Early results showing that voters favored candidates who champion in-person instruction

After more than a year of packed school board meetings marked by shouting, booing and even increased security after threats of violence over COVID-19 policies, early election results Tuesday night showed voters favored candidates championing in-person instruction.

Just after 10:15 p.m., with 78 of Lehigh County’s 161 precincts reporting, it appeared candidates who argued for a quicker return to in-person instruction were more popular than others.

In Whitehall-Coplay, which has four seats up for grabs, Republicans William Fonzone Sr., Elizabeth Fox, Allison Schultz and Fady Salloum were leading about two hours after polls closed. Christopher Wayock, Mary Joy Reinartz, Stephen Maund and Nicole King, all Republicans, were leading for Southern Lehigh, which also has four seats open.

Both Whitehall-Coplay and Southern Lehigh voters seemed to favor candidates who champion full-time, in-person instruction in school.

Although school board elections are generally considered “sleepy” affairs, voting experts anticipated a slight uptick in turnout this year, largely due to increased division over party politics and a slew of issues, from debates over in-person and virtual learning, as well as masking, to how educators navigate the country’s racial reckoning.

In the Lehigh Valley, defining issues for school board candidates included pandemic policies, as well as transparency, taxes and academic performance.

Of the six candidates on the ballot for four seats in the Parkland School District, David Hein,

Robert Cohen, Annette Wilcox and Jay Rohatgi where in the lead Tuesday night.

In Salisbury Township School District, which has six seats available, Joseph Gnall, Laura McKelvey, Christopher Freas and Rebecca Glenister were in the lead for four four-year seats. McKelvey and Freas were the only candidates running for two two-year seats, and write-in votes were minimal.

The district saw 11 candidates in the primary, after a contentious 5-4 vote to close one of the district’s two elementary schools prompted several newcomers to take a closer look at the school board.

The third school year under the pandemic, school board members and the policies they’ve backed have been under increased scrutiny from residents and prompted an uptick in local school board candidates.

While school board elections are generally low-budget races, a political action committee upped the ante for candidates across the region, infusing cash to support those opposed to pandemic school closures.

In Southern Lehigh, an organization backing Republican candidates received $10,000 from Martino’s PAC.

Races were crowded during the May primary, and showed a pattern along party lines, with leading Democratic vote-getters largely candidates who approved of their school board’s pace of reopening, and the top Republican vote-getters trended toward those who supported an earlier return for students.