Sauk Rapids-Rice school board winners look to listen, move forward

SAUK RAPIDS — After a contentious campaign, two of the three winners of the Sauk Rapids-Rice school board race have at least one similar goal — improving relationships with the community and within the board itself.

"I feel great," said top vote-getter Lisa Loidolt Wednesday. "I’m eager to start working with the other school board members, listening to residents about where they would like the district to go..."

Loidolt was part of a trio of candidates who ran a campaign highly critical of the school board's recent actions involving facilities referendums and enrollment policies. The other two candidates did not win seats.

Third-place finisher Lisa Braun, who won her fourth term, said Wednesday "there’s been kind of a little bit of a divide in the community and we need to heal."

Second-place finisher Robyn Holthaus, another incumbent, did not return calls for comment in the days following her re-election.

In the nine-candidate race, Loidolt received the most support, with just over 15 percent of the vote (3,331 votes). Holthaus was at 14.57 percent (3,179 votes), and Braun earned 14.12 percent (3,081 votes). 

Contentious campaign season

This race was marked early as one to watch. The high number of candidates was driven in large part by district voters rejecting back-to-back building referendums in 2017 and this year while debating whether to limit to 1 percent the district's open-enrollment policy.

Those developments resulted in a group forming known as "Close Open Enrollment in Sauk Rapids/Rice School District." It eventually recruited three people as candidates — Loidolt, Michael Keehr and Andrew Lindeman. 

The candidates announced through a Facebook page they planned to run a joint campaign in attempts to be elected as a group. The trio also signed a "contract of promises" to residents.

Loidolt and Keehr since cut ties with Lindeman from their group campaign following controversial comments he made on social media in mid-October. 

Meanwhile, some of the other six candidates criticized the trio's motives and methods, saying their contract was a form of "fear-mongering." 

The rest of the candidates campaigned as individuals.

Loidolt said she was also glad to be done campaigning. She felt she had done the legwork necessary to secure her spot on the board. 

"I think I felt good going in there," she said. "I worked hard — I knocked on doors. I was out talking to residents every weekend... As I saw (results) coming, they were close but I still felt confident it was going to go the way I wanted it to go."

Braun acknowledged the campaign was challenging.

"I think any public process is always something that you have to learn and not necessarily take personally," she said. "...There’s a lot of different views, and just because someone doesn’t vote for you it doesn’t mean they don’t like what you’ve done. But maybe they felt there was a better candidate," Braun said. 

Looking forward

Loidolt was the only one of the trio to be elected. She attributes her win to the efforts she made to talk to residents leading to the vote.

"I think I was able to build a relationship quickly in a 5-to-10-minute conversation I would have with residents…and I think they felt like I really cared about the district," said Loidolt. "I think they felt like I was authentic."

Braun said the district is in a position of needing to rebuild those relationships following the heated debate about the referendums and enrollment policy.

Braun said she looks forward to getting back to the board and working to incorporate a new member. She said anytime there's a change, there's bound to be a learning curve with figuring out communication styles, and the "organizational culture."

But Braun said she's ready to begin and start "learning how to be successful with each other." She emphasized the ongoing work on school security, managing open enrollment and ensuring "that students are really learning in its truest sense, not just to take a test."

She said this starts with keeping the past, in the past.

"Just looking at, how do we move forward and kind of put the whole election process behind us?" Braun said.

Each will serve a four-year term. Members make $100 per regularly scheduled meeting and/or work session, which has been the case since 2002. The district's website notes 25 of those scheduled for 2018.

The new board members will join board members Ryan Butkowski, Mark Hauck, Tracy Morse and Jan Solarz. 

The other five candidates received the following, in order of votes received:

• Michael Keehr — 10.4 percent, 2,268 votes
• Bryce Johnson — 9.1 percent, 1,984 votes
• Andrew Lindeman — 7.96 percent, 1,736 votes
• Rebecca Revermann — 7.16 percent, 1,562 votes
• Brenda Woggon — 7.14 percent, 1,558 votes

Benton County reported over 21,000 total votes from 17 precincts. Ninety-six write-in votes were also recorded. 

Send news tips to Jordyn Brown at jnbrown@stcloudtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @thejordynbrown