UPDATE: Kowalewski, Guarascio Win Two Seats On Berkeley Board Of Education

Noriko Kowalewski and Thomas Guarascio have won the two available seats on the Berkeley Township Board of Education.

Kowalewski was the top votegetter with 5,267 voters or 27.58 percent. Guarascio received 5,123 votes, or 26.93 percent, according to the Ocean County Clerk’s office.

Kowalewski ran on a slate with former board members David Ytreboe and Thomas Guarascio. David Ytreboe received4,624 votes or 24.26 percent.

They were challenged by Christine Dwight, 15 Jeannette Street, who previously served two terms on the Central Regional Board of Education. Dwight ran as an independent with no campaign funding. She received 3,961 votes or 20.78 percent.

From the campaign preview published previously:

Kowalewski, 14 Seagull Point. is seeking her second term on the board. She previously ran with board members James Fulcomer and Salvatore Ferlise, who both decided not to seek another term.

Kowalewski is a licensed dental x-ray technician, according to the team’s campaign flier. But she was granted a seven-month leave of absence from her job in the Berkeley Township Recreation Department earlier this year to work on Third District congressional candidate Thomas MacArthur’s campaign.

David Ytreboe, 153 Manahattan Avenue, Bayville, is an assistant principal at Toms River High School North. He was appointed to an unexpired term in 2012, but lost a bid for a full term that year.

Guarascio, 17 Grouse Drive, was faulted by the state School Ethics Commission in 2008 for voting on a number of items he shouldn’t have voted on because his wife is employed by the district. He voted to reappoint his wife as a teacher; voted to reappoint James D. Roselli as principal of the Berkeley Township Elementary School; to reappoint Harry Colangelo as BTES assistant principal and to reappoint Dyann Declerio as the district’s supervisor of elementary education, all of whom supervised his wife, according to the commission.

He was also cited for voting in a closed session in 2008 not to renew former superintendent Joseph H. Vicari’s contract, and voting to appoint his wife as club sponsor for the district’s Scrapbook Club.

Guarascio is a teacher in the Central Regional school district.

The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. For a list of voting districts by individual town, go to the Ocean County Clerk’s Office website and click on “Nov. 4 General Election polling places.”