GREENFIELD — After receiving the lowest number of votes of the seven School Committee candidates in Tuesday’s preliminary election, resident Pamela Goodwin will not have her name included on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Per requirements outlined in the city charter, the preliminary election was necessary to narrow down the seven School Committee candidates seeking election to one of three seats with four-year terms that are up for grabs in the city’s biennial election. According to official election results compiled by the City Clerk’s Office, Goodwin received 144 votes.
“I’m disappointed by the turnout,” Goodwin said in a phone interview Wednesday morning. “I’m disappointed that the campaign became so ugly and so quickly became politicized into blue and red when I have always been unenrolled.”
Of the total votes cast, the three-person cooperative campaign of candidates — current School Committee member Elizabeth DeNeeve, and residents Jeffrey Diteman and Adrienne Craig-Williams — took the lead. DeNeeve received 777 votes, followed by Diteman with 756 votes and Craig-Williams with 696 votes.
“Being on the School Committee is all about working collectively to ensure that the education of our young people is in good hands. That means supporting our staff and fully funding our schools. Running together as a slate shows that we are invested in doing that work as a team,” DeNeeve, the top vote-getter, wrote in a statement. “Parents, families, teachers and citizens of Greenfield came together to help us with every aspect of this work from canvassing to website building, to bringing us beautiful garden flowers and tomatoes. This is positive community in action.”
After DeNeeve, Diteman and Craig-Williams, current School Committee member Melodie Goodwin received 540 votes, Public Safety Commission Chair David Moscaritolo received 485 votes and At-Large City Councilor Michael Terounzo received 456 votes.
City Clerk Kathy Scott said voter turnout for Tuesday’s preliminary election was less than 2% as of 10 a.m. and rose to 4.65% by 2:45 p.m., and 1,341 ballots were cast by the time polls closed at Greenfield High School at 8 p.m. With 13,441 registered voters, the preliminary election saw a turnout of just under 10%.
“I was hoping to see a larger percentage of voter turnout,” Scott said Wednesday morning, “but we got close to 10%.”
In 2019, the preliminary election saw a 9.3% turnout by noon on Election Day, per Greenfield Recorder archives.
The six top vote-getters for the four-year School Committee seats will have their names included on the Nov. 4 ballot. In addition, resident Melissa Webb is running for a two-year term on the School Committee. As she is running unopposed, her name was not included in the preliminary election.
Three new faces are running unopposed for City Council seats in November representing Precincts 7 and 9, as well as one at-large position.
Historical Commission member Sarah Bolduc is running for the Precinct 7 seat currently held by William “Wid” Perry, while resident Max Webbe is running for the Precinct 9 seat currently held by Derek Helie. Resident Maisie Sibbison-Alves is seeking an at-large seat currently held by Michael Terounzo. Perry, Helie and Terounzo are not seeking reelection to City Council.
Incumbent councilors Patricia Williams (Precinct 6), Lora Wondolowski (Precinct 8), Marianne Bullock (Precinct 5) and Sara Brown (at-large) are also running unopposed to retain their seats.
