POTTSTOWN — A split result Tuesday put three Democratic candidates and two Republicans on the Pottstown School Board.

Former incumbent Judyth Zahora, running on the Democratic line, was joined by first-time candidates Mary-Beth Lydon and Andrew Kefer in taking three of the five open seats.

Incumbent Dennis Wausnock and W. Ronald Williams, both of whom won both Republican and Democratic ballot lines in the spring primary, easily took the other two seats.

According to unofficial results calculated at Republican headquarters at Cutillo’s, Williams was the top vote-getter with 2,203 votes, closely followed by Wausnock, who got 2,185.

Lydon came in next with 1,585; then Kefer with 1,556 and then Zahora, 1,512.

The Republican candidates earned votes as follows: William Habekost took the fewest votes with 961. Avram Hammer won 978 votes and Michelle Porter collected 1,103.

“I think the people of Pottstown want to see consensus on the school board,” said Zahora. “There’s a lot of vitriol and contention on the school board and I think people want to see some consensus building,” she said.

The race narrowed from 10 candidates to eight in May when incumbent Michele Pargeon and former incumbent Amy Bathurst-Francis were knocked out of the running.

In that election, Williams and Wausnock won both Republican and Democratic ballot lines, leaving the other Republicans, Habekost, Hammer and Porter to face off against Zahora, Kefer and Lydon.

The race’s final days were marked by a series of mailers, and even a robo-call, some of which were quite personal.

One mailer characterized Wausnock, Habekost and Hammer, respectively, as “a narcoleptic, a convicted criminal and a sex addict” and was issued by an organization calling itself “Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Candidates.”

The name is a knock-off of “Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government,” the political action committee formed by school board member Thomas Hylton and for which he is, with one exception, the sole contributor.

Hylton’s committee issued its own mailer taking aim at Zahora’s voting record on spending and suggesting she will vote to reverse or stop the recent decision to renovate all five Pottstown elementary schools.

Both Zahora and Kefer said they do not support the current plans for the elementary school renovations during a Mercury election forum. Lydon did not attend.

Hylton was also in the cross-hairs for an automated phone call which asked urged voters to “stop Tom Hylton’s plan to raise your taxes.”

Calling the Republican candidates “Tom Hylton’s team for school board,” it urged voters to vote for Kefer, Lydon and Zahora to “protect Pottstown from higher taxes by preserving our children’s art, music, sports and special education programs.”

Lydon said she hoped the mailer and robo-calls were not too big of a factor.

"I hope it wasn’t too much of an issue against anyone,” Lydon said, “but more of a clarifying picture for who people thought could really come together in the interest of the students; so we could look forward to a new chapter with not so much back and forth but be willing to make reasonable, logical progress.”

All three candidates said they did not endorse the fliers or calls, but only paid for yard signs and took out radio advertisements on WBZH.

“I think it was old-fashioned politicking,” Kefer said of their victory. “Judy and Mary-Beth and I went door-to-door and I think that really helped. People told me today that they voted for me because I came to see them.”

The new board members will take office next month.

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