Nyack Schools' verified vote results are in, and residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of this year's . 1,252 voted to pass the fiscal plan, and 374 cast ballots against.
The two newcomers running for two school board seats—Dan Kaplan and Karen Hughes—secured seats with 1,102 and 1,044 votes, respectively.
Four-term veteran Claudette Clarke, who has put in 12 years on the all-volunteer board, received 664 votes.
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Original story (4:42 p.m.)
Find out what's happening in Nyack-Piermontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
With and two open seats on the school board up for grabs, locals headed to the polls in Nyack and Valley Cottage on Tuesday.
(Read an election primer .)
Residents are currently voting on the district’s $72.6 million budget and for two of the three candidates—incumbent Claudette Clarke, Dan Kaplan and Karen Hughes—for school board.
Carol Curto, who was working at the polling station at , said they saw a relatively big turnout in the morning and early afternoon. By a bit after 1 p.m. Tuesday, she estimated about 200 people had voted at the location—a significant amount of people, she noted.
“It’s been busy pretty much all day,” she said shortly after 1 p.m. “The public definitely seems more involved this year than in recent years.”
Workers at Valley Cottage Elementary School’s polling station noticed a similar trend. They said the morning was really active, which was a little surprising given the rain early on Tuesday. The busy morning followed with a steady flow through the afternoon. They expected things to pick up after work.
At the district administrative offices, a worker at the polling station said they’re usually not that busy of a location, but she thought that by the midpoint of the day, they had more voters come out than she had seen in the past.
Curto thinks there’s a pretty simple answer for the increase in voters going to the polls this year in the district.
“It’s about the open school board seats,” she said. “There’s an actual race this year with three people trying for two seats. In the past, we’ve had two people running for two seats. This year, though, it’s the first time in a while we’ve had an actual race.”
