By Chris Teale (File photo)

More than half of the seats on the Alexandria City School Board will turn over with the new year, as five new members of the body will join four incumbents following an intriguing election night in which some results were not settled until the final precincts reported.

The races were particularly close in districts B and C, where several newcomers won seats representing each district and edged out some of the incumbents running for re-election.

District B was one of the tightest races, as each of the five candidates picked up more than 3,500 votes. Veronica Nolan and Cindy Anderson will join the board after collecting 5,978 and 4,755 votes, respectively. Margaret Lorber beat out incumbent Kelly Carmichael Booz and Mimi Goff for the third and final position as she picked up 4,231 votes, ahead of Goff’s 3,818 and Booz’s 3,750.

Booz was the only incumbent running for re-election in District B, and at one stage she was just nine votes ahead of Goff for the third spot, but could not maintain that lead in the 11 precincts that make up the district.

Meanwhile, current board vice-chairman Chris Lewis and incumbent Ronnie Campbell remain for the next term, and will be joined in District C by Ramee Gentry, who beat Daria Dillard by just 30 votes. Incumbent Pat Hennig finished fifth. Lewis picked up the most votes across the district’s eight precincts — 2,801 — with Campbell not far behind, securing 2,514 votes. Gentry’s 1,933 votes were just enough to beat out Dillard with 1,903, while Hennig managed 1,889.

District A saw the easiest race of the night, as current board chairwoman Karen Graf, incumbent board member Bill Campbell and newcomer Hal Cardwell ran unopposed for the three slots available and all won easily. Graf picked up the most votes of any school board candidate on the night — 7,112 — while Campbell took 6,354 and Cardwell 5,753.

Meanwhile, a total of 774 write-in votes were cast across all three districts, 414 of which came in District A.