ARDMORE, Okla. (KTEN) — The Ardmore City Schools Board of Education will hold an April 2 election to decide who will continue to represent Seat 4.

"In the past couple years, there hasn't been an election, so this has been exciting to me because it gives me the opportunity to go talk to people," said incumbent Carey Baldwin.

She has represented Seat 4 on the school board since her daughter —a 2019 graduate — was in first grade, and she hasn't stopped since.

"I've stayed in the school system by either being a board member, or right now, I'm also the education chair at the Chamber, and also involved in several scholarship opportunities for kids," Baldwin said.

A Healdton High School grad and the wife of an Ardmore native, Baldwin says the kids in this area are her main priority.

"No matter what I've done, it's always been in education," she said. "My mother was a teacher and my grandmother was teacher; I always think about the children first... I think everyone on the board right now, we think of the children."

Challenging Baldwin for Seat 4 is 2005 Ardmore graduate Jaclyn Woods, mom to a fifth grader at Jefferson Elementary and another who will attend Will Rogers Elementary for the next school year.  

"Whether it's like what we had last year — when we reorganized our elementary schools — or potential of a new high school bond or some of those other issues, the schools looking at those are going to directly impact my life, and I feel like that brings a different perspective than what we currently have," Woods said.

Woods, Chickasaw tribal member, has worked with the Chickasaw Nation for the past 13 years in the Division of Commerce. Serving as an BSA-AML Compliance Officer she focuses on anti-money laundering and federal regulations.

"I really want to bring back that prominence to Ardmore High School," she said. "It's the biggest school district in the county, and should be our flagship school system as it were, and I feel like we've missed the mark on that in the past 20 years since I graduated."

Election Day is Tuesday, April 2.