Page 5 - Demo

As the D istrict 15 school board election vote re-count began late last week, candidates and their supporters were anxious to w atch the H onest Ballot counters do theirtally. They include: candidate John Toner (leaning over); A nnette Scala, w ife of currentboard president Phil Scala; and David Kaplan, son of form er board president Phil Kaplan.(Phoenix/Taylor Photo)Scala Coalition W ins Six Seats AsDistrict 15 Vote Tally is CompletedBY ROB TAYLORAfter a grueling, eleven-day ordeal of counting and recounting roughly 13,000 ballots for the nine positions on Community District School Board 15, unofficial election results late Monday showed that the coalition supporting the current board president, Philip Scala, had been strengthened.Seven incumbents and two first-time members were proportionally elected to the board for a new term when ail but nine of the original 26 candidates on the ballot were either elected by meeting a quota of 10 percent of the votes cast, or remained on the ballot after a subsequent process of elimination. Five of the candidates %u2014 Scala, Felix Vasquez, Judy Hoffman, Francis Manzo, and former board president Philip Kaplan %u2014 met the election quota of 1254 ballots. The four remaining winners for the new board came in below the quota, and picked up reapportioned votes in the counting process. They are: John Toner, who had 1105 first place votes; Beatrice DeSapio, 1003; Peggy Buffalano, 1003; and Norman Fruchter, 1002.From these results, it appears that Scala will easily be re-elected president when the new board members begin their terms in July. %u201cI will be seeking re-election and as a coalition, we have elected six members to the board,%u201d said Scala, referring to himself and the other five members who are expected to support him %u2014 Vasquez, Hoffman, Toner, DeSapio and Fruchter. %u201cOne of the issues that had developed behind the scenes was who the voters wanted to lead the board; I think the voters have decided.%u201d%u201cI don%u2019t anticipate any problems,%u201d he added. %u201cObviously, we may have some differences of opinions, but we%u2019ll work them out as we always have.%u201dThe election was marked by political division and what some campaign workers described as %u201cfraud.%u201d Last August, Scala was elected board president after a shift in alliances brought defeat to the district%u2019s longtime board president, Philip Kaplan. Two former Kaplan supporters, DeSapio and Vasquez, helped elect Scala after a lengthy battle had postponed the election into September. As candidates started to gear up this year for the May 6 election, school board issues appeared to lose importance and politics and jockeying for advantage began to dominate board proceedings.Following the May 6 voting by the public for new terms for members, the initial ballot tabulation was stopped after David Kaplan, the former board president%u2019s son, informed the Board of Elections that there were 88 absentee and affidavit ballots whose validity was uncertain. The Board of Elections said the ballots had to be counted.Because the 88 ballots had not been included in the original quota and 13 candidates had already been eliminated, election workers had to first reverse the tabulation process,--- k n iln in n1in%u00bbm oi