Franklin Regional school board will see 3 new faces

Three newcomers and two incumbents prevailed in Tuesday’s election for four-year seats on the Franklin Regional school board, according to unofficial vote tallies.

With 100% of the vote, unofficial results showed Deb Bucciero (16%), Scott Weinman (15.8%), Vince Azzolina (15.3%), John Fallat (14.8%) and Joshua Zebrak (14.2%) as the top vote-getters.

Longtime incumbent Herb Yingling went up against David Murphy for a two-year seat. Yingling held off a strong challenge from Murphy, taking 50.3% of the vote to Murphy’s 49.51%.

“I’m excited that I came out on top,” Bucciero said. “Having gone to a lot of the school board meetings, I think our board really leans a bit to the (political) left. Not completely, but I think getting some more conservatives like myself, John Fallat and Joshua Zebrak will help bring some balance.”

George App, Vince Azzolina, Deb Bucciero, John Fallat, Amy Sheridan, Scott Weinman and Josh Zebrak competed for five open seats. Sheridan (13.7%) was about 130 votes short of earning a seat, and App took just over 10% of the overall vote.

Zebrak said he was pleasantly surprised by the results, but recognized that it takes at least five votes to make any sort of change.

“That requires group buy-in, which means the ability to listen and a willingness to work together,” he said. “As for my plans, there are eight other board members that I intend to get to know and reach a mutual understanding with, so we can successfully work together as a team to serve our community and the school district.”

Bucciero said she felt district voters sent a message on election day.

“I think people in our district want old-fashioned values in the school,” Bucciero said. “People want them run the way they used to be, not catering to a lot of left-wing groups. I hope that the Republicans on the board will help bring the lever more toward the middle.”