Sapini defeats Taylor in Fifth District School board race
In a down-to-the-wire finish, incumbent Mamie Taylor lost her bid to local doctor Patrick Sapini for the Fifth District School Board seat.
The official tally has Taylor with 5,333 of the 10,934 votes cast. Sapini won 5,480. There were 121 votes for write-in candidates.
Taylor was behind Sapini when the unofficial count was completed on Nov. 9. The incumbent was about 150 votes behind Sapini at that time — Just shy of the 100 vote threshold which would have allowed her to demand a recount, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“It appears that the Fifth District School Board race is now outside of the 1 percent recount provisions,” Richmond Registrar J. Kirk Showalter said in an email Wednesday afternoon, according to the Times-Dispatch.
Sapini is a resident of the Fifth District and has lived in the Randolph Community for the past seven years. The doctor is a father of four school-age children and serves as a PTA’s Parent volunteer at Clark Springs, John B. Cary and Linwood Holton elementary schools and is a board member for the Wyatt T. Walker Education Foundation.
His School Board campaign received a boost when in September, Sapini was endorsed by the RCDC, the Richmond Education Association and the Richmond Association of Realtors.
In an October interview, Sapini said he would look to “provide effective and new leadership to the Fifth District School Board and to bring a collaborative and cooperative spirit to the work of the School Board.”
Sapini’s victory means that Taylor’s time in the school board, which began in 2012, will come to an end. The Huguenot and Richmond Community High School teacher garnered a reputation for raising her voice during board meetings when things did not go her way.
According to the Times-Dispatch, Taylor filed for a protective order against Kim Gray, who was recently elected to the City Council, because of a disagreement the two had in a closed session.
When Taylor’s request was denied, a judge reprimanded her for bringing the issue to court.
School Board Chairman Jeffrey Bourne was the only member of last year’s School Board that kept his seat. He fended off challenges from Kevin Starlings and Jessee Perry to win more than 62 percent of the vote in last Tuesday’s election.
Liz Doerr won the First District, Jonathan Young won the Fourth district, Nadine Marsh-Carter won the Seventh District and Dawn Page won the Eighth District.
Linda Baker Owen ran unopposed in the Ninth District.
NEWS EDITOR
Fadel Allassan
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