School board races next week in the Oil City and Franklin school districts feature ballot choices for voters, while the Cranberry and Valley Grove contests have the same number of candidates listed on the ballots as open seats.
Six candidates are vying for four Oil City School Board seats, a total that was whittled down from nine hopefuls who ran in the spring primary.
School board candidates can crossfile in the primary and run on both tickets, and in Oil City that resulted in two of the candidates being nominated on both tickets and four others being nominated on either the Republican or Democratic side.
The lessons were taught to Oil City elementary and middle school students starting in the fall of 2021 until they were suspended in March of this year for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year.
Since then, the school board and its curriculum committee have been trying to agree on a suitable series of lessons for the students.
Meanwhile in Franklin, five four-year seats and one two-year post are on the ballot, but there were fewer listed candidates than nominations available in the primary for those positions.
As a result, some write-in candidates received enough votes to join the race, resulting in seven listed candidates for the four-year seats and two candidates for the two-year post next week.
Here is a rundown of the candidates listed on ballots for the Venango County school boards in Tuesday’s election.
Party listings for each candidate in all the school districts reflect the party or parties in which they gained nominations in the primary.
Oil City (vote for not more than four for four four-year terms): Shari Neely (D/R), Justin McFall (D/R), Jonathan Piercy (D), Stephen Kelley (D), Ryan E. Williams (R), Devin Aaron (R).
The four seats are currently held by Neely, Piercy, Kelley and Lawrence Sterner.
Sterner did not get enough votes in the primary to earn a GOP nomination.
Franklin (vote for not more than five for five four-year terms): Sabrina S. Backer (D/R), Leslie Boyer (D/R), Misty Lusher (D), Judson Andrew Boland (D), Garrett Lowman (R), Randy Stachelrodt (R), Cheryl Ferry (R).
In a strange twist, Nicole Burton received the most Democratic write-in votes in the primary with 35 to earn a place on the ballot, but she didn’t return paperwork to accept the nomination by the deadline, according to Laura Anna with the Venango County election office.
Anna explained that every write-in candidate who receives enough votes in the primary to be on the fall ballot receives a letter from the election office asking them to respond by a certain date to accept or decline the nomination.
Burton has indicated she is still waging a write-in campaign to try and capture a seat Tuesday.
Franklin (vote for one for two-year term): Ed Scurry (D), Garrett Lowman (R).
Backer, Boland, Lusher, Ferry, Donald Judy and Erin Leccia hold the seats that are up with Ferry currently in the two-year position. Judy and Leccia did not seek re-election.
Cranberry (vote for not more than five for five four-year terms): Sarah Elizabeth Payne (D/R), Timothy Heffernan (D/R), Thomas W. Neely (D/R), Mark C. Marterella (D/R), Judy Etzel (R).
Payne, Heffernan, Neely and Marterella are incumbents, and Neely and Marterella waged successful write-in campaigns on both tickets in the primary while Etzel was a GOP write-in winner.
The other seat up for election is held by Ken Brannon, who chose not to seek re-election.
Valley Grove (vote for not more than five for five four-year terms): Debra L. Brink (D/R), Dustin Wyant (D/R), Todd A. Wetjen (R), Cindy Swendson (R) and Brandon Winger (R).
Those five are all currently on the board.
No other candidates received enough Democratic write-in votes to join the race.
(Staff writer Kara O’Neil contributed to this report.)
