PWHS grad poised to become youngest school board member

The April Port Washington-Saukville School Board ballot will include two incumbents who have each served nearly as long as the third candidate is old. 

Twenty-three-year-old Matthew Uselding, a 2014 graduate of Port Washington High School, has registered to run for a Town of Port Washington seat on the school board currently held by Marchell Longstaff.

Longstaff, who was first elected in 2014  and re-elected without opposition in 2017, has filed papers declaring she will not run for another term, Supt. Michael Weber said this week.

Also on the ballot will be Sara McCutcheon, who has held a Village of Saukville seat on the board for 22 years and is the senior member of the board.

McCutcheon was appointed to the board in August 1997, then elected the following year. 

Her brother-in-law Brian McCutcheon is also seeking another term. Elected by write-in vote in April 1998, he has represented the City of Port Washington on the board for 21 years.

As of Monday, Dec. 30, no one has registered to run against either of the McCutcheons or Uselding. The deadline for filing nomination papers is 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Presuming he’s elected, Uselding would be the youngest member of the current board, but not the youngest member in the board’s history.

In July 2014, Paul Krechel was appointed to the board to fill a vacancy. He was 23 at the time. Uselding will turn 24 on April 2, five days before the Tuesday, April 7 election.

Inspired by the teachers he knows, Uselding said he toyed with running for the board in 2017, then decided to put his name on the ballot this year after learning Longstaff was not seeking re-election.

“I’ve had a lot of influential teachers in my life, including my twin sister,” he said.

Uselding has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is studying for a master’s degree in public administration from UWM.

He is currently an intern in Ozaukee County’s budget office. 

School board members serve three-year terms.

Although eight of the nine members represent municipalities within the school district, they are elected by all voters in the district. 

A ninth seat on the board, which once represented a small section of the towns of Saukville and Grafton in the school district, was changed to an at-large seat that can be filled by a person living anywhere in the district. Yvonne Klotz became the first person elected to fill the at-large seat earlier this year.