By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
At a special meeting on December 6 the Whitewater Unified School Board interviewed three applicants for the vacant School Board position previously held by Jim Stewart, who passed away on November 26. Prior to the interviews District Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty provided a brief history of Stewart’s 27 years on the board and indicated that he would be greatly missed.
The candidates for the interim position, which will be filled until the April election, were Joseph “Joe” Kromholz, Zachary Popke, and Andrea Svec. Svec was one of four successful candidates for the board in the February, 2021 primary election; however, a few weeks before the April election she indicated that she was no longer actively pursuing a seat.
Per board policy, after the interviews which were limited to ten minutes each, the first step for the board members was to cast ballots that would identify the top two candidates. That ballot resulted in Kromholz and Svec being selected as finalists. In the second ballot, those candidates tied, with Thayer Coburn, Casey Judd, and Steve Ryan favoring Kromholz while Larry Kachel, Jennifer Kienbaum, and Maryann Zimmerman supported Svec. Three additional votes failed to resolve the tie, and consequently the flip of a coin by Pate-Hefty, who claimed she’d been practicing all day, landed on heads, which was designated as being for Kromholz.
Kromholz resides at 393 Eagle Court. He indicated that his family moved to Whitewater, his wife Marjorie Stoneman’s hometown, in 2003. The district’s schools, Kromholz stated, prepared their son well for his current university studies. A patent attorney, Kromholz stated that he doesn’t mind vigorous debate as long as it is conducted with courtesy. Major concerns for the district, he said, include attracting more students and maintaining adequate funding. Immediately following the coin flip victory Kromholz took the oath of office and joined the closed session.
Editor’s note: The initial post misstated the year in which Kromholz moved to Whitewater.
