Lynn school board incumbents top ticket

LYNN – School Committee veteran Donna Coppola topped the ticket during Tuesday’s preliminary election that saw all the incumbents land in the top six spots.”Now I have to work harder,” said Coppola, who picked up 3,546. “Being first isn’t such a great spot to be in sometimes.”Her colleague, John Ford, and challenger Melissa Romaniello agreed.Ford and Coppola both noted that former committee member Vincent Spirito topped the ticket in the 2011 preliminary but lost in the subsequent November election.”There is a history of people that do well at first and don’t get to serve,” Ford said.Ford, who finished with 3,365 votes, is very happy with his second place finish but said it’s only halfway to the finish line.One day post preliminary and Ford said he is already posting signs and making plans to be more in the public eye. He has to, he added, because “it’s real easy to go from last to first or first to last. Real easy.”Incumbent Charlie Gallo said he was also very grateful for his third place finish but he called it a close race with no time to rest on laurels.”We will keep working hard if not harder right through to November,” he said.Despite coming in eighth out of nine candidates, Melissa Romaniello said she is happy to have garnered nearly 1,000 votes “with no name recognition, no literature, no signs and very little door knocking.”I know I did terribly but I beat Stanley and he has a blog with almost 300,000 hits,” she added.Romaniello was referring to candidate Stanley Wotring, who finished last with only 780 votes. He could not be reached for comment. But Romaniello said the public would be wrong to count her out simply because she finished next to last.”Last time (Rick) Starbard and Gallo were at the bottom and they finished one and two in the final,” she said. “Sometimes I think it’s better to be at the bottom.”Patricia Capano finished fourth with 3,245 votes, just 30 votes more than Starbard and she said she is thrilled to be sandwiched right in the middle.”My ego doesn’t need to be in the first position,” she said. “And if you’re at the bottom, do you just have to work harder or are you a target?”Capano joked that she is a compromiser and likes a happy medium, “which is why I’m thrilled to be where I am.”She is aware, however, that she has to work to succeed in winning a seat back at the School Committee table come Nov. 5.”I want to achieve a seat,” she said. “It’s confidence of the vote, not the popularity.”