Klotz elected to fill vacancy on School Board

Veteran teacher Yvonne Klotz was elected to the Port Washington-Saukville School Board Tuesday and will fill a vacancy that has vexed the board for more than two years.

Klotz garnered 1,958 votes (57.6%) to become the first person to fill a new at-large seat created to fill a position on the nine-member board that has been vacant since October 2015.

Maureen McCourt Boylan — Klotz’s opponent at least on paper — received 1,417 votes (41.7%). McCourt Boylan said just weeks before the election she would not accept the position if elected because of “serious personal concerns.”

Last year, voters approved the creation of a seat that can be filled by a person living anywhere in the school district to replace one that had represented small sections of the towns of Saukville and Grafton.

With only about 350 registered voters living in the area, a candidate to run for the position or even apply for a board appointment has been elusive.

The other eight board members are elected from specific areas of the district — five from the City of Port Washington, two from the Village of Saukville and one from the Town of Port Washington.

Klotz, an educator with more than 30 years of experience, currently teaches sixth grade at Webster Middle School in Cedarburg and lives in the City of Port Washington. This was her first run for public office. 

Also in Tuesday’s School Board election, incumbents Kelly O’Connell-Perket, who has long represented the City of Port Washington on the board and serves as clerk, and Brian Stevens, who also represents the city and is vice president of the board, were re-elected without opposition. 

In the City of Port Washington, the Common Council has the first woman alderman in years with the election of Deb Postl. Postl, who received 318 votes, was unopposed since incumbent Mike Ehrlich opted not to run for re-election.

Other aldermen elected in uncontested elections in the city were Mike Gasper, 3rd District, with 302 votes; Jonathan Pleitner, 5th District, with 298 votes; and John Sigwart, 7th District, with 324 votes.

While the statewide race for Wisconsin Supreme Court justice appears headed for a recount, Ozaukee County voters were decisive in their feelings, voting for Brian Hagedorn over Lisa Neubauer.

They cast 16,962 votes, or 63%, for Hagedorn and 10,092, or 17%, for Neubauer.

And while the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board predicted voter turnout Tuesday would be only 20%, Ozaukee County voters far outdid that with a turnout of almost 45%.

Of the county’s 61,174 registered voters, 27,365 cast ballots in the spring election for a turnout of 44.73%.

Most communities saw a turnout of between 40% and 50%.

Turnout was highest in the City of Mequon’s 1st Aldermanic District, where 49.6% of the voters came out to cast ballots, and lowest in the Village of Saukville, where there were no contested seats and turnout was 34%.