Washington voted to Stillwater school board; Coyle proposition for improvements passes

Apr. 2—Gay Washington won the open Ward 4 seat by nearly 60% for the Stillwater Public Schools Board of Education School District No. 16 on Tuesday.

Of the 4,966 votes cast from 26 precincts, Washington won 2,942 Yes votes, or 59.24%. Of the votes cast, 2,393 were on Tuesday, with 491 early votes.

Opposing candidate Shelia Means won 2,024 Yes votes, or 40.76%. Voters cast 1,803 of those votes on Tuesday, with 170 early votes.

"I'm very excited, very relieved," Washington told the News Press on Tuesday. "...I feel so honored and so grateful that people got out to vote."

Washington was formerly a special education educator for eight years in the SPS district, then moved into special education administration.

Washington gave 30 years to the district — as a teacher, principal and an administrator — before retiring in 2017, but returned in January 2022 to fill in as interim superintendent for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year. She has served a total of 45 years in public education.

Results from around the area

Coyle Public Schools has been on a quest for over a year to get propositions passed in an attempt to improve facilities around the small campus. Past propositions heavily featured athletics updates, but the proposition Tuesday specifically focused on academic facilities.

And with 68.51% of the vote in favor of the $1.44 million proposal, the Coyle school district got a win to start making improvements in the town of 355 citizens.

The proposed project includes $270,000 to construct, furnish, equip and/or acquire improvements at the existing cafeteria to include but not limited to kitchen remodel, electrical, HVAC and plumbing improvements. Another $135,000 was tagged for improvements and upgrades in the cafeteria's common area.

The largest portion of the proposal focuses on roofing improvements districtwide as needed, with an estimated $710,000 allotted for reroofing.

Another $140,000 will go toward improvements and upgrades of restrooms at the high school and elementary school, with another $185,000 to include demolition of certain old or unusable building space and improvements to locker rooms and halls.

In Yale, the citizens gave a resounding yes to a proposition that allows the City to sell Jim Thorpe Park Football Field and the Jim Thorpe Park Ag Barn to the Yale Board of Education with 132 votes (76.74%) in favor.

The Yale votes weren't as lopsided with two City commissioner seats. In seat No. 3, Karen Hart received 95 votes (53.37%), while it was an even tighter race for seat No. 4, with the Richard P. Adsit earning 50.85% of votes.

In Morrison, Randee Dawn Sloan tallied 55.31% of votes for the seat No. 4 with the Morrison Public Schools Board of Education.

Robyn Mangum won seat No. 4 for the Perry Public Schools Board of Education with nearly 90% of the votes. Mangum tallied 344 votes, while candidate Hannah Vaughn received 40.

In a close race out of Ripley, Preston McIntire collected 53.74% of the votes to retain seat No. 4 on the Ripley Public Schools Board of Education. McIntire received 79 votes, while his opponent, Johnny Sanches, received 68 votes.

Results are official once certified by the Payne County Election Board on Friday.

News Press managing editor Jason Elmquist contributed to this story.