Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Voters within the Albert Lea school district on Tuesday elected Mary Jo Dorman, Angie Hoffman and Neal Skaar to four-year terms on the Albert Lea school board.

Winning the most votes was longtime educator Mary Jo Dorman, who received 6,982 votes, followed next by current board members Angie Hoffman and Neal Skaar with 6,417 votes and 5,968 votes, respectively. The fourth candidate, Kasey Wolters, received 5,054 votes.

“I’m honored and excited to serve in this new role,” said Dorman, who noted her commitment to the district over the years and now in this new position serving the public on the board.

Dorman, who had worked in various roles during her 24 years with the district, starting as a teacher and ending as the executive director of teaching and learning with the district, before she retired a little more than a year ago.

Dorman thanked all of her friends and family who supported her and said she enjoyed getting messages from former students during her campaign.

She said she was disappointed for Wolters, who she knew worked very hard in her campaign and who is a dedicated parent and who attended all of the school board meetings.

Hoffman, who owns a real estate company with her husband and several local investment properties, said she was excited and grateful for the support of the voters. She said she is most interested in making some shifts to how the board operates and functions and believes that this will be able to be done with the new board heading into the next year.

When she filed for office she said it was her goal to give citizens a stronger voice at the board table through their elected school board members. This will be her second term.

Skaar, who spent 46 years as a teacher at Albert Lea High School, said he was excited to be involved with the board for another four years. This will be his third term.

“Working with and for young people is always a pleasure,” he said. “I enjoyed all those years in the classroom, and now I can still enjoy the involvement with the education of young people and involvement with young people in various different aspects in the educational world.”

He said he is excited about the opportunities that are out there for young people today.

“It’s just amazing the prospects that are out there for them if they can prepare themselves to take advantage of those opportunities,” Skaar said.

Wolters, who previously ran for the board in 2022, said during the filing period that she initially didn’t plan to seek election, but she had many people who supported her the first time she ran for office and who asked her to run again.

She hoped to bring a parent’s voice to the table and be a part of improving transparency and communication between the district, families, the board and staff, among other priorities.

“Obviously it’s not the results I hoped to see tonight, but I’m not going to let this discourage me from continuing to be engaged,” said Wolters, who has worked in the finance industry for almost 20 years.

She said she looked forward to being engaged in other ways to support her son and other families in the district. She planned to take some time and reflect on the results and what she has learned over the last few months.

She also thanked her supporters who showed up and believed in her.