Three new faces emerge from crowded Millburn field

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Updated: May 11, 2011 5:40PM

A stay-at-home mom, an insurance executive and a financial controller for a manufacturing firm emerged victorious from a crowded field of candidates in the Millburn School Board race,

Joseph Pineau won 19 percent of the vote, with 1,695 votes cast. Scott Miller took 18 percent and incumbent Lisa Scanio received 14 percent.

Pineau, a finance executive for Snap-on Tools who has three children in the district, said his skill set resonated with voters.

“My background in continuous improvement, in financial management and budgeting - it’s all things that seem to be on everyone’s mind at this point,” Pineau said.

Jane Gattone won a two-year term after candidate Shawn Lahr, the former board president, withdrew from the race. Gattone, chairman of the Lindenhurst Village Plan Commission, won 79 percent of 578 votes cast.

Millburn, a two-school district in Wadsworth and Lindenhurst, is grappling with a deficit and a 17 percent cut in staff, a move that will increase class sizes and affect programs.

Candidates called for increased transparency, a rebuilding of trust and also, a carefully calculated whittling of the district’s deficit.

“There were a lot of good candidates,” Gattone said. “The board has a lot of work to do. We have a lot of great things going for us and I’m sure were going to be able to work through our financial problems and keep the district moving in the right direction.”

In the Antioch area-Emmons district, top vote-getter Melonnie Hartl received 21 percent of 846 votes cast. Incumbent James Galante, who was appointed to fill a vacant seat last year, won 19 percent and Diane Eldridge received 18.5 percent. All three won their neighborhood precincts.

“We all talked about being fiscally responsible,” said Hartl, who noted that a key concern in her precinct was communication.

Four four-term winners in the Round Lake unit district included Lori Weiss Berdeni with 20 percent, Annette Negrete McGinley 22 percent, incumbent Nanci Radford 22 percent and Tammie Hanna 21 percent — with 2,365 votes cast.