NEWARK – Two incumbents retained their seats while one newcomer was elected to serve on the Worcester County Board of Education.
While voters in District 6 chose newcomer Katie Addis to serve as their school board representative, citizens in District 4 and District 1 reelected incumbents Bill Gordy and Bill Buchanan. Addis said she was looking forward to joining the board.
“This past year, I’ve put in the work to educate District 6 on the current issues and my goals as a future board member,” she said. “As a result, my concerns resonated with a majority of my constituents and they showed their support of my platform at the polls. I am excited to get to work with the other board members, knowing that my concerns are the concerns of my district as well.”
Addis received 2,040 votes, or 56.53%, to defeat Nate Passwaters, who was appointed to the school board position upon the death of Eric Cropper. Passwaters received 1,553, or 43.04%, of the votes cast.
In District 4, Gordy easily defeated challenger Jamie Rice. Gordy received 2,061 votes (76.36%) while Rice received 622 votes (23.05%).
“I’m excited,” Gordy said. “I want to thank the voters for giving me a third term. I’ve enjoyed the last eight years and I’m looking forward to continuing to do what’s best for our children and the staff.”
In District 1, incumbent Buchanan held on to his seat after receiving more than double the number of mail-in votes challenger John Abbott did. Abbott led after early voting, with 77 votes to Buchanan’s 73, and led again on election day, receiving 891 votes to Buchanan’s 804 votes. When mail-in ballots were counted, however, Buchanan took the lead. He received 256 mail-in votes and 24 provisional votes while Abbott received 115 mail-in votes and 14 provisional votes. In the end, Buchanan was reelected, receiving a total of 1,157 votes (51.15%) while Abbott received 1,097 votes (48.5%).
Buchanan thanked his supporters in a Facebook post following the final vote count on Nov. 18.
“Non-partisanship scored a victory for the Board of Education today,” he wrote. “Final votes were counted, recorded and I was re-elected as the Board of Education member for District 1. You may wonder why I began this post crediting the term ‘nonpartisan.’ Kids should not have political agendas, misinformation and personal opinion dictate the direction of their education. Everyone has the right to question aspects of their child’s or grandchild’s educational program. The avenue for my attention of concerns, or praise will always be open to ALL constituents of our district.”
