Education News
Venable-Novak, Makleff & Orzech win ACSD seats

JESS VENABLE-NOVAK
MIDDLEBURY — Addison Central School District voters on Tuesday decided a five-person race for three of Middlebury’s seven seats on the ACSD board, choosing Jess Venable-Novak, Ron Makleff and incumbent Steve Orzech to fill those three-year spots.
Venable-Novak, with 1,434 tallies, was the top vote-getter, followed by Makleff with 1,152, and Orzech with 860.
Incumbent Brian Bauer and first-time candidate Vance Bishop finished out of the running with 835 and 748 tallies, respectively.
In uncontested ACSD elections, Steve Cash (1,701 tallies) will represent Ripton on the board (succeeding former member Joanna Doria), and Jamie McCallum (1,747) was returned to a second consecutive term.

RON MAKLEFF AT Middlebury town meeting on Monday.
Independent photo/Steve James
All ACSD seats were voted at-large in the district-member towns of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge.

STEVE ORZECH AT Middlebury’s town meeting on Monday.
Independent photo/Steve James
The ACSD election and budget results were not available for public consumption until 1 p.m. on Wednesday, as the Independent went to press. But you can find more information about Venable-Novak and Makleff in a Q&A (tinyurl.com/5avpuj52) published in the Feb. 27 edition of the Independent, and about Orzech in a separate article (tinyurl.com/4hpu26e9) that ran Jan. 9.
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