Saline MI
11-06-2024 1:03am

ELECTION 2024: Gerbe, Berwick, Steben and Tizedes Elected to Saline School Board

Saline elected two new members of the Saline Board of Education in the Nov. 5 election.

Voters re-elected Brad Gerbe and Jennifer Steben while electing new candidates Darcy Berwick and Jason Tizedes also won in a hotly contested election.

Gerbe ran strong from the first reporting precinct. He led the race with 7,821 votes.

"I am humbled. Time to do the work," said Gerbe, a teacher in the Manchester district.

Gerbe was elected by the Saline Education Association and the Washtenaw Democratic Party. Gerbe has served as the chair of the board's finance committee.

"I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue serving students and families. I don't take it for granted. I want all seven candidates to know that putting your name on the ballot takes courage, and I respect that. Greatly! I am excited that I will continue to have the opportunity to serve alongside Jennifer Steben, and I am also excited to see what Darcy and Jason bring to the table as Trustees. I know that they will do a great job."

Berwick started fairly strong but her totals got stronger as the night went on. She, too, was endorsed by the Democratic Party. 

Jennifer Steben, former president of the board and current vice president, looked like she might be battling for the fourth or fifth spot but finished strong.

Jason Tizedes ran a $10000+ campaign that was focused on school security. He finished fourth with a vote total that held off a late charge by incumbent Susan Estep, the board member who was the driving force behind many of the LGTBQ policies adopted by the board.

Tizedes gives the board a second conservative voice. Berwick will be one of the more liberal voices on the board.

Here are the results.

PRECINCT NAME Shari Barnett Darcy Berwick Susan Estep Brad Gerbe Kelly Van Singel Jennifer Steben Jason Tizedes Rejected write-ins Unassigned write-ins
City of Saline, Precinct 1 937 1230 1037 1326 673 1036 877 0 26
City of Saline, Precinct 2 945 1351 1244 1307 769 1138 974 0 31
Bridgewater Township, Precinct 1 60 71 60 68 41 57 73 0 3
Freedom Township, Precinct 1 22 11 18 12 11 14 16 0 0
Lodi Township, Precinct 1 1181 1209 1038 1376 856 1234 1252 0 45
Pittsfield Charter Township, Precinct 1 551 609 560 682 385 636 594 0 11
Pittsfield Charter Township, Precinct 2 976 1241 1104 1281 713 1275 1008 0 23
Saline Township, Precinct 1 529 472 468 508 340 457 523 0 25
York Township, Precinct 2 1214 1156 969 1261 718 1202 1336 0 44
Totals 6415
13.80%		 7350
15.81%		 6498
13.97%		 7821
16.82%		 4506
9.69%		 7049
15.16%		 6653
14.31%		 0
0.00%		 208
0.45%
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11-07-2024 2:12pm

"The new board will feature 5 liberals and 2 conservatives."

"Gerbe was elected by the Saline Education Association and the Washtenaw Democratic Party." 

What? 

Wow. The bias is unconscionable. 

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11-08-2024 12:05pm

I was glad to see Jason win, and bummed that Shari lost. I am not a Republican, but the political activism in our schools needs to stop. Focus on academic excellence and basic managerial competence. Investigate and address the root causes of declining enrollment. The fact that we have an official policy of deceiving parents regarding their childrens' gender transitions is insane, probably unconstitutional, and lacks empirical evidence to back it up. If the school has reason to believe children are not safe at home, they are already obliged to report it to child protective services, so what is the purpose of a blanket policy of deception? Gerbe, Berwick, and Steben repeat the falsehood that this policy is based in evidence, when it is simply a pop culture fad. Look up the Cass report. We must treat all individuals with dignity, but the evidence base for so-called gender affirming care is actually very weak to nonexistent. Simply repeating a fallacy over and over does not make it so.

Turn down the temperature. No more race and gender nonsense. If you want to teach your kids that stuff at home, fine, but if we wanted to send our children to a progressive indoctrination center, we'd send them to Ann Arbor Public Schools. This is just the progressive version of conservatives who try to teach creationism in schools.

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