All Four Incumbents Win in District 196 School Board Race

The four incumbent candidates in the race for District 196's open school board seats have retained their seats for the next four years.

Incumbents Joel Albright, Rob Duchscher, Jackie Magnuson and Bob Schutte received the four largest vote totals, according to unofficial election results reported by the school district.

They ran along with three newcomers: Steven Butler, Fay Coggshall and Gary Krueger.

The results, in order of number of votes obtained, with all precincts reporting:

(i): 2,583

(i): 2,408

(i): 2,405

(i): 2,402

: 1,235

: 1,200

: 992

Magnuson, who currently is the board's chairwoman, has served on the board for 22 years.

"I'm really honored to continue," she said Tuesday night. The election-day excitement is the same each year, she said.

Magnuson said she looks forward to helping a great school district become even better. In the face of challenges school districts are facing, she said, the school community and District 196 community has been supportive.

"We've got so much momentum in this district," she said.

Albright has served on the board for eight years, Duchscher for 12 years and Schutte for 24 years, according to the District 196 website.

Duchscher said he's happy with the results, but he's always nervous as an election candidate—this year more so because of the different social and economic climate in Minnesota communities.

But, "We've got a good board intact," he said, and he looks forward to four more years of service.

The winners will serve their new terms from January 2012 to January 2016.

See the unofficial results from the race on the District 196 election results page.

Official results for all elections in Minnesota will be available on the Minnesota Secretary of State's office website.