MILTON Michael Zullas overwhelmingly won a second term on the select board, two newcomers won seats on the school committee and voters approved a debt exclusion to update the town s fire stations in Tuesday s town election.
Zullas defeated Philip Johenning by a margin of 3,481 votes to 691 in the select board race.
Elizabeth Lizzy Carroll and Beverly Ross Denny, who ran a joint campaign, swept to victory in the contest for two vacant school committee seats. Carroll, a program director for Facing History and Ourselves, collected 2,778 votes and Denny, director of Grantmakers for Education, had 2,745 votes. Kristin Kociol placed third with 1,949 votes and Susannah Hagerty had 1,321.
She just doesn t know what impact the continuing coronavirus pandemic will have on turnout. All the evidence is there that we should have a good turnout, but throw COVID into the mix and I just don t know, Galvin said. The candidates are pretty active in their campaigning.
Last year, with the election moved to June due to the pandemic, only 15.8 percent of the town s voters cast ballots, nearly half of them by absentee or mail-in ballots. Galvin said she had received just over 600 requests for absentee and mail-in ballots for Tuesday s election.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the town s 10 precincts. Galvin said masks will be required at the polls, voting booths will be six feet apart and other COVID-19 precautions will be in place.
MILTON As her school board hashed out a plan for learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristin Kociol said she, like many parents, tuned into every virtual meeting and took every opportunity to voice her hopes and concerns.
“Parents would pour their heart out over Zoom, and I think we felt like they were listening, but then there was no plan or transparency on the side of the school committee,” said Kociol, of Milton, whose daughters are in fourth and seventh grades. “I felt like the schools weren’t meeting the expectations I had as a parent, and I was surprised the school committee wasn’t engaged in a more public discussion with community stakeholders.”
MILTON Contests for select board and school committee top the five races on the ballot for the April 27 town election.
Tuesday was the deadline for submitting nomination papers for the election to the office of Town Clerk Susan Galvin. It should be interesting, Galvin said of this year s election races.
She said vacancies on some high-profile town boards is part of the reason for the number of races as well as the attention issues surrounding the reopening of the schools are getting.. Everyone is interested in what s happening with the schools and getting back to school, said Galvin, who is running unopposed for re-election.