By Mary Spicer

Meadville Tribune

As the result of the resignation of a member earlier this year, two separate races were run Tuesday for seats on Crawford Central School Board.

Like residents of all of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts with the exception of Philadelphia, which plays by its own rules, voters in Crawford Central School District will be electing four members to serve four years on the nine-member Craw-ford Central School Board. Two years from now, voters will select occupants of the remaining five seats.

This time around, however, a separate race is being waged to determine the occupant of a fifth seat. The June resignation of Christine Lazusky, whose term ends in 2011, put a race for the two years remaining on her term on Tuesday’s ballot.

Unofficial results indicate that incumbent Kevin Maz-iarz, who was selected by the board in July to temporarily fill Lazusky’s seat, will continue in that post. Tabulation of the official count is scheduled to begin Friday.

With all precincts reporting, Maziarz received 3,139 votes, while challenger Gloria McDonald received 1,326.

I just want to thank everybody,” Maziarz said after the results were in. “My goal is just to make sure the money we spend has the greatest impact on kids.”

McDonald also thanked everyone who voted for her. “I have the utmost confidence that those elected will serve our students and our community well,” she said.

When the nomination pro-cess for Tuesday’s election began last spring, David Miller was the only candidate to collect the required 100 signatures for a four-year slot on the May primary; even though school board candidates are allowed to cross-file, placing their names on both Demo-cratic and Republican party lines, Miller filed only as a Democrat. During the primary, he was the only candidate to receive the necessary 100 votes for a spot on Tuesday’s ballot.

Unofficially, Miller received 2,300 votes while a total of 1,524 write-in votes were also cast.

Three retired educators, Richard Curry, Jeff Deardorff and Mitch Roe, waged active write-in campaigns. However, the winners will have to wait to celebrate until the official tally is complete.

Because write-in votes aren’t tallied until the official vote count, it’s too early to tell how things are going to work out for the final three seats.

Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.