SALEM 2 newcomers win school board seats

Both candidates were victorious in their first bids for elected office.
SALEM -- Two political newcomers will be taking their seats on the city school board.
Cindy Rottenborn, 53, and Kathy Gano, 45, claimed the posts Tuesday by defeating opponents Atty. Geoffrey Goll and William Thorne, an incumbent school board member and the panel's president.
Rottenborn and Gano's victories marked their first bid for elected office.
Unofficial vote totals show the two women each grabbing just over a 30 percent share of the count.
Thorne placed third with 22.5 percent of the vote.
Besides Thorne, the school board is losing another incumbent, Jim Newman, who chose not to seek re-election and ran for Perry Township trustee instead. Newman lost in that race.
Reaction: "I'm really excited," Gano said of her victory.
A music teacher at St. Paul School in Salem, she said she's eager to bring her experience as an educator to the panel.
Gano said one factor working in her favor may have been the fact that there are no women on the five-member board.
Rottenborn said she is humbled by voters' choosing her to serve on the board.
The wife of Joseph Rottenborn, superintendent of Columbiana schools, Rottenborn said she's cared about Salem schools all her life. She graduated from Salem High School in 1966.
Rottenborn, who works as a library assistant at Kent State University's Salem campus, has set as a priority the city school system's achieving academic excellence.