LSC says goodbye to two members of the school board

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — At the final meeting of the year, the Lafayette School Corporation school board saw two significant changes occur.

The board shared their goodbyes with Kay L. Walton (District V) and Stephen J. Bultinck (District VII), and finally approved a new district map after almost a year of discussion.

LSC Board says goodbye to two members

Walton (District V) and Bultinck (District VII), both said their goodbyes to the rest of the board after the meeting had concluded.

Both members were on the board for over 15 years. Walton began serving in 2005, and Bultinck began in 2007, and both were leaving for different reasons.

Bultinck lost his seat to newly elected member of the LSC school board Charles “Chuck” Hockema, in this last election.

The margin of victory was 120 votes – 379 to 259.

“It’s bittersweet because I really did like doing the work and we accomplished an awful lot with my time being on the board. But that’s one thing about democracy, the people voted,” Bultinck said.

“I guess the only thing I would say is, it’s difficult to vote for someone who doesn’t answer questions.”

When asked, Bultinck shared one of his favorite memory while he was on the board.

“I have two. The first one was when we made the initiative to put together Oakland High School together. Because there are those groups of kids, for a lot of reasons, that just don’t fit into the big school system.

“And by being able to give them a chance to get back into the school system, and get their education, get the diploma, that was really cool in my mind.”

The other accomplishment that he was proud of, was when the LSC created the Greater Lafayette Career academy.

“There are a lot of kids, that are not geared for college. And why go into debt of 40 or 60 thousand dollars? Then you figure out that this isn’t cut out for me. Well now, these kids have an opportunity to get right into the workforce and be a valuable member of the community.”

When it came to Walton’s departure, she informed the board that she had purchased a new house outside of her current district, and because of that, she would no longer be eligible to hold her seat on the board. With this news, she made the announcement that she will be retiring from the board.

“I made today my official (last) day because we’re hoping to close the house that we sold, but we’re still living in it, before Christmas.”

Over the years, Walton has seen the growth of the LSC district, with the arrival of Oakland academy and GLCA, but when reflecting on her time on the board, one of the things she’s going to miss the most is watching the high school graduations.

“I loved going to the graduation ceremonies, because the Jeff graduation ceremonies were amazing, and also the Oakland high school. Those were great because you see the adversity that everybody came through to get there,” Walton said.

“Every year when they would stand there and do the 'Battle Hymn,' it was always beautiful because it was so good.”

At the end of the meeting, the board gifted both Bultinck and Walton with a plaque to commemorate their times on the board.

The LSC has 45 days to find a replacement for Walton's seat. The new appointee would be a resident of the Fifth District. If the board is unable to find a replacement, a local judge will appoint someone in her place.

During the meeting, LSC’s Chief Financial Officer, Eric Rody also announced his retirement from the board. Rody plans to step down from his position by June 2023.

The board approves new district maps

After almost a year of discussion, the LSC board finally approved the proposed district maps.

The new district map breaks up the old seven districts in favor of four new lettered districts, A through D, with the inclusion of three at-large positions.

“Right now, each one of these seven school board members comes from a certain area,” Huddle said in an interview after the February meeting. “But when the Census happens, every 10 years the board has to look at those boundaries because you have to be within a certain percentage of the population so there’s equal representation.”

With this new system, four of the board members must be elected from their specific district, but the other three at-large board members can come from any part of the district.

“The three members can all live within one district and be voted in,” Huddle said.

When it’s come to the voting structure regarding this new system, voters will first vote on the school board members bound by their district, and then two years later voters will then vote on the at-large district.

Or at least, that’s how that was meant to work, but with the new district being approved after the 2022 election, Robert Stwalley (District II), Brent Clemenz (District III), Allison McKay (District VI) and Charles “Chuck” Hockema (District VII) seats are safe until 2026.

It won’t be until 2024, that voters will be able to decide their newest board members under the new district maps.

The next seats up for reelection are, David Moulton (District I), Brian Wagner (District IV), and Kay Walton (District V).

In 2024, these three seats will appear as At-large seats, which means anyone from the LSC district can run for the board, and the seats will appear on every LSC district voters’ ballot.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: LSC says goodbye to two members of the school board