School board election results
Albert Gallatin Area In a race that saw 11 of 13 candidates cross-filing for five open seats on the Albert Gallatin Area School Board, the five incumbent candidates were leading for both party nominations for the November election, according to unofficial results.
With 13 of 22 precincts reporting, David Howard, Edward Colebank, Joseph Panek, Janet Swaney and John Gruskowski led on the Democratic and Republican tickets.
On the Democratic ballot, Howard received 1,123 votes, Colebank received 1,086, Panek received 952, Swaney earned 895 and Gruskowski received 884 votes.
Challengers were led by Joesph Bezjak with 785 votes, followed by William Guappone with 598, Steve Polink with 560, Richard Russo with 534, Joseph Stillwagon with 419, Keith Swaney with 339, Jack Stewart with 189 and Ed Jeffreys with 187 votes.
Keith Swaney and Ed Jefferys both ran strictly as Democrats, but neither secured nominations.
On the Republican ballot, Colebank led all candidates with 138 votes, followed by Janet Swaney with 125 votes, Gruskowski with 116, Howard with 107, Panek with 95, Bezjak with 85, Russo with 78, Guappone with 67, Polink with 61 votes, Stewart with 59 and Stillwagon with 52.
Brownsville Area
With seven of 16 districts counted in the Brownsville Area School District, incumbent Rocky Brashear received the most votes on the Democratic ticket with 567. He was followed by incumbent Francine Pavone with 563 votes, Sandra Chan with 560 and incumbents Andy Dorsey and Jim Brown with 364 and 342, respectively.
Guinevere Maximo received 337 votes; Nena Kaminsky, 303; Jeff Bayne, 249; and Marcy Miske Sawka, 182.
Chan was the top vote-getter on the Republican ticket, with 53 votes. Pavone and Brashear trailed with 45 and 41 votes, respectively. Kaminksy received 36 votes, and Brown and Maximo both had 34. Both Dorsey and Bayne came in at 28, and Sawka had 15.
All nine candidates cross-filed for the race to compete for five open seats on the board.
Carmichaels Area
With all of the five voting precincts reporting unofficial results by press time, Carmichaels Area School District voters offered the most Democratic and Republican votes in Tuesday’s primary election to incumbent Ken Ganocy.
Ganocy gained 871 votes on the Democratic ticket and 177 votes on the Republican side. Rounding out the Democratic slate of nominations with five seats available was incumbent Michael Conte with 824 votes, newcomer Melodi Berardi with 710 votes, incumbent Jerry Simkovic with 666 votes and newcomer Edmond F. McIntire Jr. with 632 votes.
On the Republican side, the four other nominations went to Conte with 165 votes, McIntire with 131 votes, Simkovic with 129 votes and Berardi with 128 votes.
Trailing on the Democratic side and missing placement on the primary election ballot was incumbent Annabelle Pratt with 577 votes and Bert Menhart with 553 votes. Pratt and Menhart filed only as Democrats while the rest cross-filed for both the Democratic and Republican nominations.
Central Greene
Voters in Central Greene School District will see one new face on their school board this December, after four incumbents received nominations Tuesday.
Incumbents Joseph Ayersman and George A. Scott ran unopposed for the two spots in Region 1 (Franklin and Washington townships). Both men cross-filed, with Ayersman receiving 758 votes on the Democratic side and 318 on the Republican ballot. Scott received 633 Democratic votes and 310 Republican votes.
Meanwhile, in Region 2 (Perry, Wayne and Whiteley townships) incumbent William J. Hilverding of Spraggs was the top vote-getter on the Democratic side with 466 votes. On the Republican side, David Keith Cowell of Waynesburg received 115 votes, followed by Hilverding with 109.
In Region 3 (Waynesburg Borough) incumbent Robert Evick was the only candidate, receiving 406 Democratic votes and 103 on the Republican side.
Connellsville Area
The Tuesday primary election eliminated only one of the seven candidates vying for the five available positions on the Connellsville Area School District board of directors.
Incumbent directors Karen Blocker, Kevin Lape, Francis Mongell and Chip Nicholson will face off again with political newcomers Thomas E. Dolde and Richard Galand in the fall general election, according to unofficial results Tuesday.
Unofficially, Mongell, Dolde, Galand, Lape and Nicholson secured the Democratic nominations, with Nicholson, Mongell, Dolde, Lape and Blocker securing a place on the GOP ticket in November.
A seventh candidate, Jeffrey Miller did not receive sufficient votes to appear on the November ballot, according to unofficial results.
The incumbents and Dolde cross-filed, while Galand and Miller appeared only on the Democratic ticket.
According to unofficial vote counts, Mongell, who was seeking his third term in office, received 1,140 Democratic and 466 Republican votes.
Dolde secured 1,032 Democratic votes and 458 Republican votes, with Galand receiving 967 Democratic votes. Lape, who is seeking a fourth term on the board, garnered 954 Democratic votes and 359 Republican votes.
Blocker, looking to secure a second term, received 697 Democratic votes and 343 Republican votes in unofficial results, with Miller securing 511 Democratic votes.
Longtime board member Ann Watson did not seek re-election.
Frazier
Two incumbents and three newcomers vying for five four-year seats on the Frazier School Board led in the race for the Democratic nominations in Tuesday’s primary election.
According to unofficial results, incumbents John H. Lowery III and Kathy Burkholder led in the Democratic vote, along with newcomers Vicki Olexa, Stacey Rubish Erdely and Valerie Bubnash. With 67 percent of the vote tallied, Olexa led with 328 votes, followed by Burkholder with 310 votes. Lowery captured 298 votes, Erdely secured 292 votes and Bubnash received 247 votes.
Olexa, Erdely and Bubnash, along with fellow newcomer Tina Graft, also led in the race for the Republican nomination, as well as Burkholder. Graft led with 67 votes, followed by Erdely with 58 votes, Burkholder with 57 votes, Olexa with 56 and Bubnash with 53 votes.
A field of eight candidates, four of them incumbents, appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. All candidates cross-filed.
Incumbents John C. Boone and Bill Vargo were trailing on both tickets, as was Lowery on the Republican ticket.
Jefferson-Morgan
Incumbent Cory Grandel led all vote-getters in the race for the Democratic nomination for five available seats on the Jefferson-Morgan school board Tuesday.
Grandel received 946 votes, followed by incumbents Donna L. Brown (824 votes) and Frank Burich (774), second-time candidate Bob Greenlee (772), former director John Cantoni (659), newcomer Michelle Basilone (638) and incumbent school board President Ellen Hildebrand (592).
On the Republican side, Grandel was the top vote-getter with 147, followed by Greenlee with 121, Brown with 120, Hildebrand with 119 and Cantoni with 116. The top five vote-getters on each ticket will appear on the November ballot.
Southeastern Greene
With three of four candidates cross-filing for five open seats in the Southeastern Greene School District, all four candidates are assured a spot on the general election ballot in November after primary voting Tuesday.
With all precincts reporting, Denny McIntyre led the Democratic nominees with 552 votes, followed by Terry Ganocy with 481 votes, George Billetz Sr. with 416 and Warren W. Dickerson with 349 votes, according to unofficial results. On the Republican ballot, McIntyre led all candidates with 76 votes, followed by Dickerson with 59 and Billetz with 58 votes.
Uniontown Area
Uniontown Area School Board incumbents for five open seats apparently gained the Democratic and Republican nominations in Tuesday’s primary election.
Seeking re-election and running on both parties’ ballots were Tammy Boyle, Susan S. Clay, Nancy Herring, Ronald K. Machesky and Kenneth G. Meadows. Meadows was the top Democratic vote getter with 812 votes, according to unofficial results with 50 percent of the votes counted from nine of 18 voting precincts reporting numbers by press time. Next in line was Machesky with 770 votes, followed by Boyle with 743 votes, Clay with 699 votes and Herring with 684 votes. Also on the Democratic ticket was newcomer Grace L. Miller, who rounded out the field with 557 votes. She did not cross-file.
The Republican results again put Meadows in the lead with 502 votes, followed by Machesky with 467 votes, Boyle with 442 votes, Clay with 441 votes and Herring with 429 votes.