ALPENA — A whopping 12 candidates are running for five open seats on the Onaway school board amid turmoil in that district that included the recent resignations of a school board member and two administrators.

Area clerks on Wednesday still were compiling lists of candidates for the November election following Tuesday’s candidate filing deadline for seats on school boards and town councils.

But information available Wednesday from Alpena and Presque Isle and Alpena counties reveals voters will on Nov. 5 settle a number of competitive school board races and a competitive race for the Alpena Municipal Council.

Alpena and Presque Isle counties still were collecting from village and city clerks the list of candidates seeking town council seats, and no information was immediately available from Montmorency or Alcona counties.

Based on the information available Wednesday, nowhere is the competition hotter than in Onaway Area School District, where two candidates seek one partial term ending in 2026, two seek one partial term ending in 2028, and eight candidates seek three full terms ending in 2030.

For the term ending New Year’s Eve 2026, Sheri Lafave will face incumbent Annette Porter. For the term ending New Year’s Eve 2028, incumbents Joseph Bonnard and Jeremy Veal will square off. For the full term ending on New Year’s Eve 2030, incumbents Lorrie Kowalski and James Rieger will face challengers Kathleen Christian, James Gibson, John Kaszonyi, Thomas Moran, Stacey Porter, and Taed Price.

Onaway has seen numerous contentious board meetings in recent years as trustees battled each other over several issues. At one such meeting in June, then-superintendent Mindy Horn and then-secondary principal Marty Mix announced their resignations (those resignations became official this month) and then-trustee Erin Chaskey resigned and left in the middle of the meeting.

Horn specifically blamed rancor on the board as a reason she decided to step down.

The Onaway school board this month appointed Bonnard to replace Chaskey and hired Dan Bauer as interim superintendent.

Meanwhile, four candidates seek three open seats on the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education. Incumbents Gordon Snow and Eric Lawson and newcomers Sarah Costain and Monica Dziesinski will ask voters for support.

And three candidates seek two open seats on the Alpena Community College Board of Trustees. Incumbents Joseph Gentry and John Briggs face challenger Mark Grunder.

In Rogers City Area Schools, three candidates seek two open school board seats with terms ending Dec. 31, 2030. Incumbents Gregory Zurakowski and Diane Schultz face challenger Darin Rabeau.

The Alpena Clerk’s Office, meanwhile, said three people seek two open seats on the Alpena Municipal Council: incumbent Danny Mitchell and challengers Bridget Hollinshead and Kevin Ginter.

Ginter may not be eligible to seek the Municipal Council seat because he also filed as a write-in candidate for the county board, Anna Soik, Alpena clerk/treasurer/finance director, said in an email to The News.

Meanwhile, the candidates list provided by the Alpena County Clerk’s Office on Wednesday introduced voters to a handful of candidates who will run as independents for typically partisan seats.

Lucille Bray has stepped up to run as an independent for the District 3 seat on the Alpena County Board of Commissioners.

Incumbent Commissioner Robin LaLonde decided to not seek reelection and no other Democrats or Republicans filed to run in the Aug. 6 primary, meaning the county board would have appointed someone to fill the seat had an independent or third-party candidate not filed to run in November. Bray will likely run unopposed and win the term that begins New Year’s Day.

District 3 represents Precincts 3 and 4 in Alpena.

In Alpena Township, meanwhile, Sara Townsend Flick has filed to run as an independent for township treasurer, and Beverly Banks has filed to run as an independent for township trustee.

Townsend Flick will face Republican incumbent Laura Ellery-Somers, who is running unopposed in the Aug. 6 primary. No Democrat filed for the township treasurer post.

Five Republicans will appear on the Aug. 6 ballot for Alpena Township trustee: incumbents Cash Kroll, Steve Lappan, Norm Poli, and Russ Rhynard, and challenger Kevin Galloway. Banks will in November face the top four vote-getters among those five. No Democrat filed for Alpena Township trustee.

And in Sanborn Township, John Moran is running as an independent for township supervisor. He’ll face incumbent Republican Supervisor Kenneth Gauthier, who is running unopposed in the Aug. 6 primary. No Democrats filed for the seat.