Four seek spots on School Board

Four people have filed for the two Whitefish School Board Trustee positions up for election this spring.

Current Trustees Nick Polumbus and Anna Deese are up for re-election.

Polumbus filed to run again, but Deese is not seeking re-election after serving one term on the board.

Along with Polumbus, former Trustee Marguerite Kaminski, Darcy Schellinger and Todd Lengacher are vying for a spot on the board.

Polumbus has served on the board since 2013 and currently serves as the board chair. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s of business administration from the University of Colorado and moved to Whitefish in 2007 to become the Director of Marketing and Sales at Whitefish Mountain Resort. He and his wife, Kim, have three boys in Whitefish Schools.

Kaminski joined the board in 2015 after an unsuccessful bid for trustee the year before. Kaminski went through the U.S. Air Force officer training program in 1973, and became a contracting officer, price analyst and contract negotiator, and later went on to study law. She has worked as a snowboard instructor, swim instructor, lifeguard, referee, served as a soccer and basketball coach, classroom volunteer, reading mentor, and substitute teacher.

She ran for re-election last year, but lost to current Trustee Betsy Kohnstamm.

Schellinger is a third-generation Montanan from Billings. She received her bachelors degree in business finance from Montana State University and has worked as an agriculture, mortgage and commercial lender in places like New Orleans, Idaho and Nevada. She has two kids in Muldown Elementary.

Lengacher is part of the math faculty at Flathead Valley Community College and is the Director of International Studies for the Putney School in Putney, Vermont, a student exchange program he oversees remotely.

He has worked as an educator in a variety of roles, including teacher, principal, assistant head of school, dean of students and has been an educator for more than 20 years. He received his bachelors and masters in mathematics from Western Washington University. He has a daughter attending Muldown.

The deadline for applying for one of the three-year positions on the board was March 28. Election day is May 7.