See primary election results for Centre County school board races
Thousands of Centre County voters ventured to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots for 2025’s municipal primaries, which included several competitive school board races.
State College and Penns Valley’s school districts both had seven candidates vying for four open seats on their boards, while smaller candidate pools contended for four open board seats in Bellefonte, Bald Eagle and Philipsburg-Osceola’s districts. Nearly every school board candidate cross-filed, meaning they appeared on both the Republican and Democratic primary ballots.
Generally, 2025’s primary race played out largely without the involvement of political action committees, which was not the case during 2023’s school board primaries.
Below are the unofficial results as of 10:30 p.m. with each of the county’s 87 precincts reporting both Election Day and mail-in votes. All results are unofficial until certified by the Board of Elections. Military and overseas ballots can also be received by Tuesday, May 27 if they were submitted for delivery before midnight Monday.
State College Area School District (4 seats)
Six candidates appeared to win party nominations for November’s ballot. Anderson (5,004 votes), Barlow (4,838 votes), Huff (4,620 votes) and Arnold Desmarais (4,271 votes) led Democratic voting in the primary, while McTernan (2,121 votes) and Sogor (1,876 votes) led Republican voting.
Bellefonte Area School District (4 seats)
Incumbent board members Nate Campbell, Kristin Lyons and Jon Guizar topped this district’s candidate slate.
Jack Bechdel resigned from the board and was sentenced last week to nine months of probation after pleading guilty to summary counts of harassment and disorderly conduct. His name remained on the primary ballot because the deadline to withdraw passed before his arrest in April.
Following Tuesday’s primary, Campbell, Guizar, Lyons and Yech are set to appear as cross-filed candidates on November’s ballot.
Penns Valley Area School District (4 seats)
This district’s candidate slate did not feature any incumbent board members.
Daniel Decker, Mike Pase, Douglas Roth and Kendyl Wittenrich ran for at-large seats on Penns Valley’s board. Vincent Nicosia filed to run for an open Region 2 seat, while Amber May and Jessica Shawver filed to run for an open seat in Region 3. Shawver filed for only the Republican ballot.
Bald Eagle Area School District (4 seats)
All four filed candidates for this district’s school board race — Tina Greene, Mary Ann Hamilton, Mark Kresovich and Timothy Nilson — are incumbents.
Hamilton and Nilson ran for Region 1 seats, while Kresovich and Greene ran for an open seat in Region 2 and Region 3, respectively.
Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District (4 seats)
No candidate filed to run for this school board’s Centre County-based seats, though prospective candidates were able to proceed with write-in campaigns. Those seats — District 3 and District 5 — respectively received four and 13 total write-in votes, according to the latest results report.
Incumbents Shawnna Baney-Shaw (District 7) and Richard Wood (District 8) ran for board seats up for grabs in Clearfield County. Wood ran as a cross-filed candidate, while Baney-Shaw filed for only the Republican ballot.
According to the latest results out of Clearfield County, Baney-Shaw received 205 total Republican votes, while Wood received 139 Republican votes and 97 Democratic votes. Both will appear on November’s ballot.
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 9:51 PM.
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