The August primary has filled one Palm Beach County School Board seat, and left another to be decided in November's general election.
John McGovern, a former Wellington village council member, took a clear majority in his District 6 race and will replace the outgoing Marcia Andrews to represent the county's western communities.
Meanwhile, the four-way race to decide who will fill the vacancy left by now-County Commissioner Erica Whitfield closed Aug. 18 with no candidate landing more than 50% of the vote, sending District 4 candidates Christina Romelus and Daniel Zapata to face each other Nov. 3.
The county's school board elections are nonpartisan and, thus, a primary can either end the race or cull the candidate field, as happened Tuesday.
With
all precincts reporting, McGovern had about 57.2% of the vote, with fellow candidates Wanda Rosario-Schoenfeld and Widline Pierre earning 27.3% and 15.5% respectively.
In the District 4 race to represent a stretch of the county mostly east of Military Trail from West Palm Beach to Delray Beach, the vote with all precincts reporting closed with Romelus holding 40.6% of the vote and Zapata with 26.6% sending them to the Nov. 3 ballot.
Candidates Tiffany Bryant landed 18.7% of the vote and Anthony Hamlet had 13.9%, taking them out of the running.
Four of seven school board seats were up for election in this cycle, but board members Karen Brill and Edwin Ferguson went unchallenged, securing their seats even before ballots were cast.
Brill, a real estate agent who holds the District 3 seat, has served on the board representing the western suburbs of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach since 2012. Ferguson, an attorney, has held his seat since 2022, representing District 7 which spans Riviera Beach, parts of West Palm Beach and a stretch south along the Dixie Highway corridor into Delray Beach.
Members serve four-year terms and are paid just over $44,000 per year.
McGovern, an attorney with a student in the district's schools, campaigned on priorities including expanding the preschool VPK program, increasing technology education from coding to artificial intelligence and ensuring future magnet and vocational schools are geographically accessible throughout the county.
The day after his victory, McGovern was eager to get to work.
"What I'm really looking forward to is representing our kids and families at a time when public education is under attack," he said in a phone interview. "Public schools are the best choice for almost all students."
McGovern also thanked his campaign staff, volunteers and voters for delivering him such a decisive victory that will usher him into office without need for a November vote — "It was both humbling and gratifying," he said.
He acknowledged that he had 'big shoes to fill' in representing a such a geographically vast district with "42 schools and more to come."
The board makeup will not be settled, however, until the Nov. 3 election which will pit Romelus, a former Boynton Beach city commissioner and vice mayor as well as an educator, nurse and nonprofit and community leader, against Zapata, a high school teacher and former assistant administrator and assistant athletic director.
Romelus' campaign priorities include improving literacy and academic outcomes, making schools safer, supporting teachers, engaging parents, and building stronger partnerships between schools, families, businesses, and community organizations.
Zapata, from Lake Worth Beach, has listed among his campaign priorities improving literacy by strengthening early learning opportunities, expanding career and technical education, hands-on experience and skills for high-paying careers and enhancing school security by supporting school resource officers and investing in proactive safety measures.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County School Board runoff ahead: Romelus faces Zapata
