The Electric is hosting a candidate forum on April 14 with the candidates for the Great Falls Public Schools board of trustees.

The forum will be 6-8 p.m. in Room B101 at Great Falls College-MSU.

More candidates file for May school board election

The forum will also be live streamed on The Electric’s Facebook page.

There are four seats are up for election:

• Three seats that represent both elementary and secondary districts on the board for three years through  May 2025. Anyone interested in these positions must live within the Great Falls Public School District boundary. The positions are currently held by Mark Finnicum, Jeff Gray, and Gordon Johnson.
• One seat, a one-year position to fill out the remainder of Jan Cahill’s term. Nathan Reiff was appointed by the board to fill the vacancy until the next regular election.

Jeff Gray, the current board chair, is not seeking re-election.

Four school board seats on May ballot, filing opens Dec. 9.

The following have filed for the one-year term:

• Bradley Anderson
• Russell Herring
• Scott Jablonski
• Caitlyn Nash
• Amie Thompson

The following have filed for the three-year term:

• Brian Cayko
• Mark Finnicum (incumbent)
• Gordon Johnson (incumbent)
• Rodney Meyers
• Michael Nagel
• Nathan Reiff (appointed in 2021 to fill vacancy)
• Paige Turoski

Caitlyn Nash emailed The Electric on April 6 to say that after the Great Falls Education Association released its candidate endorsements that afternoon that she had decided to suspend her campaign and support Russell Herring.

The GFEA endorsed Finnicum, Johnson and Reiff for the three-year terms. All three are currently serving on the board.

They endorsed Herring for the one-year term.

The GFEA executive board interviewed the candidates on March 31 and April 4 to make their endorsements.

Michael Nagel said he is not able to attend that date so The Electric will send him the same prepared questions that will be used at the forum so he can provide written responses that will be included in our coverage.

All of the other candidates remaining in the race have confirmed that they will attend.

The forum will include prepared questions by The Electric and those solicited from the public. The questions are not provided to the candidates in advance. If time allows, we’ll take questions from the audience at the forum.

If you have questions you’d like asked of the candidates, email them to jenn@theelectricgf.com for consideration.