Split results in red hot school board election
The red hot Boyertown Area School Board race resulted in a mixed-bag on Election Day.
In Region 1, former board member Ruth Dierolf and her running mate, incumbent Robert Caso, won the two open seats.
Challenger Rodney Boyer, came up short by 49 votes, according to final but unofficial results from the Berks County elections website ierolf, who had both the Republican and Democratic lines, took in 2,031 seats, while Caso won 1,554 and Boyer only 1,505, according to unofficial Berks County results.
Region 1 includes Bally and Bechtelsville boroughs and the townships of Earl, Colebrookdale and Washington
However, in Region 2 and Region 3, their running mates — Dana Knowlton and Roger Updegrove — both lost to the opposing slate of candidates.
According to unofficial results from both Montgomery and Berks counties, incumbent Jill Dennin beat back the challenge from Knowlton by an 104-vote margin.
Dennin won 758 votes on the Montgomery County side and 620 on the Berks County side, giving her a total of 1,378.
Knowlton won only 562 votes on the Montgomery County side, but 712 on the Berks County side, adding up to 1,275.
Region 2 straddles the county line and includes Boyertown Borough and Douglass (Berks) town-
ship on the Berks County side and voting districts two, three and four in Douglass (Mont.) on the Montgomery County side.
And in Region 3, which is entirely in Montgomery County, Brandon Foose easily beat his opponent Roger Updegrove, by more than 700 votes.
Unofficial Montgomery County tallies gave Foose 2,133 votes to 1,402 for Updegrove — a 731-vote margin.
The race has been marked by the use of websites and the active participation of both the sitting school board President John Landino, who endorsed Foose, Dennin and Boyer; and the vice president Clay Breece, who backed the other slate.
Issues debated included the departure of several high-end administrators, including former superintendent Richard Faidley, and the borrowing and financing used to undertake renovations to the high school and Junior High West.