Voters make no change to school board
Voters make no change to school board
All four incumbents running in 2024 won their races. During a forum this election cycle, they each discussed wanting to continue the work of their first term.
Albany County voters reelected every incumbent running to keep their seat on the school board. The results mean that all nine trustees currently serving will continue to serve in 2025.
Representing “Area A” — an area encompassing almost every neighborhood with Laramie city limits — Trustees Emily Siegel-Stanton, Cecilia Aragón and Alex Moon Krassin will remain, having defeated one challenger.
“At-Large” Trustee Kim Sorenson will also carry on in his role, also having defeated one challenger.
Voters reelect Area A incumbents
Despite all being incumbents, only Siegel-Stanton has served a full four-year term on the board. Krassin was elected to an unfinished two-year term during the 2022 election and Aragón was appointed to a vacant position in the summer of 2023.
Siegel-Stanton, who received more than 8,600 votes on Tuesday, said she wants to continue the work she and her colleagues have started to right-size the budget, provide raises to teachers and advocate for marginalized students.
Siegel-Stanton and her fellow incumbents were challenged in their bids for another term by Sylvia-Grace Fonfara, who had not run for political office before. As a former student of the district, Fonfara said she wanted to be an advocate for neurodivergent students and said the district needed a “fresh” perspective.
Fonfara received more than 4,500 votes Tuesday, which was ultimately not enough to unseat Siegel-Stanton, Aragón or Krassin.
Earlier this year, all three incumbents voted against the district’s new forced outting policy. A new state law had mandated the policy.
A majority of the board voted to approve it, saying they feared litigation for any other course of action. Siegel-Stanton, Aragón or Krassin protested, casting no votes despite the risk.
Voters reelect Sorenson
In the race for a single “at-large” seat, Trustee Kim Sorenson sought and won a second term on the board, defeating challenger Tom Mullan by a wide vote margin of more than 2-1.
Sorenson, like the other incumbents, said he wanted to continue the work of his first term.
Mullan said he wanted to “change” the schools, which he felt had veered toward preparing students “for feelings” rather than training them for more practical pursuits. During an Albany County Education Association forum, Mullan also voiced support for school vouchers that funnel public money to private or alternative schools.
On Tuesday, Sorenson walked away with more than 9,300 votes, or 68% of ballots cast, while Mullan received just under 4,300, or 31% of ballots cast.
In the at-large race, the county clerk’s unofficial totals put write-in votes at 133. In the Area A race, there were 988 write-ins.
This year’s school board elections drew significantly less interest and controversy than the school board elections in 2022. That year saw 20 candidates organized into competing slates vying for seven available seats.
School Board Area A
Emily Siegel-Stanton: 8,616
Cecilia Aragón: 7,893
Alex Moon Krassin 6,101
Sylvia-Grace Fonfara: 4,533
Write-in: 988
School Board At-Large
Kim Sorenson: 9,330
Tom Mullan: 4,295
Write-in: 133