Park County School District 1’s Board of Trustees looks to remain mostly familiar to the people of Powell following Tuesday’s election. Incumbents Beau Fulton, Lillian Brazelton and Dusty Paul will be returning, joined by Grace Point minister Jon Allen to take over the seat vacated by trustee Trace Paul, who declined to run for re-election.

The race saw six candidates vying for four open seats. It also featured discussions across two forums, one hosted by the Wyoming Educators Association and the other by the Powell Tribune, where the candidates expressed their views on a range of issues regarding school safety, district technology policies and budget matters.

Early into election night, the incumbents maintained strong leads with results from early and absentee voting favoring Laurie Larsen ahead of other challengers. However, once results from Election Day were counted, Allen surged to join the incumbents in victory, after doing seven percentage points better among same-day voters than he did with early and absentee voters. Fulton was the only candidate to be selected by a majority of voters, showing up on roughly 53% of the submitted ballots.

According to unofficial results, Fulton led with 2,539 votes (20.16%), Paul with 2,362 (18.76%), Brazelton with 2,060 (16.36%), Allen with 1,998 (15.87%), Larsen with 1,818 (14.44%) and David Burke with 1,772 (14.07%). Undervoting was not as prevalent as it was in recent years, as only 34% of the 19,180 eligible votes were considered undervotes, as opposed to the 40% seen in the 2024 board race.

The new board terms begin Dec. 1.

Although Larsen missed out on the school board, she will be replacing R. J. Kost, who is set to serve once again as senator for SD 19, as a Powell hospital board trustee along with three incumbents.

Beau Fulton

Fulton said he was honored by the results and that he appreciates the confidence placed in him by voters. He congratulated Brazelton, Paul and Allen for their wins and looks forward to working with them, saying that the other incumbents were some of the best people he’s had the chance to work with.

“I appreciate everybody’s support and I look forward to serving our students, staff and community for another four years,” Fulton said.

Lillian Brazelton

Brazelton said she was feeling humble for being chosen to continue working with the board and expressed relief for making it to the other side of this election cycle.

“I’m very grateful and thankful for the support and I look forward to continuing to take care of everyone at Park 1,” Brazelton said.

Jon Allen

Allen had a rollercoaster experience on election night, having gotten ready to go to bed before his daughter, who was still keeping up with live updates, texted him to tell him that he had won. He is thankful for the support and excited to join the others as the newest member of the PCSD1 board.

“Everybody that ran was willing to serve and I think that’s a big deal in and of itself that people are willing to step in and take on a tough job,” Allen said. “I’m very relieved and ready to get in and serve.”

Dusty Paul

Paul said he was grateful to be re-elected and looking forward to continuing the work that he’s already been involved in with the board.

“I’m happy that I got re-elected and that I’ll be able to serve for four more years for the people of Powell and I’m looking forward to keep working with the board," he said. "We’ve still got great people in town so it’ll be great.”

Cody School Board

Park County School District 6 also retained two of its incumbent school board members following Tuesday's election, with Brandi Nelson and Cathy Roes winning re-election. The board will also be welcoming Wes Werbelow to replace the seat vacated by Karen Schipfmann following her decision not to run for a third term.

The unoffical results are as follows: Roes with 3,697 votes (28.25%), Nelson with 3,666 (28.01%), Werbelow with 3,378 (25.81%) and Faith Kingston with 2,267 (17.32%). Out of the 20,904 eligible votes, 36% were considered undervotes compared to the 51% of the 2024 election.