JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK – Two incumbents of the North Brunswick Board of Education were not re-elected to serve another three-year term.
Donna Mikolajewski received 2,679 votes, or 13 percent. Gangadhara “Rao” Vakkalagadda gained 2,274 votes, or 11 percent.
“I wish to congratulate the winners, including my running mate, Coleen Keefe,” Vakkalagadda said. “I also wanted to thank all my supporters who came out and voted for me. I will still continue to work and volunteer my time in the district activities and take the vision of making STEAM (science, technology, education, arts, mathematics) education the hallmark of North Brunswick. I am very optimistic and will work with the school district to make sure North Brunswick School District is one of the best in area.”
Incumbent Coleen Keefe was voted back in with 4,475 votes, or 22 percent.
Also elected were newcomer Barry Duran Harris, who received 19 percent of the vote with 3,977 votes, and newcomer Traci Rubin, who recorded 4,441 votes, or 22 percent.
Rubin’s runningmate Howard Liu collected 2,773 votes, or 13 percent.
“While I am disappointed that I fell short of winning one of the seats on the BOE, I remain optimistic for the future of North Brunswick due to my runningmate Traci Rubin winning a seat on the BOE. Traci is someone that has gone through the K-12 system in North Brunswick and will bring a much needed fresh perspective to the BOE. I hope the board members will focus on putting the interests of North Brunswick taxpayers, students and teachers first.
“I will continue to speak out against the referendum the BOE is putting forth this December as I am confident the voters will vote it down just like they did in December 2015. I am extremely honored at the people that put their trust me in by voting for me, and hope to earn your vote again if I do decide to run for the BOE next year. I will continue the fight of speaking out against any tax increases the BOE proposes, as well as policies that truly put our taxpayers, students and teachers first,” Liu said.
Harris, Keefe, Mikolajewski and Rubin could not be reached by press time.
Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].