In a Hamilton Township Board of Education race that featured eight candidates on the ballot, including two slates of three, one slate swept all three of the seats that were up for election.
Christina Vassiliou Harvey (11,122 votes) was elected to a second full term, while Denise Soto (10,958), who was appointed to the board earlier this year to fill a vacancy, won her first full term on the board.
Slatemate Meaghan Stanton was unofficially the leading votegetter in the election, with 11,192 votes. The trio ran as the “Mothers. Leaders. Advocates” slate.
Also running as a trio were candidates Marc Crabtree, John Muka and David Maher, the “Responsible Education” slate. Crabtree received 7,682 votes, Muka 7,621 and Maher 7,336.
Also on the ballot were Donald Snedeker, who received 1,703 votes, and Brandon McNeice (990). McNeice ended his campaign in October, endorsing Harvey, Soto and Stanton, but remained on the ballot.
The race was not without some late drama, as Maher announced on Facebook on Nov. 6, the day before Election Day, that he was pulling out of the race for “personal reasons.” Although the message appears to have been deleted, the Hamilton Post has seen a screengrab of the post.
The message, of course, arrived too late for those who had already mailed in their ballots, or those who are not regularly on Facebook and following Maher.
Speaking to the Post after the election, Harvey Harvey said that she is very excited to embark on a second term.
“I am thankful to the voters for coming out and supporting me,” she said. “I’m happy that people recognize that I try to listen to both sides and not just take the polarized view.”
Harvey said that she met some people on the campaign trail, including members of the LGBTQ population, who expressed concern about “comments that were being raised at school board meetings.”
“They truly felt threatened. They were thankful for my taking a stand for policies that we already have, that we should respect everybody and that everyone should feel safe in school. And if they don’t, they really need to tell the administration and that’s something we will work on to correct,” she said.
Crabtree, who is pastor of Refuge Church in Robbinsville, wrote in an Oct. 24 Facebook post of his own: “The MMC (Muka Maher Crabtree) team are the only ones that promise to fight for parental rights in Hamilton Township schools. The current majority voted for and defend the stripping of parental rights in our schools with the passing of Policy 5756.”
Policy 5756 reads, in part: “The Board of Education is committed to provide a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students. In furthering this goal, the Board adopts this Policy to ensure all students, including transgender students, have equal educational opportunities and equal access to the school district’s educational programs and activities.”
Harvey said that the growing polarization of school boards across the state is a worrisome trend and “not the right way to go for our children.”
“We need to embrace all perspectives, and come up with what’s in the best interest of educating our youth,” she said.
David Maher.,
Donald Snedeker II.,
