Most of the school board races in Westchester County last week had incumbent school board members, or candidates for school board that supported a contination of the education of students in their communities to continue as is, winning election. And almost all of the proposed school district budgets in Westchester passed, with the exception of the Mt. Vernon School District and the Hastings-on Hudson School District.
The exception came in the Eastchester School District, where a slate of four school board candidates, named, Eagles Upward, won election on May 17. Laurie Giacobbe: 1804, Michele Lawlor-1717, Christine Lombardi-1825, and Matt Fanelli-1849, defeated the three other candidates by 15% of the vote.
Eagles Upward ran on parental choice, and more transparency, and a vow not to raise property taxes for the next two school years. The slate also opposed several books that they claimed had innappropriate sexual content for young students to be reading. “our message resonated with the entire community, that being: improving curriculum with an emphasis on authentic learning, supporting all students and teachers, ensuring the safety of students and staff, pledging to keep taxes and the budget in check, and to open additional polling locations to make it easier for the entire community to participate and have a voice.” The Eastchester budget also passed by a vote of Yes: 1754-No: 1350
In northern Westchester, the Lakeland and Yorktown school districts had contested elections for school board. In Lakeland, three slates of candidates faced off, with a slate of three current Board trustees, Marianne DiSalvo Kolesar- 1331, Adam Kaufman-1217, and Becky Burfeind-1113, and one candidate that ran with the incumbents, Michael Marchese–1154, winning on May 17.
A Lakeland Rise slate of four progressive candidates came in second place, and a slate of SOS candidates came in third. Some had feared that the SOS slate would win if the other two slates split the vote, but the incumbents and Lakeland Rise combined received 70% of the vote. And the budget, which was opposed by the SOS slate, passed easily by a vote of of 2159 to 856.
Similar results in Yorktown, where a slate of three incumbent board members defeated an opposition slate.
Yorktown School Board Trustees, Reshmi Bose- 1,471, Lisa Rolle- 1,517, and Cheryl Reynolds-1,502, were handily reelected, and the budget was adopted by an almost 3 to 1 margin: Yes-1,672-No-673. In New Rochelle, School Board Trustee Adam Cooper was reelected, and David Peters was elected, defeating Steve Mayo. In Mt. Vernon, voters defeated the proposed budget by a more than 2 to 1 margin, with 1253 no votes, 70%, to 530 yes votes, 30%. Part of the reason for the large no vote was an organized opposition to the budget, based on the proposed tax increase and the fact that the district saw a large influx of state and federal revenues, making a tax increase of any kind unnecessary, according to No vote advocates.
