Democrats sweep school board
Incumbent Republicans defeated as ‘Neighbors for Progress’ score top totals
The North Penn School District’s school board will have a blue hue starting in January, as the slate of five Democrats running for the board turned away three incumbent Republicans and two newcomers in Tuesday’s election.
According to unofficial results posted by the Montgomery County Department of Voter Services and the Pennsylvania Department of State, Democratic candidates Christian Fusco, Jonathan Kassa, Tina Stoll and Mark Warren won four-year terms, and Jenna Ott won the contested twoyear term, making that group five-for-five.
“As a team, I think we were all incredibly humbled and proud to have won the five school board seats. We were so pleased by the amount of people that came out to vote in this election,” Ott said Wednesday. “Something that really struck us was that so many people in this community seemed to connect with us and our message.”
Two dueling groups of candidates each sought to fill the five seats on the ballot, with the “North Penn Neighbors for Progress” team of Democrats squaring off against three incumbent Republicans and two newcomers who ran under the “Quality Education Matters” heading.
Incumbent Republicans Josie Charnock, Frank O’Donnell and Pat McGee ran with first-time candidates Thomas Mancini, who was running for a four-year term, and Michelle Rupp, who sought the two-years term.
Unofficial results posted by
Montgomery County as of Wednesday evening indicated a clear verdict from voters: Stoll topped the field with 10,710 votes, and Fusco came in second with 10,649, followed by Warren with 10,305 and Kassa with 10,217 for the four-year terms. Opposite those four, McGee scored the highest of the four Republicans with 8,441
votes, just ahead of Mancini with 8,414, and Charnock and O’Donnell with 8,302 and 8,245, respectively.
For the two-year term, Ott won a clear victory over Rupp, totalling 10,516 votes, or 56 percent of the total, compared with 8,299 votes, or 44 percent, for Rupp.
“We’ve had so many great conversations with members of this district about the things that make our schools great, as well as the challenges we face,” Ott said Wednesday. “In all of those conversations, people
weren’t thinking about what political party we belonged to, but what ideas we had, and what kind of leadership we could bring. That is the real spirit of local politics.”
The other candidates running for school board seats did not respond to requests for comment by Wednesday evening, but Ott said she thought going door-to-door and carrying a clear message to voters may have paid off.
“It was incredibly inspiring to see the final vote tallies reflect
a clear desire from our community to have those types of conversations, and to see people serving who are genuine people trying to do something good in their community,” Ott said. “Yesterday, we saw our community stand up and ask for honesty, integrity, and a willingness to extend a hand or an ear to any neighbor, and we’re prepared to embrace that great responsibility. We couldn’t be more pleased by the results, and are looking forward to getting to work.”