Half of the incumbents are leading in early election results for the Canby School Board Tuesday night, with two challengers currently ahead.
Incumbent Tom Scott was ahead in his bid for a fourth term over newcomer Olga Jimenez in early results, 67% to 33%, with about half of the ballots tallied.
Incumbent Sara Magenheimer was also leading challenger Stephanie Smith by a comfortable margin, 63.3% to 36.5%.
Challengers Shelley Vissers and Sherry Smith were leading in early returns, though the results were closer.
Vissers led current board chair Angi Dilkes, 58.3% to 41.6% — a difference of about 600 votes — and Smith was ahead of two-term incumbent Mike Zagyva, 53.4% to 46.6% — a split of fewer than 200.
“It is an honor serving our community as a Canby School Board director,” Magenheimer told The Canby Current. “I remain committed to work with dedication, compassion, and collaboration for the success of all our students.”
Magenheimer said this is a critical time in the district, and vowed she is ready to continue her work to transition students back to full-time in-person learning, address the student gaps created by this last year, support a new superintendent and work to implement the school bond voters approved last year.
“I am passionate about continuing to work together with our community to create an engaging, rigorous and well-rounded academic experience for our students,” she said.
Most other candidates were not ready to claim victory — or admit defeat — based on the early returns.
“I am waiting to see the final results,” said Vissers. “I am humbled by the votes so far. I appreciate the votes I have received.”
“I appreciate the community’s support so far,” agreed Scott. “I’m sure more votes are still to be counted.”
Zagyva and Jimenez also said they would withhold comment until the final results were in.
“At this time, I would like to refrain from any comments since the results are still early,” Sherry Smith said in an email to the Current Wednesday morning.
She shared a similar message on her campaign Facebook page, saying that, while the results were not final, “things were looking good.”
In other contests, Deb Barnes was leading incumbent Dawn Depner, 74.2% to 25.8% — a difference of only about 60 votes in the much smaller Aurora Fire Rural Protection District.
James Brown (70.8%) and Jay Cross (65.3%) led in contested races for Clackamas Fire Board positions. All Canby Fire Board seats were uncontested, with incumbent Steve Thoroughman and Connie Austen winning easily.
The five-year public safety levy renewal and increase proposed for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office also appeared to be winning in early returns Tuesday night, with 55.75% of voters in favor.
That represents a gap of more than 4,000 results in the countywide poll, and that result seems likely to hold even in later returns.
Voters first passed the levy in 2006 and have approved it every five years since.
But this year, new Clackamas County Sheriff Angela Brandenburg had also asked to raise the tax rate by 12 cents — up to 36.8 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
That translates to a cost of approximately $98.26 per year on a home with an assessed value of $267,000 — the median assessed value of a home in Clackamas County.
With the increase, the levy is estimated to raise $22 to 25 million each year, which would go toward maintaining deputy positions and jail beds, opening 26 mental health/medical jail beds, adding two internal affairs investigators and implementing a new body-worn camera program.
Finally, Shantel Harney, Dick Dowdy and Ryan Nelson appeared to be voters’ write-in choices for open seats on the board of directors of the Canby Area Park and Recreation District.
CAPRD is an unfunded district approximately the size of Canby School District that has repeatedly failed in its effort to pass a tax base to support its operations and the development of new parks and recreational opportunities.
As ever, the write-in campaigns attracted some humorous submissions.
Clackamas County does not typically share write-in results in races with filed candidates (unless a particular write-in candidate captures a significant portion of the vote) — but CAPRD’s three races had no filers this year.
Per county election laws, Harney, Dowdy and Nelson will have the option to accept or reject the voters’ choice — assuming they meet the qualifications for the position.
If they decline, other write-in candidates that may be in the running include Alice Cooper, former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, Donald Duck, Kaptain Hickey, Bill Nye, Poony Toots, Liz Cheney, Johnny Cash, Bea Arthur, Tig Bitties, Angela (no last name given) and Snoop Dogg — though it’s unclear if they would meet the criteria as well.
