Two incumbents and a newcomer won the Princeton school board election Tuesday in a contest that saw one candidate get 1,200 votes despite having dropped out of the race.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Two incumbents and a newcomer won the Princeton school board election Tuesday in a contest that saw one candidate get 1,200 votes despite having dropped out of the race.
Andrea Spalla won her second three-year term on the strength of being the top vote-getter at 2,644 votes, according to unofficial results from the Mercer County Clerk’s Office. Fellow incumbent Molly Chrein earned her second term with 2,594 votes. Thomas Hagedorn got 2,318 votes in winning on his first attempt for elected office.
Princeton resident Dennis Scheil got 1,205 votes, even though he had announced in September that he was dropping out of the race. His exit did not come soon enough for his name to come off the ballot.
Meeta Khatri, another first-time candidate, finished last with 1,136 votes.
”It’s a huge relief. It’s a relief to get it over with to refocus on what matters, which is school board work,” Ms. Spalla said.
”I’m very humbled and honored to have been elected. I will do my best to justify the trust that has placed in me,” Mr. Hagedorn said in an email Wednesday.
The winners will take office around the same time as incoming Superintendent of Schools Stephen Cochrane begins running the district starting Jan.1.
This marked the first time residents elected school board candidates in November. Previous school board elections have been in April, although districts around the state have switched. One argument in favor of the change was that it would lead to increased turnout for elections that historically don’t see that many going to the polls.
There was a drop off in the number of votes casts for the school board races and those cast in the other contests. Ms. Spalla said she heard from people that it was hard for them to locate the board candidates on the ballot, located lower down over to the left corner, or did not find them at all. School board candidates were not grouped with the candidates running in the partisan political races.