The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers hopes to replace two of its most reliable foes on the Pulaski County Special
School District Board on Tuesday with two candidates more to their liking.
Incumbents Danny Gililland and Charlie Wood are being challenged respectively by Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville and Gloria Lawrence of Sherwood, and the district’s teachers’ and support staff’s unions are outspoken in their support of the challengers.
Lawrence is a former teacher and PACT member, Stuthard is married to a Sylvan Hills math teacher who belongs to PACT.
POLLING PLACES
Early voting is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday at the Jacksonville Com-munity Center and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jack Evans Senior Center in Sherwood, and through Monday at the Pulaski County Regional Building at Markham and Broadway in Little Rock.
There will be no weekend early voting at any site.
Regular polls in zones 4 and 5 will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Currently, the unions are on the short end of a rigid 4-3 vote, but if they win either seat, they seem likely to either control the school board or at least have a board sympathetic to their needs.
WOOD
Wood, who represents Zone 4, has been an outspoken school board member throughout his term, helping to secure funding for a new Sylvan Hills Middle School and helping impeach Mildred Tatum as school board president.
Wood is particularly upset with the teachers-contract provision that allows teachers to carry over personal leave and vacation time from year to year.
LAWRENCE
Lawrence, who retired in June after almost 29 years as a teacher, says she is running because of concerns about the district’s financial condition and the board’s continued efforts to sever ties with the union.
She taught for 23 years at Sylvan Hills Middle School.
She is married to Jim Law-rence, a retired Army colonel.
She said when the board voted to decertify the union she decided to retire and run for the school board.
Lawrence questions spending decisions made by the current board: $81 million for a new high school in Maumelle and paying Rob McGill $87,000 when his term ended as acting superintendent, hiring school-attendance secretaries, an interim liaison at Jacksonville High School and a New York lawyer to help fight PACT in court.
GILILLAND
Danny Gililland of Sherwood holds the Zone 5 board seat. He was first elected in 2006.
Gililland, 52, owns a Popeye’s franchise. He and his wife, Lynda, have lived in north Pulaski County for more than 20 years.
Gililland said when he came on the board, he was against the idea of a separate school district for Jacksonville and north Pulaski County, but has since changed his mind about that.
He “voted consistently against new schools for Maumelle and Sherwood.”
He firmly believes the district would be better served without a teachers union, which he says fights over petty issues that cost the district too much money.
STUTHARD
Tom Stuthard of Jacksonville, who says it is time for a change, is challenging Gililland.
The Air Force veteran, spouse of a district teacher and union member, and parent of two children who have graduated from PCSSD schools, says he has been thinking for several months about challenging Gililland, one of four members who want to oust the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for teachers.
Stuthard, 55, works full-time as a maintenance mechanic for the postal service. He retired from the Air Force in 2004 as the base’s equipment-control officer after serving 21 years.
Stuthard’s wife, Sharon, is a long-time PCSSD employee who teaches math at Sylvan Hills High School.
She has also taught at Jacksonville High School and years ago, at Jacksonville Junior High School South.
