In the St. Louis Park School Board race, the Minnesota Secretary of State's unofficial results indicates that incumbents Jim Yarosh, Bruce Richardson and Larry Shapiro won re-election.

Yarosh won the most votes, with 1,963. Richardson came in with the next highest amount, with 1,611. Shapiro rounded out the top three, with 1,590 votes.

Their challengers were unsuccessful, but each pulled in a significant proportion of the votes, with Bill Levine receiving 1,202 votes and Gregg Lindberg receiving 1,109.

Results might not reflect the total votes for the races and are unofficial until certified.

Yarosh said the incumbents' re-election shows the community supports the board despite difficult decisions members have had to make.

"I think it shows that despite the difficulties we've had financially, we've been able to do things the community likes and supports," Yarosh said.

Both the challengers and incumbents worked hard, making for an unpredictable race, Yarosh said. He said he's pleased by the results and that voters acknowledged the hard work board members have put in during the past years.

"I hope the community can rally and unite behind some of the decisions we have to make coming up," he said.

The stability of the board composition will be good for the school district during decisions relating to facilities and strategic planning, Richardson said. He is not surprised the challengers garnered many votes. Ultimately, he said, voters put the incumbents back in office based on the results they have achieved, such as Newsweek's high ranking of St. Louis Park Senior High School.

With looming state budget shortfalls, Richardson said the board's work will get tougher. The board will continue to "work the problem" both on the funding side and the cost-cutting side, such as considering savings relating to facilities.

Shapiro also acknowledged many of the same issues awaiting the board.

"One of the reasons I ran again is we do have some fairly big decisions to make, and I feel like I have something to offer," Shapiro said. "Hopefully we can get through this and we can come out the other side better than we were coming in."

The vote totals do not give the board an overwhelming mandate and members will have to listen to what people have to say as they make decisions, Shapiro said.

"Everybody wants us to educate our kids to the best of their ability, and it's just how do we get there?" he said. "We have monetary constraints and how do we best balance that against the ultimate goal of educating all the kids? I'm honored that I did get re-elected and we'll try to do our best going forward."

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