potosnak said he’s running again because he is “eager to help continue to take Franklin Schools to the next level.”

“Recent years have seen tremendous progress with significant results including raising academic performance, stabilizing leadership and administration, keeping taxes down, and celebrating Franklin’s outstanding faculty staff, students, and families,” he said in an email. “There is more work to be done and I want to lend my support and experience to ensure every student is achieving her or his maximum potential in an inclusive school environment.”

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