5 running for 3 seats on PdC school board

Board president running as official write-in

By Correne Martin

Five individuals will compete for three seats up for reelection in the Prairie du Chien Area School District, come the spring school board election in April. Two are incumbents, one an official write-in incumbent and the other two newcomers to the board.

According to District Administrator Bob Smudde, the incumbents whose name will be on the ballot April 3, include Lonnie Achenbach and Duane Rogers. New to the scene, Michael Higgins and Tom Petersen also turned in the necessary paperwork to have their names on the ballot for voters. Finally, incumbent Christine Panka, who is also the board president, will not appear on the ballot, but she has filed the proper papers with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to be considered an official write-in candidate for the election.

According to Panka, a personal family crisis out of town and a series of unfortunate events led to her missing the deadline for official candidacy papers that would have allowed her name to appear on the ballot.

“Before Christmas, my dad had a stroke. I was sitting in Milwaukee in a meeting with my dad when I received a phone call from the district. They wanted me to come in to fill in my papers,” Panka explained.

Though efforts were made for Panka to complete the paperwork electronically, the appropriate financial statements weren’t available to her while she was away from home. Therefore, she missed the deadline.

“It was never, ever my intention to not run. I have plenty of work to do,” she continued. “Transparency is paramount to me here. I will be actively campaigning. I’m committed to this school district. Being part of finishing the district’s capital projects that we started is very important to me.”

Panka added that the board is now putting procedures into place so such events shouldn’t be an issue for future incumbents.