Voters in the Derry Area School District will have to wait until November to sort out which four candidates will earn four-year terms on the school board.
According to unofficial results, each of the five hopefuls running for school director earned a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Two veteran school directors, Robert L. McCracken and Stephen W. Kozar, and newcomer Joseph P. Soltis easily won nominations on both the Republican and Democrat ballots in yesterday's primary election.
Another newcomer, Dave Krinock, who was the only candidate not to cross-file, was the leading vote-getter on the Democrat ballot, while another newcomer, Nathan Doherty, earned a Republican nomination.
According to unofficial vote totals from the district's 18 precincts on the Democratic ballot, Krinock garnered 1,270 votes; Kozar, 1,159; McCracken, 991; and Soltis, 803. Doherty, with 750 votes, did not win a Democratic nomination.
Kozar led all hopefuls on the Republican ballot with 512 votes. McCracken was second with 477 votes; Doherty, 435, and Soltis, 418.
McCracken, who has served 20 years on the board, is a quality systems analyst at Timken Latrobe Steel. Kozar, with 13 years experience as school director, is a production supervisor at Hydro-Carbide.
McCracken and Kozar touted their experience on the board in seeking re-election.
Doherty is a safety specialist for UPMC. Soltis works for the Mental Health Association of Westmoreland County as a patients' rights advocate at Torrance State Hospital, while Krinock is a construction worker.
Incumbent school board members Dennis Johns and Dr. Edward Torba did not seek re-election.
