As one election draws to a close, another is only just now getting started. The seats for Fountain Hills’ new mayor and council members have been decided and now it’s time for residents to consider who should take up posts on the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board.

With three seats on the five-member board up for election and only three candidates filing to be included on the ballot, it was thought last month that FHUSD would bypass a full-on election this time around. But Judy Rutkowski, Wendy Barnard and Nadya Jenkins were then joined by write-in candidate Bob Shelstrom, meaning an election will move forward.

The school board will be decided as part of the November General Election, meaning mail-in ballots will be sent out in early October. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to get to know the candidates, which is why The Times has this week kicked off a fresh Q&A series. All candidates have opted to participate and their introductions can be found on page 11A. Over the next four weeks, candidates will field a series of questions pertaining to the local school district, giving voters an opportunity to learn more about them and their views before heading to the polls.

As always, we encourage everyone to get informed and then, of course, get out there and vote.