Kobert, Castor Dentel avoid runoffs for seats

Linda Kobert, the only incumbent running for one of the five open spots on the eight-member Orange County School Board, easily won her district 3 seat on Tuesday.

The race for district 6 was also settled Tuesday with Karen Castor Dentel, 49, a teacher and former Florida House representative, winning that seat.

The other three races won’t be decided until November because no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote.

Kobert, 52, first elected in 2014, won more than 67 percent of the vote to defeat challenger Michael Daniels. Daniels, 45, director of Nova Southeastern University Orlando campus, won 32.5 percent of the vote.

Current board member Nancy Robbinson resigned her seat to run for the board chair. She lost that race to Teresa Jacobs.

Castor Dentel won nearly 52 percent of the vote. She’ll serve out the last two years of Robbinson’s term, representing a district that includes a north-central chunk of the county from Pine Hills to Dover Shores.

The other candidates, Patricia Fox and Charlene Roberts Norato, won about 35 percent and 13 percent of the vote respectively.

The district 1 seat is being vacated by four-term incumbent Joie Cadle, who did not seek re-election. It includes Winter Park and a section of east Orange.

Three candidates were running and two — Angie Gallo and Heather Traynham — will meet in the runoff.

Gallo, 50, legislative chair for the Florida Parent Teacher Association and owner of two businesses, won just under 50 percent of the vote. Traynham, 45, a PTA volunteer and public relations specialist, won more than 31 percent of the vote.

The third candidate, Terry Rooth, 45, won nearly 19 percent.

Six candidates were running to replace board member Daryl Flynn, who did not seek re-election.

Joanna Lopez, 46, a Spanish teacher at Colonial High School, was the top candidate, winning more than 34 percent of the vote, compared with nearly 21 percent for David Grimm, whom she’ll face in the runoff. Grimm is a physical education teacher at Lake Nona High School.

The candidates knocked out Tuesday were Sara Au with nearly 20 percent of the vote, Chadwick Hardee with just over 10 percent, Jacqueline Centeno with nearly 10 percent and Eric “Lighthouse” Martin with nearly 5 percent.

This seat opened when current board member Christine Moore resigned to run for Orange County Commission. Four candidates ran to replace her and two — Melissa Mitchell Byrd and Eric Schwalbach — will face off in November.

Byrd, 43, a substitute teacher, won about 45 percent of the vote compared with nearly 23 percent for Schwalbach, 46, a math teacher at a Lake County middle school.

Chan-Denise Budhoo won 22.5 percent of the vote and Jeffrey Lynn Richardson won about nine percent.