PETERSBURG — Two of the three winners of the Upper Township school board election were undecided as of Election Day last week, with just 316 votes separating first and sixth place with 16,108 cast.
Board of Education incumbent Chris Lentz garnered the most votes with 2,786, followed by longtime board president Michele Barbieri with 2,738, newcomer Logan Bird with 2,735 and former member Brian Teeney with 2,705.
Absentee, mail and provisional ballots have to be counted before the Cape May County Board of Elections makes the results official Nov. 24.
Six candidates on two slates were vying for the three seats. The nine-member panel oversees a primary, elementary and intermediate school, while the district pays tuition to Ocean City and other communities for high school. Three serve as non-voting members of the Ocean City school board.
Lentz, Barbieri and Teeney formed the “Students First” ticket, while Bird, Kristi Lancaster (2,470) and Meghan Ludgate Miller (2,547) were challenging on the “Kids First” slate.
Barbieri has been serving on the board since 2004 and now is in her 21st year. During that time, she has attained Certified Board of Education Member and Master Board of Education Member through her service and professional development. She has been an active voting member of New Jersey School Boards Association. She works as an executive assistant at Glenn Insurance in Absecon.
She and her husband have two grown daughters and three grandchildren.
Lentz, 63, an educator for nearly four decades, has lived in the same home in Upper Township for 35 years. Over a 38-year career, she taught middle school science in Delaware and high school science, biology, chemistry and physical science in Ocean City.
Lentz served as head girls basketball coach and assistant softball coach, and later as an assistant principal and athletic director in Ocean City.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Moravian University in biology, a master’s degree in educational leadership from St. Joseph’s University and a doctorate in innovation and leadership from Wilmington University.
She now works as an adjunct professor of biology at Stockton University and chemistry at Atlantic Cape Community college.
Logan Bird, 39, is a lifelong resident of Upper Township and the father of six children — five who are students in the Upper Township School District.
Bird and his 10 siblings are all graduates of Ocean City High School. After graduation in 2005, he served a two-year service mission for his church and then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Bird is chief operating officer of EV+ Charging and has spent his entire career in the private sector, both building businesses and running large-scale operations.
Teeney, an officer with the Ocean City Police Department Traffic Safety Unit, served one previous term, from 2021-24, and is seeking a second term on the board.
He has been a resident of Upper Township for more than 25 years and both he and his wife attended township schools and Ocean City High School. Their two sons are currently following their educational path at the high school.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff