Erie County school board races: Here are the unofficial winners

Valerie Myers and Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News
·3 min read

Eight Erie County school districts had races for school board in Tuesday's municipal elections.

Here are the winners, according to unofficial vote totals:

Erie School Board

John Harkins, Gwendolyn Cooley and Sumner Nichols won re-election to four-year terms on the Erie School Board.

New to the board will be Angie Amatangelo and Linda Graff.

Harkins led all candidates with 9,615 votes. Amatangelo was second with 8,777, followed by Cooley, 8,123; Graff, 8,093; and Nichols, 7,843.

Incumbent Zakaria Sharif, with 3,953 votes, did not win election for a four-year term but was the only candidate for one available two-year term.

Newcomer Troy Woodard, candidate for a four-year term, failed to win election with 4,132 votes.

Fairview School Board

Newcomer Emily Yochim led the voting for five Fairview School Board seats.

Yochim had 2,304 votes.

Three incumbents won re-election: James Lyons Jr. with 2,064 votes; Lori Sobin with 2,046 votes; and Pamela Liccardi with 1,718.

Another newcomer, Carin Shollenberger, won a board seat with 1,680 votes.

Michael Naber, with 1,510 votes, and Geoffrey Grundy, with 1,458, failed to win election.

Voters enter and exit the Lincoln Community Center, Erie County Public Library, in Fairview Township on election day on Tuesday.
Voters enter and exit the Lincoln Community Center, Erie County Public Library, in Fairview Township on election day on Tuesday.

Fort LeBoeuf School Board

Five seats on the Fort LeBoeuf School Board went to incumbent Robert Oberlander, with 2,466 votes; Scott Taylor, 2,102; James Dwyer, 1,997; incumbent Michael Rose, 1985; and Renee Turi, 1,895.

Failing to win election were Paul Albrecht, 1,835 votes, and Benny Hunt, 1,722.

General McLane School Board

Two available at-large seats went to incumbents Carrie Crow, with 2,193 votes, and Kevin Webber, with 2,128.

Failing to win seats were Mark Pifer, 1,845 votes, and Chris Kovski, 1,681.

Two seats available in Region 2 went to Ashley Olson and Andrew Schulz, with 1,300 and 1,039 votes, respectively.

Mark Kernick failed to win a seat with 913 votes.

Girard School Board

All four incumbents running won re-election to the Girard School Board.

They are Melissa Ann Smith, 1,519 votes; Joseph Meka, 1,355; Sean Dunn, 1,352; and Richard Brown, 1,269.

Newcomer Brady Sager also won a seat on the board with the race's second-highest vote total, 1,433.

Harbor Creek School Board

Newcomers Amy Parente, Keith Farrell and Ryan Cowser and incumbents Terri Brink and Thomas Fortin won four-year terms on the Harbor Creek School Board.

Parente led the balloting with 3,066 votes, followed by Farrell, 2,896; Brink, 2,880; Fortin, 2,691; and Cowser, 2,452.

Incumbent Jeffrey Willis, with 2,061 votes, failed to win re-election.

North East School Board

Five seats on the North East School Board went to newcomer Mackenzie Luke, 1,594 votes; incumbents James Wargo, 1,531, and Charles Ferruggia, 1,529; and newcomers Katie Phillips, 1,515, and Glenn Craig, 1,225.

Alene Rohde failed to win a four-year term with 1,058 votes but was unopposed for a two-year term on the board.

Northwestern School Board

Three incumbents won-re-election to the Northwestern School Board, led by Kristy Bolte with 1,383 votes; Shelly Rice with 1,228; and Sam Ring with 1,167.

Newcomers to the board are Beth Hough with 1,201 votes and Meghan Dalaba with 1,060.

Newcomer Trisha Pratt, with 981 votes, incumbent Melissa Thatcher, with 948 votes, and newcomer Amanda Kulyk, with 693, failed to win board seats.

Ring also won a two-year seat on the board and will decide whether he will accept the two- or four-year term. In balloting for the two-year term, Ring defeated Bolte, 1,147 votes to 1,143.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Here are unofficial winners in Erie County school district races