Hamilton school board election brings in new & familiar faces

HAMILTON » Hamilton school board member Susan Lombardo is getting three more years in office after winning re-election Tuesday to the Board of Education with 5,630 votes, according to unofficial election results.

Hamilton’s school board will also be graced with a new face next January when Cameron J. Cardinale gets sworn into office. Cardinale, who graduated from Steinert High School in 2016 and currently attends Rutgers University, unofficially collected 3,719 votes in his winning effort Tuesday. One of his major campaign promises was to “aggressively pursue for the restoration of all Educational Assistants recently cut from the budget.”

Finally, former board member Albert Gayzik will return to the Hamilton Township Board of Education next January after collecting 3,800 votes in his successful run, according to unofficial ballot counts.

Lombardo was the only school board incumbent who sought re-election to the Board of Education this year. She played a role in the hiring of new Hamilton Superintendent of Schools Scott Rocco and also voted to give retroactive pay raises to district teachers and support staff — issues that likely helped her secure a big re-election as the top-vote-getter this year.

A whopping 13 candidates entered this year’s Hamilton school board race. The number of candidates was higher than usual, probably due to the fact that incumbents Christopher Scales and Jennifer Kraemer did not seek reelection, which guaranteed new board members would be elected this year.

Gayzik first won election to the Hamilton Township Board of Education in 2012 by receiving 8,863 votes, but he lost his re-election bid three years later when he fell short with 3,356 votes. He asked voters to give him another chance to serve, and they answered his call in the affirmative. As a former educator and administrator, Gayzik was with the Branchburg Township School District for over 35 years, where he retired in 2009. He has seen firsthand how other school districts operate and said he wants to continue their best practices here in Hamilton.

While school board members are unpaid for their nonpartisan service, they have great power to shape public education. Board members give final approval on which textbooks students read in the classrooms, and they get to hire new employees into the school district and determine whether school board meetings should be recorded and televised in full.