News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Alpena Public Schools Board of Education members Sarah Fritz and Anna Meinhardt are pictured in this photo from June 15. Fritz and Meinhardt both have terms ending Dec. 31.

ALPENA — Nine candidates have filed to run for four seats on the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Current school board members Sarah Fritz, AJ MacArthur, Anna Meinhardt, and Eric Hansen all have terms ending on Dec. 31.

Fritz and MacArthur have filed to run for another term, while Meinhardt and Hansen have not.

Fritz won her seat on the board in the 2022 election. If re-elected, it would be her second term. MacArthur was also elected in 2022 and will also be running for a second term. He is currently the vice-president of the board.

Meinhardt was appointed to the board in 2021 to fill a partial term. She was elected for a full term in 2022. Meinhardt previously served as president of the board.

Hansen was elected for his first term in 2022. He previously served as vice president.

The seven other candidates running for election are Lindsey Klein, Vincent Thomas, Adam Minton, Robert Bruning, Kayla Ratz, Eric Carlson, and Claire Kipfmiller, according to Alpena County Clerk Keri Bertrand.

Those nine will be running for a full, four-year term on the board of education.

The three remaining board of education seats may also be up for grabs, pending the official declaration of a recall election.

Community member Yvonne Johnson submitted recall petitions against APS board members Eric Lawson, Monica Dziesinski, and Sarah Costain in February. Signatures were collected for the recall beginning in the first week of May through the last week of June. An unofficial count showed enough signatures for each of the three board members to be recalled.

The signatures were filed with Bertrand in late June for official verification. Bertrand said that those signatures have been verified and there are enough to go through with a recall election.

However, the three board members have a chance to challenge signatures until July 29. After that, Bertrand will officially declare a recall election by Aug. 3. If that election is called, any challenger that would like to run for the seats of the recalled board members need to file an affidavit within 10 days.

Challengers would be in the race for a two-year partial term on the school board.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at rvoetberg@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5683.