Tripp, White, Dunsmoor Elected To School Board

by Steve Yablonski | May 21, 2008 1:05 am

OSWEGO, NY – Voters in the Oswego City School District defeated the proposed budget by an unofficial tally of 1,956 no to 1,392 yes on Tuesday.

The budget lost in 9 of the 10 districts. In the Third Ward, the vote was 89 – 89.

[1]Nine candidates sought three open seats on the school board.

One of two incumbents was re-elected.

Dave White garnered an unofficial tally of 1,459. That was good for third place.

Sally Nettles, the current board vice president, received an unofficial vote count of 781 (seventh place).

Newcomer John Dunsmoor was the second top vote getter with an unofficial tally of 1,467.

Sam Tripp, a former board member, received the most votes, unofficially totaling 2,109.

The unofficial vote totals for the other candidates are: fourth place – (1,214) Doug Buske; fifth place – (1,129) Tom DeCastro; sixth place – (803) Brenda Earl; eighth place – (541) Mary Ann Schultz; and ninth place – (384) Tobie McIntosh.

The first district didn’t report until just after 10 p.m. The last district tally was reported shortly before 11 p.m.

Tripp, White, Buske, and Dunsmoor battled for the top three spots most of the night. Earl was in the mix for a while before fading at about the halfway mark.

At about the same time, Dunsmoor edged ahead of Buske. He continued to pull away during the second half.

It was Tripp, White and Dunsmoor from the fourth district reporting until a surge from the Seventh Ward moved Dunsmoor into second place with one more district to go.

“I think the people are looking for a different philosophy on the board than what we’ve got currently, had for the past few years,” Tripp said. “The people have spoken by the huge turnout.”

He said he would look at programs, and “try to rebuild the district that we had in the past, get us back to where we were.”

He added he wasn’t surprised by the budget’s defeat.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” he said.

“It’s obviously a loud statement by the community. It’s back to the drawing board,” current board member Sean Madden agreed. “The voters obviously weren’t very pleased with what they saw. So, it looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“We definitely have a problem with the budget,” White said. “We’ll have to look at it and see what we can do. Evidently, people were mad. I don’t know if they were mad because of the things that were taken out or there wasn’t enough taken out.”

“Obviously, people were a little upset with the way things have been going on the board and were looking for some changes,” Dunsmoor said. “They definitely didn’t like the budget.”

The board member-elect said he will work hard to acquaint himself with the issues facing the district.

“I want to educate myself about the issues and be ready to hit the ground running in July (when he’s officially sworn in). The public was very strong in wanting to have a change in the board,” he said. “I think I can make a difference.”

Voters unofficially approved the replacement of buses proposition (1,843 to 1,445).

However, the district’s request to establish a capital reserve fund lost unofficially (1,442 to 1,747).

The public library’s budget was approved unofficially by a 1,575 to 1,314 tally.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/tripp-white-dunsmoor-elected-to-school-board/

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