By ANNE PICKERING, Staff Writer

EAST WHITELAND — Final vote tallies for the Great Valley School Board election indicate that in Region 1 with two seats open, the top vote-getter was David Barratt with 1,264 votes, or 36 percent of the vote, and Bruce Chambers was a close second with 1,224 votes, or 35 percent.

Steve Wicke received 997 votes.

In Region 2, with one school board seat up for grabs, Andrew Daga received the most votes with 791, or 56 percent of the vote, to the 610 votes received by his opponent, Vernon "Butch" Beals.

In Region 3, Sally Cummings won the four-year seat being vacated by retiring school board member Nicholas Vastardis with 871 votes, or 55 percent, to 705 votes received by her opponent, Andrea Lynch.

Also in Region 3, Phillip Foret received 921 votes, or 60 percent of the vote, to his opponent Daniel DiSanto's 600 votes for the seat left available when former school board member Jack McDowell died.

All results are unofficial until certified by the County's Board of Elections.

Election Day was long and tiring, said Barratt in an interview Wednesday.

"I'm glad it's over.

"But it's a new era. We have a new superintendent and now five new board members. It's a great opportunity for new thinking."

Barratt said he hoped the recently elected candidates would meet in the next weeks before they are sworn in to come up with new ideas "so we can hit the ground running."

For Chambers and his team, election night capped a long campaign.

He and his supporters visited more than 2,500 homes, going door to door and sending letters and e-mails.

He said he was satisfied with how the public responded to the message.

"I'm very pleased that I will get a chance to work on the board and try to improve our district," he said.

"There's a lot of people who want the school board to turn around."

He credited Great Valley Stakeholders with raising awareness about problems in the district.

The grassroots watchdog group was formed in 2007 to try to improve the school district. Through its Web site, it provided information on issues before the board.

Chambers said he was approached by the group to work with it.

"It's a loose-knit group of people concerned about the district. We don't have a board of directors," he said.

But it has been effective.

"It's caused us to have competitive elections. Now we have a good group of new school board members that want to work and not just do what the administration wants them to do," said Chambers.

Cummings agreed with the impact the group has had. She said she was a founding member of the stakeholders group, which she characterized as very informal.

"Nobody is a member. There are no members. It's just a bunch of people not happy with the board," she said.

"But we've already accomplished a lot," she said, noting that the school district now televises board meetings.

Cummings said she was "thrilled with all the candidates who won," and "I do hope there will be a better relationship between the board and the public."

Daga an architect who works as a consultant for NASA, and the winner in Region 2 said he was impressed with the campaign waged by his opponent, Beals.

"He's very well-qualified and I thought he did very well."

In the coming months, Daga said one of his priorities is to have the new board members meet with the new superintendent and find a working coalition.

He said he is an advocate for informal meetings with the public that are outside Robert's Rules of Order and people can talk without fear of going beyond the three-minute deadline.

To contact staff writer Anne Pickering, send an e-mail to apickering@dailylocal.com.