Trumbull Co. school boards see changes

Girard voters ousted a longtime school board member.
By DENISE DICK
and SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- While an incumbent for the city's school board retained her seat, some other members of Trumbull County school boards weren't as fortunate.
Linda Metzendorf, the only Warren incumbent on the ballot; Edward Bolino, a counselor; and Nedra Bowen, a retired Warren schools teacher, won their seats.
Dr. Robert Angelo, a longtime board member, didn't seek re-election, and Nick Frankos Sr., who has been on the board for years, withdrew his candidacy as a write-in. The board of elections had previously rejected his petitions for insufficient signatures.
Metzendorf hopes to improve district test scores; Bolino also points to improving test scores as well as looking at later start times for pupils.
Bowen, who ran unsuccessfully for a board seat in 1999 and 2001, wants to be more open with the public. She also lists reinstitution of a lunch program at Warren G. Harding High School as one of her goals.
Elsewhere in county
In Girard, Jane A. Harris, a longtime school board member, lost her seat. Voters re-elected Jamie R. DeVore and elected Myron A. Esposito, a railroad engineer, and Phil Fisher, quality manager at Metal Products Co.
In Niles, voters retained one current board member while ousting another by only two votes.
John J. Tricomi was re-elected to his seat with almost 30 percent of the votes, while current President Terry Swauger fell two votes shy of Marlene O. Rhodes and 88 votes behind Wanda J. Burns to fill the vacant three seats. Swauger also lost a bid in the May primary to become the city's next law director, failing to unseat incumbent J. Terrence Dull, who ran this election unopposed.
Voters in Hubbard also retained only one incumbent for their school board, opting to keep current President Donald E. Newell. James M. Kerrigan and Judith L. Montgomery -- who had agreed, along with Newell, not to pay for election fliers or signs and instead to use that money to set up a scholarship for Hubbard students -- lost their re-election bids to Timothy F. Herberger and Ray Wells. Herberger led the pack with almost 28 percent of the vote, followed by Wells' 23 percent and Newell's 21 percent.
In the midst of a strike by classified employees, Southington school district voters retained incumbent board members Timothy Stantial Sr. and Albert Haberstroh over challengers Pamela Kitchin Cameron and Frances L. Harshman.