Sixth applicant for school board vacancy

A sixth applicant will be considered for a vacant Sparta School Board seat

Jason Perry’s name was added to the list of five candidates who applied to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Eric Solberg last month.

Last weekend, Perry informed the school district he had sent an application but saw that his name was not of the list of candidates. On Monday, school staff located the email in a spam folder.

He will be included in today’s (Thursday) interviews along with John Hendricks, Kelly Anderson, Anthony Scholze, Patrick McKenna and Misty Morales.

The appointment will be made by a majority vote of the school board.

While the deadline to apply for Solberg’s seat was last Friday, the school board also is accepting applications to fill the seat left vacant by the recent resignation of Nancy Sikorsky.

Sikorsky submitted her resignation on Wednesday, Oct. 6, citing an unsafe and unproductive atmosphere existing in the Sparta School District since the school board voted 4-2 to reinstate a mask mandate on Sept. 8.

She and Solberg, who also voted for the mask mandate, were targets of a recall effort since they were the only two board members who voted in the majority and had served over a year in their present term, a requirement to be eligible for recall.

Solberg resigned his seat a month ago. The school board will choose applicants by majority vote to fill out the remaining 18 months of each term, which ends with the April 2023 election.

The deadline for applications for Sikorsky’s seat is 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29