Six candidates made it past Tuesday's primary election for three open seats on the Columbus City Schools' Board of Education.
Patrick Katzenmeyer, Jermaine Kennedy, Janeece Keyes, Mounir Lynch, Kimberly Mason and Antoinette Miranda received the highest number of votes in the primary. The four candidates who received the least amount of votes were Liz Caslin-Turner, Teresa Hannah, Karrie Lumpkin and Julie Trabold.
With 99% of precincts reporting, Miranda led the pack with 22% of the vote, followed by Katzenmeyer with 20% of the vote and Kennedy with 18% of the vote.
Katzenmeyer is a project manager at The Pizzuti Companies who has children in the school district. Kennedy is a program officer at the Boys & Girls Club of Central Ohio and also has children in the district. Miranda is a former Ohio Board of Education member and current Ohio State University education professor.
Lynch won 8% of the vote, while Keyes and Mason both rounded out the top six with 7% of the vote.
Keyes is a program manager with the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. Lynch is a health educator and community activist. Mason is a high education project manager with the Ohio Bankers League.
The six will advance to the Nov. 3 general election, which will decide the three candidates who will fill the open seats.
About 300 votes separated Caslin-Turner, who came in seventh place, and Mason, who came in sixth.
The three seats became open after current school board members Michael Cole, Ramona Reyes and Christina Vera chose not to seek reelection.
The three leaving opens up a power vacuum on the board. Cole, the current board president, and Reyes were the two longest serving members of the board. Vera also led the board as president for a year.
The race is nonpartisan, but the Franklin County Democratic Party endorsed Katzenmeyer, Kennedy and Miranda for the three seats ahead of the primary. The party opted not to endorse in the three-way Columbus City Council race.
The three took home the highest vote totals out of all 10 candidates. Kennedy, who came in third, had about 5,000 more votes than Lynch, who came in fourth.
This is a developing story.
