The August 6th SVSD School Board District 4 early primary election results are in, and as of 8:15PM tonight, North Bend incumbent Marci Busby has the most votes, followed by David Spring, incumbent Scott Hodgins and Stephen Kangas.
Current board members Hodgins and Busby lived in different school board director districts until the 2011 redistricting placed 
Hodgins’ home in Busby’s District 4. Hodgins was originally elected to represent District 1 in 2009, but that district now belongs to Snoqualmie.
Redistricting is done every 10 years and is based on census data. The 2010 census documented a population explosion in Snoqualmie, due mostly to the large Snoqualmie Ridge master-planned community. So the SVSD director district boundaries were shifted to match the population dispersement, forcing Hodgins and Busby to run against each other in order to continue serving on the school board.
Approximately only 3,500 (or about 15% of SVSD’s 23,500 registered voters) ballots were counted in early election results released tonight. Busby received the most votes early in – with almost 31% of counted ballots, Spring received nearly 28%, Hodgins got 21.5% and Stephen Kangas tallied 19%.
Via email, Busby commented, “I just want to give thanks to my family, friends and the community for their support. My hope has always been and will continue to be that whomever ends up in this seat will honor the children and professionals of this district. It is still early, but hope the results are encouraging.”
Busby and Spring hold vastly different positions when it comes to SVSD’s soon to open Freshman Campus. Busby is a strong proponent of the separate 9th grade campus while Spring supports a 9-12th grade comprehensive high school.
Via email Spring commented , “The fact that there is such a huge and clear difference between our [freshman campus] positions will allow the voters themselves to decide what the future will hold for our students and for our school district. That is how democracy should work.”
Each business day King County Elections will count more votes and add them to the totals until final election results are posted on Tuesday, August 20, 2013. King County Elections could receive another 3,000-4,00 mail-in school board primary ballots in the coming days.
SVSD school board elections are decided by all voters and school board members represent all students. Candidates, though, must reside in the districts for which they are running.
