Candidates for the Baltimore County school board were seeking to advance from primaries Tuesday night to the November general election.

Based on early-voting returns and with all primary election day precincts reporting, Robin Harvey was the top vote-getter in District 1 with about 61 percent of the vote. Cory Koons was ahead of George W. Roycroft III by 450 votes for the second spot from District 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot.

In District 2, Jane Lichter was leading the field with about 40 percent. LaShaune Stitt and Rebecca Chesner were neck and neck for the second position from that district in the fall, separated by a few dozen votes.

In District 4, Brenda Hatcher-Savoy was the top vote-getter with about 36 percent of the vote. Samay Singh Kindra was leading J. Michael Collins by fewer than 100 votes in the contest for the second fall ballot position. Autrese M. Thornton was trailing.

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The outcome won’t be known until at least Thursday, when election workers can begin tallying tens of thousands of mail-in ballots. More than 70,000 mail-in ballots were requested by county voters.

Two candidates in each district will advance to the Nov. 8 general election, when elections are held for seven seats on the 12-member board.

Harvey, Lichter and Kindra were endorsed by County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, and the Education Support Professionals of Baltimore County.

Koons and Collins staked out more conservative positions in their campaigns.

The board will look very different after the fall elections. Only two of the current members of the board are certain to be in their seats after the general election: Board Chair Julie Henn and Vice Chair Rod McMillion, who are each running unopposed in November. In District 6, Christina Pumphrey also has no fall opponent. Two candidates, Maggie Litz Domanowski and Diane Jean Young, will face off in the District 3 race.

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On Tuesday morning, small numbers of people trickled in to cast their ballots at local polling locations. And many of those interviewed knew little of the school board candidates.

“I just moved here. I don’t know much about them,” said James Farrington, 32, who was at Owings Mills High School to vote.

A former Prince George’s County resident, Farrington said he hoped whoever was elected brought “seriousness and accountability to the system.”

Laurel Matey, 49, however, researched every candidate before she voted. She picked Robin Harvey when voting at Catonsville High School Tuesday evening.

“I really liked that this person’s a social worker,” she said. “I just thought, ‘This is the kind of person I want guiding the board of education.’”

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She said it was important to know about the social dynamics of children outside of education.

Other voters said school board candidates did not do a good job of advertising. And some did not remember which candidate they voted for after walking back to their cars from the polls.

The school board races drew the interest of some independent voters, who cannot vote in a party primary but can cast ballots for the school board.

Roland Davis, who was at the Liberty Senior Center in Randallstown, said he wasn’t sure if he picked a school board candidate at all when he voted.

“Maybe because I didn’t have enough information,” said Davis, 55, adding that he doesn’t like to pick people he knows nothing about.

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“We need to do better with making people aware of school board candidates,” said Thornton, a District 4 candidate who was also at the senior center. “Because when you vote, that’s your voice.”

As voters walked by, she asked that they vote for her. Thornton, 46, told The Banner she felt confident about the race and that she spoke to a lot of constituents that morning.

District 1

Three candidates faced off in the District 1 race: Harvey, 51, the licensing and monitoring office director in the state Department of Human Services; Koons, a 41-year-old laboratory director; and Roycroft, a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools.

At a recent candidates forum, all three of the District 1 candidates ranked the recruitment and retention of qualified teachers as a top issue to tackle.

But while Roycroft and Harvey both support classroom discussion of topics such as race, diversity, equity and inclusion, Koons said he “would rather save most of the political topics for a venue which is not the public school system.”

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District 2

Three candidates were squaring off in District 2 — Chesner, 63, a retired Baltimore City schools psychologist;Lichter, 59, a retired county schools educator; and Stitt, 52, who leads an education consulting company.

Chesner voiced concern about a push to teach race and history in a way that’s polarizing, which she said is not healthy for children and could teach “victimhood.” Lichter said she would uphold board policies that reflect a commitment to educational equity and said students should have materials that reflect the diversity of students and staff. Stitt said she supported culturally responsive teaching, which promotes using a student’s customs and cultural background as tools for classroom instruction.

Chesner said she wanted to be an advocate for students, focusing on as tutoring, wellness and escalated mental health services. Stitt said conditions in the schools need to be addressed. Various stakeholders need to be valued, she added, and the relationships with them need to be improved. Lichter stressed the importance of effective teachers. Untenured teachers leave too soon, she said, and college professors could be used as mentors to help.

District 4

The District 4 race pitted four candidates against each other: Collins, a 72-year-old retiree; Kindra, a 24-year-old law student; Thornton, a 46-year-old supervising service coordinator; and Hatcher-Savoy, a 71-year-old who described herself as a lifelong educator.

Collins said the good, bad and ugly of American history should be taught in schools, but not critical race theory — an academic concept about systemic racism that is not taught in the public schools, but some fear will be. Kindra said diversity, equity and inclusion should be part of the curriculum because students would benefit from their representation. Thornton said such conversations were already happening in schools, adding that it was important for students to know about the uniqueness of other cultures. Hatcher-Savoy did not respond to requests for comment.

Hatcher-Savoy said at a League of Women Voters/Randallstown NAACP forum that her focus would be to make sure everyone gets a quality education and that graduating students are college- and career-ready. Hiring teachers of color, she added, is also an issue that needs addressing.

Collins, who’s retired, said he hoped to start a conversation about improving education quality and to be an advocate for careers that don’t require college degrees. Kindra wanted to focus on success after graduation. He said financial literacy and mental health management are topics that students should be learning about before they leave, and that the system should have a curriculum that reflects the diversity of the county. Thornton focused on school safety, adding that a lot of teachers aren’t feeling safe and that the system needs to utilize counselors, resource officers and life coaches to focus on the needs of the whole child.

kristen.griffith@thebaltimorebanner.com

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