Seven school board seats in the county will be will be filled and the fate of a $600,000 bond issue will be decided in the annual school election Tuesday.

Voters in the Leland school district will have only one question before them: whether to support a bond issue that will fund the purchase of “big ticket” items that the general fund revenue can no longer support.

Since 1999-2000, Leland has been able to forego extensive program cuts by tapping into its reserves. That year, the district’s fund balance was $545,243, representing 16.7 percent of expenditures. The percentage is expected to drop to 8 percent of expenditures by the end of the current school year, and 4.6 percent based on projected budget figures.

If approved, the district would likely levy an addition one-quarter mill to pay off the bonds over five years. The additional funds would be used to purchase a new bus, new laboratory equipment and maintain computer technology in the school.

Superintendent Michael Hartigan said that the administration would be “fair with taxpayers” if the district were to receive impact aid from the U.S. Department of Education. Glen Lake officials learned last week they are in line to receive $1.7 million in impact aid for lost property tax revenue resulting from the creation of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Leland officials, who applied for the same impact aid one year after efforts began at Glen Lake, have not received word of an award.

There are no board seats available in the Leland school district, where terms of elected officials which would have expired have been extended through the November General Election. They will be filled at that time.

In other school districts, 11 people are seeking seven seats on three boards of education.

The greatest amount of interest appears to be in two 4-year seats available on the Suttons Bay Board of Education, where five people are candidates. Longtime board member Liz Venie will step down at the end of her term, and the term of trustee David Buffum is expiring.

Buffum is seeking re-election, and will appear on the ballot along with Colleen Makin, Kenneth Eike, Chris DeJong and A. Brooks Darling.

There is also a race in the Glen Lake school district, where board president Joan Hawley, Ken Fosmore and Ross Hazelton are seeking the two 4-year posts available.

Hawley is completing her third term on the Glen Lake Board of Education.

Frank Skrocki is the only candidate for the partial term of David Harris, who stepped down last year. Skrocki was appointed last spring to serve through the next election.

In the Northport school district only two people are seeking office. Board trustee Lois Counterman is not seeking re-election, and Jeffrey Dyer, who was appointed last year to serve the remainder of Richard Wiebe’s term, is seeking a 4-year term. Seeking election to the other 4-year seat is Thomas M. Wetherbee.