By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

Concerned with high enrollment fees and a proposal to close Washington Elementary, Leslie Blagrave said she has been attending Hays USD 489 board meetings for the past few months, but decided she would like to do more than watch. She recently put her name in the running to become a USD 489 board member.

She said the more she has attended the meetings, the more she felt “it was hard to be quiet.”

Blagrave said she is passionate about the Hays community she has grown to love and will be a voice the board needs.

“I’m more of a voice for the common man in Hays,” Blagrave said. “We have lawyers, doctors, business owners who want to stand up, and I applaud them. But I also feel the common family in Hays needs to represented on the school board,” adding “win or lose,” she feels she has already accomplished a lot by “putting myself out there and running, giving Hays the chance to vote for a change.”

Blagrave is one of seven candidates running for the USD 489 school board.

She is an insurance agent at American Heritage Agency Inc. and a 1998 graduate of Hays High School.

Other candidates are current board members Gregory A. Schwartz and Sarah Rankin and challengers Paul Adams, Miranda Fox, Jerald Braun and Luke Oborny.

The 2015 City-School Election is April 7.