BUFFALO, N.Y. -- There will be three new faces on the board of Buffalo Public Schools following school board elections on Tuesday, when 10 candidates went to the ballot box to compete for six open seats.

  • In the North District, incumbent Jason McCarthy appears to have been ousted by attorney Hope Jay. Jay is leading McCarthy 2,236 to 1,873 with 18 of 19 districts reporting. The Board of Elections says that the 19th District's results will be available in the morning, but did not say why.
 
  • In the West District, activist Jennifer Mecozzi will take the seat currently held by board president James Sampson, who was kicked off the ballot due to not having enough signatures. He remained in the race as a write-in candidate. Mecozzi got 904 votes, while there were only 395 other ballots and 32 absentee ballots.

Sampson was disappointed he did not get re-elected. He reflected on his three years in office and made a plea to those who were elected Tuesday night.

"I want to encourage people to embrace the agenda of Dr. (Kriner) Cash and I hope that whomever sits on the school board after July 1st will listen to him and work with him to help move this district forward," Sampson said.

  • In the Central District, Erie County Probation Department worker Paulette Woods has defeated District Parent Coordinating Council vice president Bryon McIntyre. Woods beat McIntyre 1,207 to 932. Current board member Mary Ruth Kapsiak was not seeking re-election.

In the Park District, Buffalo businessman and incumbent Carl Paladino is the unofficial winner. He faced challenger Austin Harig, an 18-year-old Hutch Tech senior. Paladino is ahead by 107 votes, but there are 140 absentee ballots remaining.

Over in the East District, incumbent board member Theresa Harris-Tigg was easily re-elected. She was the only candidate on the ballot, but faced write-in challenges from parent Colleen Russell and activist Patricia Elliott. Harris-Tigg won with 846 votes, while there were only 288 other ballots for write-in candidates.

In the Ferry District, incumbent Sharon Belton-Cottman was re-elected. She was running unopposed.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday but polling stations were anything but busy. Erie County Board of Elections Commissioner Len Lenihan said turnout is between 5 to 6 percent city-wide, as opposed to three years ago, when radio and TV ads spurred turnout to around 10 percent.

Current majority board member Larry Quinn said he was disappointed that Sampson and McCarthy were not re-elected. He says he hasn't met any of the new incoming members, so he's not sure what's to come.

"Dr. Cash's agenda will be supported by mostly everybody," Quinn said. "We have serious budget issues that won't go away, in fact, they'll get worse, so people will have to address that.

Phil Rumore of the teachers' union says he believes the shift in power on the school board means progress will be made on a number of key issues.

"This is a tremendous victory for our kids, because now we will have a school board that is interested in finding ways to work together to improve education rather than showing it's my way or the highway," said Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation president.