Mexico Public Schools board will have a new face joining an incumbent as voters elected two people in the April 8 election.

In the Mexico City Council, just one person, Ron Ray, was on the ballot, and he took home 645 votes to win a seat that was vacated by Chris Williams. 

Voters in Audrain County went to the polls April 8 to decide seats on boards and councils along with other issues.

For the Mexico Schools Board race that had five candidates and two seats, incumbent Scott Nichols took home the most votes with 821 and newcomer Jon Calhoun won a seat with 655 votes. For the other candidates, all of whom were challengers and not incumbents, Erik Richardson had 401 votes, Julia Lindsay had 198 votes and Joshua Price had 99 votes. Calhoun will replace Nicole Jahn, who did not seek re-election.

“I’m very humbled by all the support I got,” said Nichols, who will start his third term on the board.

Nichols said he looks forward to working with the board, noiting Calhoun will be a new asset and addition to the board.

“I’m looking forward to that and seeing how that works together,” Nichols said.

He said improvement of retention and recruitment of teachers is on the board’s plate and said he is eager to see how the new curriculum that the district is investigating will affect academics.

“And just overall, I’m excited to continue to be a part of the district,” he said. “We have a very great group of teachers and just educators in general. So I’m really excited to see where that’s going to continue to go.”
He said he thinks his being a member of the board helped him in his re-election, as he created some bonds and relationships over the years. 

“I’m just excited for the opportunity to continue to serve the community and hope to continue to make the district strive to be better,” he said.

Calhoun said with five candidates on the ballot, one never can be sure what could happen in the election, but he said he was happy to see the results as he now prepares for his first meeting.

“I’m just hoping to try to bridge the gap between the parents and the board and try to make sure that the board understands what the parents’ concerns are and hopefully we can get some policies in places about communications and how we disseminate information to our public and to our parents throughout the year,” he said.

He said the bond project is a priority and the board must ensure it is conducted in a satisfactory way.

 “I would like to see the superintendent keep moving forward on re-evaluating our curriculum and bringing it more up to date and a more relevant learning path,” he said.

He looks forward to the next several years and wants to “hit the ground running.”  

Ray said he looks forward to getting involved with everything going on in the city. 

He said a “sense of responsibility” motivated him to run for council. He said he has lived in Mexico about 35 years, and he wants to help make the city a “great place to live,” including its quality of life, and he wants to push for economic development and a hospital critical care unit. 

“No particular agenda,” he said. “I just feel like everybody should take their turn in a role in local government.”

He said the biggest strength here is the people and the hospital and housing issues are some pressing issues facing Mexico. 

“Unfortunately, inflation has really affected the cost of housing and it makes it pretty tough for those that are kind of getting started out and trying to raise a family,” he said. “So we need to get some of our rents and leaseholds down.”

Getting more affordable housing here remains a “tough” issue, he said, adding he doesn’t have a direct solution for it other than to strive for it.

Centralia R-VI Superintendent Steven Chancellor was pleased to see the district voters approve money for district additions, including a performing arts center.

“We’re obviously very excited,” he said. “We thought we had a good game plan that we just tried to be very factual about and really just put that plan to our community, and if they viewed it as a great idea that they were going to support it, and that’s what they did. So I think for our kids, it’s exciting. It’s going to obviously give a group of kids a place for them to perform, just like we provide gyms and fields and things for sporting events. It’ll do the same for the performing arts.”

He added that it will be a “big deal” for the community to have a community space available for any groups and any functions that people want to have. 

“It’ll be a nice space in Centralia for Centralia and we’re excited for that,” he said. 

He said the performing arts center has not gone out to bid yet, but officials estimate it will cost around $7 million. The bond passed was priced at $8.5 million. Chancellor said the architectural drawings will be refined and that officials hope to go out to bid in the summer and then will target a winter construction start time. Construction will take roughly one year, 

“I appreciate our community having faith and trust in us, and we’re excited as a district just continuing to take steps forward, and that’s been a very intentional process for our board of education,” he said. “We just want to say thank you to them and we’re anxious to get started and hope people will enjoy watching the progress.”