Former Monroeville councilman elected to Gateway school board

A former Monroeville councilman will serve on the Gateway School District Board of Directors, according to unofficial tallies from the Allegheny County Elections Division.

Paul Caliari earned 56.1% of the votes counted compared with opponent Cheryl Boise’s 43.6% with all but two precincts reporting results.

Caliari, a 45-year-old Democrat, will serve an unpaid two-year term to fill former board member Jesse Kalkstein’s seat, which has been filled by Dawn Neilly since the end of July.

Kalkstein resigned July 23 via a letter that was read at the same meeting where Neilly was appointed without public discussion – a move that was criticized as potentially violating the Sunshine Act. She later said she would not seek the Republican nomination to allow for a fair process.

Caliari did not run for re-election for his Ward 5 council seat in 2017, but was one of nine people who applied to fill a Gateway school board vacancy in April 2018. Board member Jack Bova ended up filling that seat.

Caliari will be one of two new faces on the district’s school board, joining Susan Delaney and Scott Gallagher as newcomers. They ran unopposed in the election, along with incumbents Mary Beth Cirucci, Valerie Warning and John Ritter.

Delaney and Gallagher will replace board members George Lapcevich, who failed to earn enough votes in the May primary, and Bova, who sought election on Pitcairn Council.

The county’s unofficial election results do not account for absentee ballots. There were 13 write-in votes and voter turnout in Monroeville sat at 27%.