Loveland, Ohio – School Board President Dave Blumberg released this statement last night just as the polls closed. He was defeated in his re-election bid for a second term on the Board. Blumberg submitted a nominating petition with 71 valid signatures. The required number of valid signatures is 75. He then filed the required paperwork to be a write-in candidate.
I sit here on the evening of the election reflecting on what a pleasure it is to live in such a wonderful community. As a write-in candidate for the Loveland School Board of Education, the odds of success are very small. Recently many community members endorsed me through powerful email and social media messaging. For those who wrote on my behalf, read on my behalf and voted, I am particularly grateful. I will reflect fondly on my previous four years as a Board member. The time spent endeavoring to improve the student educational experience through collaboration with very talented people has been profoundly gratifying. Handing two of my daughter their diplomas were personally indelible moments. Thank you to my wife, daughters and friends for their support during this election. Regardless of the election outcome, I am humbled by the community support and want everyone to know how appreciative I am. Go Tigers!
The final results in the race for the three open seats on the Board are as follows:
(3 to be elected – 4 year term)
Michele N. Pettit – 2953
Ned Portune – 2961
Eileen Washburn – 2963
Dave Blumberg (Write-In Candidate) – 403
Michele Pettit was re-elected, and first-time candidates Ned Portune and Eileen Washburn were successful, with Washburn receiving the most votes. The other members of the current Board whose terms expire in 12/31/19 are, Kathryn Lorenz, Ph.D. and Art Jarvis.
Tim Taggart was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Linda Pennington last year. The term ends after this November’s election. This Board position is one of the open seats you see above.
We have reported how many write-in votes were received in each county, however, it is not until the official count that we will have a true total of “valid” write-in votes.
EDITOR’S NOTE: C Snider, this is a cheap shot to Blumberg, teachers, administrators, board members, voters, and Loveland Students.
If the president of the school board cannot count, what are the prospects for the students?
And this comment is an ignorant one as well. I have limited knowledge on the entire political process & may have a few incorrect statements here, but I’m disclaiming that now. Every election related thing (voting, petitions, recalls, etc) require VALID signatures. That means they check each signature against your voter registration. If the signature doesn’t match, then it is not valid & doesn’t count. So he could have had 100 signatures, but 29 were not considered valid so he ended up with only 71 valid signatures. That is unfortunate & the reason you should try to get extra signatures for things like this because you never know how many will not be valid. We have an awesome school district that MANY people move into just because of the schools. A comment like this is just completely insulting & lacking any merit.
PS – My math is right. I guess Loveland did ok teaching me!