While a school board member in Fort Wayne Community held onto his seat Tuesday night, an incumbent in Northwest Allen lost his.
Steve Corona, who has held a position on the Fort Wayne Community Schools board since 1981, won reelection with 65% of the vote, according to unofficial results, handily defeating his opponent Jorge Fernandez.
Fernandez previously ran for Indiana House District 50, Fort Wayne City Council, Allen County Board of Commissioners, in the democratic primary for mayor of Fort Wayne and, earlier this year, in the democratic primary for Allen County Council.
In Northwest Allen County Schools, Erica Jamison defeated District 1 incumbent and former school board president Kent Somers with 55% of the vote, per unofficial results. Jamison is a realtor in Huntertown and a previous reporter for WANE-TV. She was endorsed by former NACS superintendent Steve Yager.
Jamison ran alongside Mary Kate Dohl, who ran for the District 2 seat, currently held by board member Steve Bartkus who didn’t pursue reelection. Dohl faced Liz Chaffee, a retired teacher, and lost, only receiving 42% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Both Jamison and Dohl were endorsed by the Committee to Support Public Education in Northwest Allen County, a nonpartisan political action committee which endorses candidates with a focus on bringing the community together, keeping politics and personal bias out of school board decisions and limiting government overreach into school decisions.
Both Somers and Bartkus saw controversy during their tenures when the board debated how to address the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and last year when Carroll High School students protested the cancellation of a play. They both began their terms in 2020.
