North Hunterdon-Voorhees voters elect school board members

In one of the most crowded school board races in Central Jersey, 11 candidates were vying for four seats on the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School Board of Education.

Of those 11, five were running to be the sole Clinton Township/Lebanon Borough representative on the school board.

The district has students from 12 different municipalities. Students living in Bethlehem Township, Clinton Township, Franklin Township, Lebanon Borough and Union Township attend North Hunterdon High School. Students living in Califon, Hampton, High Bridge, Lebanon Township and Tewksbury Township attend Voorhees High School. Students who attended Clinton Public School (Town of Clinton and Glen Gardner) can choose to attend either North Hunterdon High School or Voorhees High School.

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Candidates for the Clinton Township seat were Deborah Yarnell, incumbent Roger Straight, Rachel McLaughlin, Beth Kotran and Cynthia Reyes.

Kotran was leading with 1,589 votes, Yarnell got 716 votes, Straight garnered 738 votes, McLaughlin tallied 636 votes and Reyes received 1,394 votes, according to unofficial results.

Eric Licwinko was running against incumbent Jessica Viotto, the present board president, for the Glen Gardner Borough/Clinton Town/Franklin Township seat. Viotto was leading with 1,507 votes with Licwinko at 1,151 votes, according to unofficial results.

Nicole Gallo, who previously ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat, was running against Rion Hoffmann for the High Bridge Borough/Lebanon Township seat. Gallo was leading with 2,114 votes, followed by Hoffman with 1,523 votes, according to unofficial results.

Of the 11 candidates, three − Gallo, Licwinko and Reyes − were vocal in their efforts to ban the LGBTQ books in a controversy that roiled the school district.

Incumbent Kimberly Solino was running against former board member Fran Goger for the Hampton Borough/Bethlehem Township/Glen Gardner seat. Solino was leading 944 to 819, according to unofficial results.

In addition, districtvoters by a 10,700-to-5,990 margin, according to unofficial results, approved spending $6.5 million to fund facilities upgrades, renovations and repairs at North Hunterdon and Voorhees high schools, with a goal to maintain safe facilities and improve energy efficiency.

The proposed work includes HVAC improvements and upgrades at North Hunterdon, where school district officials said the units are beyond their useful life expectancy and would be replaced with high-efficiency equipment providing fresh air ventilation, improved air filtration, heating and cooling for classrooms.

North Hunterdon would also get new fire-rated interior stair doors, a renovation of the boys locker room and updates to physical education teachers offices and the coaches locker room.

At Voorhees, the plan includes ventilation upgrades to units servicing kitchen, first-floor locker rooms and the rear gymnasium, as well as replacing inefficient pipe insulation.

Voorhees would also see the removal and replacement of concrete and railroad tie steps along the wall of the pedestrian bridge. In addition, the deteriorating wood retaining wall, wood staircase and railings at the soccer and lacrosse field (“The Pit”) would be removed and replaced.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: North Hunterdon-Voorhees NJ school board election results