Second time the charm for Chilek in BISD race
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

While the margin was again narrow, this time Shawn Chilek won the run-off election for a vacant seat on the Boling Independent School board.

The results of the voting showed Chilek collecting 196 votes, 52.55 percent, to Jerry Svatek's 177 votes, 47.45 percent, to win the seat vacated earlier this year when Bill Ford resigned his board position. Election Day was Saturday.

In November, the two candidates tied with 161 votes each.

Chilek said he wasn't surprised Saturday's totals exceeded the number of votes cast in November.

"The publicity of the tie helped generate interest," he said. "And both Jerry and I spend extra time getting the word out. And the voting was centralized to the Boling Fire Station so people knew where to go to vote."

Chilek said he's ready to hit the ground running after attending board meetings.

"I think it helped out that both Jerry and I started attending the meetings before the election," he said. "It makes sense to prepare yourself and get in tune with the issues and see how the process runs."

Pleased with the win, Chilek took pride in the fact both candidates ran clean campaigns.

"It was always my intent to run a clean campaign," he said. "I wouldn't have wanted to win if the best I could have done was to tell people how bad my opponent might be. If you can't say anything positive about yourself, I think you would need to re-think why you are running."

Svatek said he was disappointed in the result. He added that he wasn't surprised by the turnout, but thought it would have been better had it received more local coverage.

And even though he is disappointed in this election's outcome, Svatek said he's still interested in serving on the school board.

"I will run for a board position next year," he said.

Boling Superintendent Charles Butcher said he was looking forward to Chilek's contributing to the board.

"My attitude is positive," he said. "I think either candidate would have done well representing the district. Both men understand that the district is there for the students first and foremost."

The superintendent said he liked the idea of future contested races.

"I think that when we do have multiple people running for office it creates interest in the community and moves that organization to the forefront of interest, in this case the school district," he said. "And if you don't have people interested then you have indifference which doesn't do anything to improve the community."