Sam Sentelle

May 14, 2008

Rotarian Sam Sentelle was reelected to the Putnam County Board of Education in the primary election yesterday by the second highest vote ever recorded in the county in a board race.

Vote tablulations indicated a total of 6041 votes for Sentelle, behind the 6314 cast for incumbent Jack Coyner.

By state law only two members may be seated from a single magisterial district, and since a board member already serves from the Winfield district Sentelle was in fact unopposed in his reelection bid. "That might have had something to do with the high vote count," he admitted.

Sentelle was endorsed by the Putnam County Federation of Teachers, the Putnam County Service Personnel Association, the Farm Bureau, and both Charleston newspapers.

While several Rotarians have served in public office, Rotary by policy does not endorse candidates.

Completing his second term as President of the Putnam County Association of Retired School Employees, Sentelle also serves on the Library Board, Literacy Volunteers, and the Putnam Rotary Board of Directors.

Sentelle with pioneer children in "The Aracoma Story"

A National Leader of Learning award holder, Sentelle has served 22 years as a Superintendent of Schools in West Virginia. He has also served as a member of the Marshall University Board of Governors and Board President of both Regional Education Service Agencies II and III.

A member of the Upper Vandalia Historical Society, Sentelle has played "Will Ingles" with the Mary Ingles Trail Association, "Clark Craig" (a Buffalo educator of the Civil War era) and "the Mountain Man" in "The Aracoma Story."