Rossi leads GOP field, Kozar tops Democratic ballot in Greater Latrobe School Board race

Yelayna Rossi led the balloting for four Greater Latrobe School Board seats, with all of the 20 precincts reporting in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Rossi, who is the daughter of local state Rep. Leslie Rossi and is a 2020 Greater Latrobe graduate, received just over 18% of the votes from among 10 GOP hopefuls.

Incumbent Heidi Kozar, who is running for a sixth term, topped a field of eight cross-filed candidates for Democratic party nominations in the crowded school board race. She garnered about 18.5% of the vote.

Incumbent Merle D. Musick, also a recent graduate, Patrick S. Carney and incumbent Andrew Repko appeared to be on the way to capturing the three remaining Republican slots. They received 15.45%, 11.9% and 10.7% of the votes, respectively.

Incumbent Rhonda A. Laughlin, Joshua Cunningham and Thomas B. Long were next in line in Democratic voting, claiming respective vote shares of 17.1%, 14.8% and 13.3%. Of the contenders, Repko and Patrick S. Carney did not appear on the Democratic ballot.

On the Republican ballot, Cunningham, John Fullmer, Kozar, Laughlin, Long and Mary Mullooly trailed with respective vote shares of 9.6%, 8.3%, 8%, 7.4%, 7.4% and 3.1%.

Running behind in the Democratic race were Fullmer, Musick, Rossi and Mullooly — with 12.8%, 10.9%, 5.9% and 5.1% of the vote, respectively.

Repko campaigned jointly with fellow incumbents Kozar and Laughlin with the motto “Experience matters … for our kids, our future, our property value.”

Repko was part of a board majority following the 2023 municipal election that voted to halt a proposed multimillion-dollar building plan that Kozar and Laughlin had supported.

Since then, all nine school board members voted to seek bids for a less involved project to replace the roof and make other improvements at the junior high.

Meanwhile, Repko, Kozar and Laughlin found common ground in calling for development of a long-range building plan covering all district schools.

Laughlin and Kozar were targeted by campaign signs and a card urging their ouster and making claims about their support of the previous building plan.

The flip side of the card was an endorsement for Musick, Rossi and Carney — touting them as conservative candidates committed to fiscal responsibility and “no unnecessary tax raises.”

The district includes Latrobe, Youngstown and Unity.