EVANSVILLE — A comeback attempt by a former EVSC school board member, a pair of political newcomers and an incumbent who barely won last time are making the race for the board’s at-large seat interesting at least.
Andy Guarino served on the school board from the day the board appointed him in 2013 to finish departing member Sally Becker’s term until he lost a re-election bid in 2022. Guarino, 75, filed Wednesday for the at-large board seat now held by Melissa Moore. So did 50-year-old Evansville resident Brian Murphy, who could not be reached for this story.
Guarino and Murphy, who are running as nonpartisan candidates, join nonpartisan candidate Alan Goad and Moore in the race for the school board’s at-large seat. The race could get even more crowded if anyone else files their candidacy before Thursday’s noon deadline. Moore, who hasn’t said whether she will run nonpartisan or as a Democrat, is set to file at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
Five candidates sought the at-large seat in 2022, a race Moore won with 33.63% of the vote to squeeze past second-place finisher Jeff Worthington’s 33.29%.
Guarino, who is the husband of State Sen. Vaneta Becker, retired from EVSC in 2013 after 33 years in education as a teacher, building and central office administrator and higher education administrator. He was also a mental health administrator for five years. He was the school board’s president in 2017 and again in 2021.
Guarino may have been absent from the school board since his election loss, but he told the Courier & Press he has never really left the scene.
“The last four years, I’ve been subbing quite a bit as a counselor, administrator, wherever I’m needed,” he said Wednesday. “I just have a love for the field of education and the teachers and working with children and staff members to try to make things better for EVSC.”
Guarino supports EVSC’s decision to spend $215,750 on an audit of security measures in schools instead of weapons detection. The school board engaged a Cleveland, Ohio-based consultant to audit school security measures after a string of threat incidents at schools early in the 2025-26 session, including one in which a sixth-grade student was reportedly caught trying to sell an unloaded handgun at Delaware Elementary School.
The consultant’s final report is expected this summer.
“I’d rather not get ahead of them,” Guarino said. “At this point, it’s a wait-and-see situation to see where they think they’re going to go with it. I would be for anything that would be more helpful than what we already have and make our environment as safe as possible.”
Guarino also thinks EVSC is pursuing the right course figuring out how to implement Indiana’s tough new bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools before school begins again in August.
The new statute bans wireless communication devices for the entire school day, not just classroom time. Sen. Vaneta Becker voted against it, saying afterward that EVSC Superintendent Darla Hoover told her she was satisfied with a state law passed in 2024 banning portable wireless devices from being used during instructional time.
Now EVSC is investigating other technology that could allow students to use school-issued devices that the corporation already provides them for instruction, such as laptops and iPads, to communicate with parents in emergencies.
“Yeah, we could do something like (the new bell-to-bell statute),” Guarino said. “We’ve got to follow the law, but if there’s any possible way of allowing parents to somehow get ahold of their kids without doing anything that violates the law, I think that’s what they’re kind of looking at.
“So I feel like they’re on top of it.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Guarino launches comeback bid in suddenly crowded EVSC school board race
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
