Norwin slate leads in nominations for 4 school board seats

A slate of four Norwin School Board candidates promising to end the panel’s political battles was leading in the race to win the nominations of both political parties for four seats on the board, according to the results from Tuesday’s primary.

With all 32 Westmoreland County precincts reporting, Rob Bunovich led the GOP ballot with 20%, followed by Chelsea Thomas with 19.9%; Monica Kitta with 19.2% and Jakub Sadowski with 16.8%. Ella Thompson received 16.5% of the votes for the Republican nomination. Thompson trailed Sadowski by just 24 votes.

On the Democratic ballot, Thomas led with 22.8%, followed by Kitta with 20.6%, Bunovich with 20.1% and Sadowski with 19.4%. Thompson received 16% of the votes.

The four top vote-getters on both ballots were part of the “Norwin Now” slate of candidates. All are registered Democrats, with the exception of Kitta.

The vote count is only from the Westmoreland County portion of the district, which serves North Huntingdon, Irwin and North Irwin. There are an additional 18 residences in eastern Allegheny County.

The choices for Norwin voters were reduced this spring when three Republican candidates — incumbent Alex Detschelt and Tammy Moreno and Randall Pedder — were removed from the ballot. Westmoreland County Judge Harry Smail ruled Detschelt did not have the minimum of 10 valid signatures on his nominating petition and Moreno and Pedder did not file statements of financial interest before the deadline.

Three incumbents whose terms expire this year — Christine Baverso, Shawna Ilagan and Ray Kocak — opted not to seek reelection.

Bunovich, 47, a voice telecom analyst with UPMC, agrees with the board’s decision to renovate the stadium, which he said had rain leaking into the locker room when he was in high school in 1995.

Kitta, 61, a retired McKeesport Area High School teacher, said she believes her experience in education will be beneficial to the district.

Sadowski, 48, a media consultant, said he was running to thwart the politicization on the school board.

Thomas, 32, a corporate recruiter, said she believes the board has a responsibility to represent a diverse student and community population that holds different backgrounds and beliefs.

Thompson, 34, a freelance set designer for film production, said she wants to make all-day kindergarten classes a priority and available for all incoming youngsters.