Lawrence Township voters appear to have returned one incumbent school board member for another term, and elected two newcomers to the Lawrence Township Public Schools Board of Education in the Nov. 3 general election.
Based on preliminary results updated as of Nov. 7, which were current as of press time on Nov. 11, incumbent school board member Michele Bowes is the top vote-getter with 4,345 votes. Newcomers Gregory G. Johnson and Tabitha Bellamy McKinley have placed second and third in the voting tabulation, earning 4,320 votes and 3,819 votes, respectively.
Nine candidates are vying for the three seats on the school board, including incumbent school board members Dana Drake and Cathy LeCompte. Drake and LeCompte have received 3,714 votes and 3,812 votes, respectively. The term is for three years.
Candidates Patricia Hendricks Farmer has received 3,779 votes; Heather Camp has earned 3,194 votes; Jasmine Surti has garnered 2,439 votes; and Olufunmiola Ladigbolu has claimed 2,270 votes.
The vote tallies are unofficial and have not been certified by Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello. The deadline to count all votes is Nov. 20, which includes 993 provisional ballots in Lawrence in addition to the vote-by-mail ballots. The deadline to certify the results to the State of New Jersey is Nov. 23.
Bowes has lived in Lawrence since 2007 and has two children who attend Lawrence High School. She is a licensed social worker at St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center.
Camp is a seven-year resident of Lawrence, and has two children enrolled at the Lawrenceville Elementary School. She is the former director of Community Engaged Learning at The College of New Jersey, and is now a stay-at-home mother.
Drake grew up in Lawrence and returned to her hometown to raise her family. She has one child who attends Lawrence High School. She is the human resources director at the NJ Infrastructure Bank.
Farmer grew up in Lawrence. She has one child who attends the Lawrence Middle School. She is a business associate in the finance department at the Princeton Montessori School.
Johnson has lived in Lawrence for more than 30 years. He has two children, one of whom graduated from Lawrence High School and another child who graduated from The Bridge Academy in Lawrence. He is an attorney in private practice.
Ladigbolu has lived in Lawrence since 2017. She has three children, one of whom is a senior at Lawrence High School. She works in IT as a change control administrator at Columbia University Medical Center.
LeCompte is a 22-year resident of Lawrence. Her two children graduated from Lawrence High School. She is a marketing designer for Trimble MAPS in Princeton.
McKinley has lived in Lawrence for 10 years. She has two children enrolled at Lawrence High School. She is the NAEP state coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Education, where she oversees the national and international assessments in K-12 schools.
Surti is a four-year resident of Lawrence. She has one child enrolled at the Lawrence Middle School and another child enrolled at Lawrence High School. She is a senior manager in the Consumer Bank Governance and Control Department at TD Bank.
For continued election updates, visit https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NJ/Mercer/107134/web.264614/#/summary
