Filing is open for fall school board races. Here's what to know about seats in Michiana.

Filing for open school board seats began last week across Indiana in an election cycle that's expected to bring unusual visibility to local races.

In St. Joseph County, several key seats are open in districts where board members are expected to play influential roles in campaigning for school funding and deciding upon possible school consolidation or closures.

This year's voting also comes as some districts continue to grapple with how best to teach diversity as some parents push back against new lessons developed, in part, following the 2020 Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

School board roles in Indiana are non-partisan, meaning candidates do not file with a particular party, Republican or Democrat. The positions are generally a four-year role and board composition varies by each district.

Filing opened July 27 and will continue through noon Aug. 26. The Tribune anticipates providing updates throughout the month as candidates signal their intention to run for open seats. This year's midterm election day is Nov. 8.

South Bend schools

Three of seven total board seats in the South Bend school district are up this fall. All three seats up for election have been held by their incumbents for just one term. Those seats include:

• District 1, which covers much of east-central South Bend and the neighborhoods nearest Adams High School. Board member Ruth Warren, a retired South Bend educator, currently occupies this seat.

• District 2, which stretches south and east in the district, including the areas closest to and south of Riley High School. This seat is currently filled by board member Oletha Jones, a former education chair of the St. Joseph County NAACP.

• District 5, which is made up of the northeast, Clay Township section of the South Bend school corporation. Stuart Greene, a professor emeritus with Notre Dame, currently represents the district.

None of these seats cover an at-large area, meaning voting will be open only to residents of each district up for election. Someone living in the River Park neighborhood, for example, will be allowed to vote their choice for the District 1 seat, but no others.

Those elected to the South Bend school board are likely to play a pivotal role in shaping the district's future footprint. Administrators have embarked on a lengthy facility planning process to consider "right-sizing" the corporation's physical presence after years of declining enrollment.

Though no formal decisions have been made, it's likely administrators will ask board members to consider some form of consolidation or school closure. The shrinking South Bend corporation has lost more than 10,000 students since 2007 and expects to see its enrollment decline by nearly another 1,000 students by the 2026-27 school year, according projections from the district. Only one of the district's four high schools is near its full capacity.

Administrators initially honed in on Clay High School as a building with potential to see major change in coming years. Some ideas included repurposing the school into a career center or athletic complex while consolidating grades 6-12 into the district's nearby Clay International Academy building.

Those suggestions, however, saw considerable pushback from the Clay community and administrators ultimately decided to step back and evaluate the greater scope of preK-12 education in the district before recommending changes.

Consultants with the district's facilities planning team have said they anticipate bringing updates to the school board throughout August, September and October. It's not clear whether recommendations on building consolidation could be brought before or after November elections.

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One candidate, Robert "Smitty" Smith, submitted a petition during the first day of school board filing. Smith is running for the District 5, Clay Township seat and has worked for the South Bend school corporation, according to his filing.

"I will save my comments until I have a greater opportunity to hear from the constituents of Clay Township," Smith said when reached by The Tribune on Thursday. "I work for the neighbors in the Clay district."

Penn-Harris-Madison schools

Four of seven seats are up for election this year in Penn-Harris-Madison schools. Those seats include:

• Seat 1, which serves Penn Township. This seat is currently filled by James Turnwald, executive director of the Michiana Area Council of Governments. Turnwald was appointed to this seat after Jaye Galloway, a long-time board member, resigned in November. Turnwald was interviewed by the board and selected in December to serve the remainder of Galloway's term.

• Seat 5, which covers Madison Township. Larry Beehler, the district's longest serving board member, occupies the Madison Township seat. According to the district, Beehler first joined the board in 1986.

• Seat 6, which represents Harris Township. Angie Gates was selected to fill a Harris Township board opening in 2016 and subsequently elected to a second term in 2018. Gates is the board's vice president and an active parent and volunteer in the P-H-M district. Her husband, Joel Gates, is president of Gates Automotive.

• Seat 7, which is an at-large position. Board President Christopher Riley is currently the board's at-large representative. Riley is an attorney and has occupied his seat since 2011.

Residents living within the P-H-M district this fall will have the opportunity to vote for two school board members, including an at-large position and another representing their township.

P-H-M is one of many districts this year that saw community members flood into school board meetings last summer to voice their opinions on issues ranging from mask mandates to diversity in the classroom. That increased level of engagement continued when P-H-M saw more than a dozen candidates apply for one of two open school board positions this winter.

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One P-H-M candidate submitted her petition on the first day of filing. Dana Sullivan, a who works as a school nurse in South Bend schools, has filed for the district's at-large seat. Sullivan is a 1989 graduate of Penn High School and has two children currently in the school system.

Sullivan said she's stayed active in school PTOs, sports boards and the district's P-H-M Forum parent group. She said she hopes to bring her enthusiasm for extracurriculars and volunteering to the board, and emphasized her desire to facilitate community engagement while leaving politics at the door.

"The school board needs to be able to work together and solve problems without bringing in the politics if you can," Sullivan said. "I'm a level-headed person so I feel like I can see things … with a level-headed approach."

Mishawaka schools

Unlike its neighboring districts, Mishawaka schools will have only one open board seat this fall.

The district is one of just a few in the state to be governed by a hybrid school board, meaning some seats are appointed and some are elected. In Mishawaka, one seat is appointed by the city's common council, one is selected by the mayor and the remaining three are chosen by voters.

The Mishawaka Common Council appointed Dave Weber, a retired Beiger Elementary school teacher, to the board in early July after former vice president Amanda Roberts stepped down to follow a career opportunity in Indianapolis.

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Mishawaka's elected school board seats are all at-large positions, meaning voting will be open to all residents in the district for the seat currently filled by board President Holly Parks.

Prospective candidates for the Mishawaka seat will run during a time of transition in the district. A new superintendent, Theodore Stevens, begins with the district this summer after former Mishawaka leader Wayne Barker unexpectedly announced his resignation in May to become superintendent of Northwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne.

The Mishawaka district is also gearing up for a possible referendum campaign in May 2023 — a likelihood Parks told The Tribune earlier this summer was a driving factor in the board's decision to pursue a quick transition for its superintendent position.

The St. Joseph County election clerk received no petitions for the available Mishawaka school board seat on the first day of filing. The Tribune plans to check back for updates throughout this August's school board filing window.

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: School board filing is open. Here's what to know about Michiana seats.