Deets, Thompson ready for action while Region III results yet to be tallied
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
COATESVILLE – Though voting took place on Tuesday, Coatesville residents may not know the final results of the 2013 school board elections for up to a month.
In Region III, incumbent Laurie Knecht appears to have won reelection, getting 1,098 votes.
However, 1,753 write-in votes have yet to be counted.
“The computation board will begin its process on Friday and typically is completed within a month,” Rebecca Brain, a Chester County spokesperson, said in an e-mail.
During what will be her third term, Knecht said that getting the new Interim Superintendent Leonard Fitts up to speed will be her most immediate concern, but she also wants to work with the board to develop a strategy to get the district out of debt and keep Common Core out of Coatesville in the coming months.
“I’d love to see us have some money to build more buildings; first we’ll have to get rid of our debt,” she said. “We’re constantly looking for ways to save money, and one of our ongoing things is addressing the healthcare in a way that would actually get better care and yet be more cost-effective.”
However, she also said that in order to move forward, the district has to address some of the issues of the past few months, issues that she thinks Fitts will offer a unique perspective on.
“We hired another law firm to help us with some of our investigations, and our new superintendent—we have his perspective coming as an outsider. Having a fresh perspective, I think it’ll be really helpful to work with him in addressing different things,” said Knecht.
Kim Mammel currently holds second place for Region III with 1,023 votes, but 1,753 write-ins have yet to be counted, meaning Greg Wynn and Greg Axe, who both ran write-in campaigns, still may take that seat.
Wynn said that he is also concerned with the high number of undervotes for the region. He said that 2,739 ballots were cast. Residents were allowed to vote for two candidates, making 5,478 possible votes. Between Knecht, Mammel, and write-ins, 3,874 have been accounted for, leaving 1,604 uncast votes, referred to as undervotes.
These undervotes could be voters intentionally not using both of their votes, but Wynn is worried that people may have written-in candidates without filling the bubble next to their names, which would put the vote in something of a gray area. While the preliminary computer count of such ballots would show no vote, it is unclear whether a follow-up human inspection could indicate “voter intent” — the actual name being written in — which under state election code, could be counted as a valid vote, or whether the lack of filling in the oval moots the vote.
Mammel could not be reached for comment on reports that she had wanted to withdraw from the race prior to the election and might not take her seat if elected.
Should Mammel win but decide that she does not want the position, she would have to resign, and the school board would select someone to take the seat for two years.
Even though Region III results have yet to be finalized, Region II elect Stu Deets and Region I elect Deborah Thompson are already working to effect change in the district, they said.
Deets has been a fixture during public comment at school board meetings. He played an integral role in the Friends of PA-771, attempting to have Coatesville’s AFJROTC program reinstated.
At past meetings, Deets has also called for the suspension of School Board Solicitor James Ellison and raised questions regarding the funding of the district’s athletic programs, showing particular concern over the amount of the money spent on District One Championship rings purchased for last year’s football team.
Deborah Thompson, a 1977 graduate and a grandparent of children in the school district, said that she has a number of issues that she will focus on as a school board member.
Thompson believes that the district’s potential purchase of the Citadel Building to house healthcare facilities is a misuse of taxpayer money, and she would rather see the district negotiate a deal with an existing healthcare facility.
Unhappy with how the district handled recent controversies, Thompson said that the board needs to use existing community organizations to open up lines of communication and be more honest with taxpayers.
“We saw arrogance; we saw lack of integrity,” she said.
Thompson thinks the lack of communication has not just affected taxpayer-school board relations, but it has also adversely affected parents and students. She said that she has talked to parents who have no idea what kind of tutoring and after school programs are available to their children.
She hopes to make changes all the way down to the classroom level. She said that the district could reach out to companies like Apple and LeapFrog to obtain grant money or try out practices that would provide students with learning equipment.
Thompson also said that the district needs to examine its practices, including why children of color and low-income children, in particular, are struggling.
“When I grew up, there wasn’t a child that didn’t have a favorite teacher, and today you find many that don’t,” she said.
