Jennifer Lewis - WKTV Journal

WKTV Staff

Quote of the Day

"Sing, sing a song,
Make it simple to last your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear,
Just sing, sing a song..."
        - "Sing" by Joe Raposo, written for "Sesame Street" in 1971

The airport is alive with music

Several Wyoming and Kentwood high school choirs will be performing at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport’s Holiday Music Festival, which is Dec. 3 – 7. Some of the groups scheduled are Potters House, Legacy Christian, South Christian, Wyoming High School, Lee High School, and East Kentwood High School. Performances are daily from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. andJe are free.

And the winner is…

Jennifer Lewis and Brian Jirous were declared the newest members of the Wyoming Board of Education this week. Both ran in the Nov. 6 election. Jirous was the only candidate who filed for one of the two open seats on the board. Lewis was one of two write-in candidates. It took a couple of weeks for the write-ins to be hand counted, according to school officials. The two will be sworn in at the Wyoming Board of Education meeting set for Jan. 14 at 6 p.m.

Santa is coming to town

While it is still a week yet until Kentwood hosts its annual tree lighting and parade, set for Dec. 7, and the Wyoming Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce hosts the Santa Parade, Dec. 8, you can get your celebrating started at Byron Center’s community festivities this Saturday, Dec. 1. The parade portion has been cancelled due to the weather but the chili dinner and holiday concert at Pathway Church, 8350 Byron Center Ave. SW, is still taking place.

Fun Fact:

Light It Up

Ever wonder how many lights you can fit on a Christmas tree? Well a group in Belgium did, managing to get 194,672 lights on a real tree on Dec. 10, 2010. Seven years later, Universal Studios Japan was not about to be out done, so they managed to place 570,546 lights on an artificial tree. You have to admit, that is a lot of lights. (Source)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

It was not just national elections that had to wait a few weeks for final counts to determine the outcomes, the Wyoming Public Schools has been waiting for two weeks to learn who would win write-in race for the second seat on its Board of Education.

The newly elected board member is Jennifer Lewis, who was one of two write-in candidates seeking the seat in the Nov. 6 election. Brian Jirous had filed for one of the two six-year seats that were being vacated by Tom Mott and Susan Sheets Odo. Jirous received 9,255 votes.

“I’m not sure I can say I know all the people who voted for me,” Jirous said with a laugh. “I am pretty certain some people were just filling in the boxes. But to be honest, I was not that worried about it.”

The harder part, Jirous said, was waiting to learn who the other new board member would be. Because write-ins have to be counted by hand, the process can take up to two weeks, according to school officials. The Wyoming Public Schools was notified this week that Lewis, who received 262 of the 762 write-in votes was the winner. The other write-in candidate, Adriana Almanza, received 84 votes. The remaining write-in votes are either invalid names or voters filled-in ovals with no names attached, according to city officials.

“We have some big shoes to fill with Tom Mott and Susan Sheets Odo vacating from the board,” said Lewis, who is a personal insurance agent and an alumnus of Wyoming Park High School. “They have been in the community for awhile. I have been in the community for awhile as well, working on a number of projects in and for the schools. Looking forward to and ready to take on the challenge.”

Lewis said she had considered running for the board but did not put her name on the ballot as her oldest son was graduating from Wyoming Public Schools last spring and heading to Michigan State University.

“I didn’t know how that transition would go, so I did not want to make a commitment to something,” she said, adding that it all went very smoothly. But when she learned that only one person had filed for the two open seats, she reconsidered and decided to seek one of the seats as a write-in candidate.

Jirous, who is an AT&T mobile technician and alumnus of Wyoming Park High School, said while he lives only a few doors down from Mott, it was actually his interest to serve the district in another capacity that made him decide to run.

“I wanted to be more involved, not just in the day-to-day but in a higher level,” Jirous said. “I wanted to learn how a district is run and this is an good opportunity and a good time in my life to do this.”

Both Jirous and Lewis will be sworn in at the Wyoming Board of Education’s first meeting of 2019, Monday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m.