Linfeng Chen, Jacky McCoy Lead Howard County School Board Race, Results Pending

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Howard County voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide who will serve on school board and other races. Unofficial returns give the lead to Linfeng Chen and Jacky McCoy for the two seats on the board.

Here are the preliminary results from the 2022 school board election in Howard County as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Board of Education (two seats)

• Tudy Adler: adler4BOE.com - 20.51%
• Linfeng Chen: chen4boe.org - 27.32%
• Jacky McCoy - 26.56%
• Dan Newberger: votenewberger.com - 25.04%

Chen told Patch his top three priorities are: (1) addressing the staff shortage; (2) providing adequate school infrastructure; and (3) improving student physical health and mental health.

He said he ran for office because: I am running for the Board of Education because I want to solve the pressing problems in our school system. I have observed many issues in HCPSS as my eldest child grew from a kindergartener to a 10th grader. Covid made some issues even worse. Some of the most pressing issues include the drop in academic performance, the staff shortage, overcrowded schools, the mental health crisis, school safety, dropped school enrollment, lagged school infrastructure, lack of long term planning, and school start times.

Jacky McCoy on why she ran for a seat on the Howard County Board of Education: I want to use my unique set of skills and experiences to bring about:- REAL EDUCATION that is effective for all students,- REAL ACCESS to necessary resources for students and teachers, and- REAL FAMILY ENGAGEMENT from preschool to high school.It is my goal to ensure that every student has equitable access to opportunity, regardless of where they live in the county.

Outside of addressing the impact of the pandemic on student learning, the most pressing issue facing the HCPSS is teacher retention and recruitment which is a nationwide crisis. To address this issue employment processes, wages, and employment incentives have to be adjusted to be more competitive with other school systems competing to recruit and retain teachers. However, wages and employment incentives are addressed as part of the budgetary process. In the meantime, there may be a need to restructure Central Office staff (trained educators) to fill some of the classroom teacher gaps until Human Resources can grow the classroom teacher numbers. Reaching out to recently retired educators may be viable option as well.

When Will The Results Be Certified?

Election officials will not certify the final results for at least 10 days. Officials must wait for every mail-in and provisional ballot to come in.

Soon after polls close on Nov. 8, the Maryland State Board of Elections will release the jurisdiction-specific tallies from in-person early voting and mail-in ballots counted up to Election Day.

Officials will start releasing the Election Day vote counts over the following hours on election night.

All 24 jurisdictions will start releasing their early voting and Election Day tallies on Nov. 8. Only 10 will release the mail-in ballot results tallied before Election Day.

The Maryland Court of Appeals on Oct. 7 ruled that local election offices can opt to start counting mail-in ballots before Election Day. They cannot release these results until after polls close on Election Day, and they must continue accepting ballots until the statewide deadline of Nov. 18 at 10 a.m.

These jurisdictions plan to conduct pre-Election Day canvassing of mail-in ballots: Baltimore City and Allegany, Baltimore, Calvert, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, Saint Mary's and Washington counties.

Election officials will tally provisional ballots on Nov. 16. Mail-in ballots will be counted as they arrive until Nov. 18. Local boards cannot certify their results before Nov. 18.