A pair of school board elections in Grand County have been canceled for this fall because of a lack of candidates, leaving those who applied to run with open pathways to seats on the two governing bodies.

District officials from both the East and West Grand School Districts were planning for school board elections, but both elections were canceled early this month as the total number of candidates was the same as the total number of open seats. New school boards for both districts will be formally sworn in later this year.

Canceling the elections means the two districts will not have to cover costs associated with their respective elections. For East Grand that means a savings of nearly $43,000 while West Grand will save approximately $18,000.

Officials from East Grand said their swearing in ceremony will be held on the first Tuesday in November while West Grand’s will happen sometime in late November or early December.

Both boards will welcome new members this year.

For East Grand new board member Jean Cross will be replacing current board member Phyllis Price as the Grand Lake area representative. East Grand will also welcome back Phil Brooks, Angel DeCicco, and Ed Raegner to seats on the board. Brooks, DeCicco and Raegner all currently serve on the East Grand Board.

West Grand will swear in four board members later this year including three brand new members and one returning citizen. Shawn Lechman, Shorty Lemon and Mitch Lockhart will be fresh faces on the West Grand Board after they are sworn in. They will be replacing Tim Thomson, Susan Ritschard and Brendan Gale. Gale formally resigned from the Board in August and Lemon was selected to fill his vacancy until the swearing in ceremony.