2011 Election: DiSandro Joins Incumbents Broderick, Gillooley on D122 Board

Despite anonymous mailings attacking their candidacy, the two incumbents in the District 122 Board of Education race were re-elected Tuesday night.

Incumbents Maureen Broderick and Sue Gillooley will be back on the school board, according to preliminary results. They will be joined by Nick DiSandro, replacing outgoing board President Kathy Markus, who did not run for re-election. Vote totals are not official until April 26.

"I'm just thrilled," DiSandro said. "I can’t wait to get involved and dive in head first and do whatever I can to help our district."

Broderick finished ahead of the other five candidates with 19 percent of the vote. Gillooley, DiSandro and candidate Bill Strons were neck-and-neck for most of the night, though Strons wasn't able to catch up.

DiSandro finished just five votes ahead of Gillooley, with Strons trailing her by only 24 votes in an election in which 9,353 total ballots were cast.

"I said from the start of the election that win or lose, I’m going to be involved in school board activities," a disappointed Strons said. "I wanted to prioritze spending, and I hope (the new board) will do the same thing I wanted to."

Candidate Phil Adair, who finished with 14 percent of the vote, echoed Strons' desire to remain involved following the election.

"Nobody here devoted more time than I have to make this community a better place," Adair said after it was apparent he wouldn't be elected. "I will continue to support the schools and the community until they put me in the box."

Adair, Broderick and Strons held a joint watch party at Charleston's on Tuesday, and many people there were surprised how close the election was. With some political attacks directed at the incumbents, it wasn't clear whether they would survive re-election bids. For Broderick and Gillooley, they'll work on getting past any politics that entered the election.

"You could tell that we all worked very hard at campaigning and getting ourselves out there," Gillooley said. "We all went door to door and did our homework."

Broderick added, "I think the community realized I was their advocate and not something else."

Both incumbents said they want to focus on being fiscally responsible in the coming term.

For more information on the election, check back to Patch later this week.