Siebert, Pakala, Wohlrab Win Brick School Board Race

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township voters returned Stephanie Wohlrab and Victoria Pakala to the Board of Education and voted in newcomer Nicole Siebert on Tuesday, but the fate of a proposal to spend $12.5 million on safety and security upgrades in the schools remained uncertain.

According to unofficial results as of 1 a.m. on the Ocean County Board of Elections website, Siebert was the top vote-getter in the race for the three, three-year seats with 12,194, followed by Pakala at 11,386 and Wohlrab had 10,500. Challenger Robert Canfield had 7,726; John Barton, the former board member, had 7,434 and Edward X. Young finished with 5,903. There also were 1,463 write-in votes.

The unofficial totals for the security referendum posted by about 9:30 p.m. showed voters had rejected it by about 675 votes, with 11,290 no votes to 10,615 yes votes. However, updated vote totals posted by Ocean County election officials around midnight narrowed the gap significantly, with 12,720 no votes and 12,593 yes votes, a margin of just 127 votes. With a number of provisional ballots cast across the state on Tuesday because of confusion over the state's new mail-in ballot laws, that number could change further.

The victory for Wohlrab and the rest of the Believe in Brick slate comes in the face of an onslaught of accusations by Canfield that she had engaged in pay-to-play in connection with donations from the Brick Township school district's insurance carrier to a Super PAC she managed. Canfield, meanwhile, had taken heat for running with Young, who starred in several "grindstone" amateur horror movies with subject matters that included sexual content and one that highlights two serial killers.

The district was seeking to spend $12.5 million on safety upgrades at the district's schools with an estimated cost of $15 per year for homes assessed at the township average of $295,100 over 20 years. The proposal included renovations to create secure vestibles in all of the district's schools, a new camera system, an ID system for all staff and students, and an alert system with a range of capabilities that would have allowed teachers to summon help at the press of a button on an app.

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