Two incumbent school board members and three newcomers will be vying to fill four seats on the Lawrence Township Board of Education in the Nov. 5 general election — the first year that voters will choose sc
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Two incumbent school board members and three newcomers will be vying to fill four seats on the Lawrence Township Board of Education in the Nov. 5 general election — the first year that voters will choose school board members in November.
Tuesday was the deadline to file to run for the school board. The nominating petitions were filed with the Mercer County Clerk’s Office.
Incumbent school board members Laura Waters and Michael Horan, plus newcomer Patricia “Pepper” Evans, filed to run for the three available three-year seats on the school board. Newcomers Joseph Crouthamel Jr. and Dana R. Drake are vying for the one-year term.
Ms. Waters, who is completing her third term on the school board, is a 23-year resident of Lawrence Township. The Ivy Glen Lane resident has four children, ages 25, 24, 22 and 17. Her youngest child is a junior at Lawrence High School. She is a free-lance writer.
Mr. Horan is completing a one-year term on the school board and filed to run for a three-year term. The Rydal Drive resident has lived in Lawrence for 17 years. He has two children who are enrolled at the Eldridge Park School. He is a senior manager of internal and external communications for the Campbell Soup Co.
Ms. Evans lives on Slack Avenue with her two children, ages 16 and 13, who attend the Lawrence Township public schools. She has lived in Lawrence for 24 years. Ms. Evans is a consultant to the elderly and the disabled who want to continue to live in their own homes.
Competing for the sole one-year term are Mr. Crouthamel and Ms. Drake.
Mr. Crouthamel has lived in Lawrence for eight years. The Harding Avenue resident has two children. One is enrolled at the Eldridge Park School and the other attends the Lawrence Intermediate School. He is an IT manager in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University.
Ms. Drake, who lives on Roxboro Road, could not be reached for comment.
School board elections had been held in April, but a state law that took effect last year allows school districts to move elections to November. The Lawrence Township Board of Education initially kept the April school board election date, but later voted to move the election to the Nov. 5 general election.
The terms of the four school board members whose terms would have expired in April have been extended to January 2014. Two of the four school board members — Murali Aiyar and Leon Kaplan — did not file for re-election this week.
Despite moving the school board election to coincide with the Nov. 5 general election, school board candidates will continue to run on a non-partisan basis — not as Democrats or Republicans — even though they will be listed on the same ballot as political party candidates for municipal, county, state and federal elected offices.

