Democrats Kathy Do and Gregg
Lindner beat the elephant on Nov. 8, defeating incumbent school board Director
Timotha Trigg. Fellow Republican Sharon Jones also lost in a bid for her first
term on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board. Incumbent Republican Frank
Murphy won re-election for another term from Region C.
Preliminary totals show Murphy
with 1,111 votes, Do with 926 and Linder with 919. Jones and Trigg came in with
864 and 875 votes.
Winning in Region A —East and
West Marlborough townships — was Democrat Vic Dupuis with 820 votes. His
opponent, Robert MacPherson, had 760.
All vote totals are unofficial
until verified by the boards of elections.
Eilieen Bushelow ran unopposed
in Region B.
In other elections, Keith
Klaver ran unopposed for Chadds Ford Township Supervisor and Joe Pileggi also
ran unopposed for Chadds Ford Township Auditor.
Wendell Fenton and John Conklin
were unopposed in their bids for re-election for supervisor in Pennsbury and
Birmingham townships, respectively.
Do was positive even during
election day, saying she felt the ticket ran a positive and professional
campaign, one she called “high tech low tech.”
“We made good use of social media
between emailing and a Facebook page that went up in August, a Web site…we
reached a lot of people that way. And we did old fashioned campaigning.”
Do said she and Lindner went
door-to-door in as many neighborhoods as possible.
“We had a chance to talk to a
lot of people and learned what they really cared about,” Do said.
She added that she and Lindner
found great support among all stakeholders, those with and those without
children in the district.
Lindner said he felt great
about the election, especially after two previous failed attempts. He lost in
2007, then again in a special election in 2009. He did serve as an interim
director for two months before that special election, though.
“I think this is the type of
place where you can really contribute to the community,” Lindner said the day
after the election.
Do and Lindner each said their
priority would be to find streams of revenue other than taxation.
Lindner also said bringing
balance and moderation to the board are also important, but said there are some
specifics that need to be done to get to those other areas of revenue.
All of the candidates spoke of
that need prior to the election, and previous school directors have said the
same, but little has come from those pronouncements over the years. Lindner
thinks he can make it happen.
“I think part of it is to work
with members of the board to get very busy putting together the policies that
would allow for that type of alternative means of revenue and also to bring in
some kind of technical understanding of what this means as far as potential
revenue, being able to show the district the types of revenue that we would be
able to bring in with a very appropriate program that would allow for whether
it’s naming rights or types out of home of advertising that’s appropriate for
the district,” he said.
He also wants to look at having
a study for having activity buses for students.
Trigg declined to comment on
the election except to say she’ll now have more time to give to her family.
Mary Kot, leader of the Chadds
Ford Republican Party was unavailable for an interview, but expressed
disappointment in an email saying, “Although our three school director
candidates won in five of the six precincts and in Chadds Ford Township, it was
not enough of a margin to beat the huge Democratic win in Crosslands, Pennsbury
Township.”
Crosslands is a retirement community
that traditionally has a large voter turnout.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
