Town Clerk and Registrar of Voters Angela Phillis supervises a school board member recount Tuesday at the town’s Auxiliary Hall in West Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

WEST GARDINER — Janelle McKinnon has officially secured a seat on the Gardiner-area school board following a ballot recount Thursday.

Gunner McKinnon, 9, left, and Sutton McKinnon, 11, gave their mother Janelle McKinnon a card and flowers after she won an election for school board following a recount Tuesday at the town’s Auxiliary Hall in West Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Recounting the ballots took just over an hour with six people counting the more 900 ballots in batches of 50 at a time. The recount was open to the public and a handful of people watched the volunteers count the ballots by hand.

Both of the races on the town election’s April 12 ballot were very close. Steve McGee won a spot on the select board with just 30 votes more than Chris McLaughlin. For the three-year seat on the Maine School Administrative District 11 school board, McKinnon ran as a write-in candidate and won against incumbent Matthew Lillibridge by 24 votes.

Lillibridge requested a recount, which was held at 10 a.m.

The results were slightly different than before, but McKinnon still won with 295 votes to Lillibridge’s 279 votes.

“I am relieved,” McKinnon said at the recount, which was held in the town’s Auxiliary Hall. “It was a stressful couple of weeks.”

Lillibridge did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The school board race gained attention in the community as tensions on the MSAD 11 school board have been at an all time high around a policy for transgender students and a proposal for a school-based health center.

Josh Tardy, left, attorney for Janelle McKinnon, right, chat as they observe a school board member recount Tuesday at the town’s Auxiliary Hall in West Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Of the other school board candidates on the ballot, Boyd received 147 votes in the recount and Kate Merrill, despite dropping out of the race, received 80 votes. Several other write-in candidates received votes: Robert “Neil” Farrar received 21 votes and Kim Greenleaf received one.

McKinnon ran last minute after attending the West Gardiner candidate panel in late March and decided that she did not want to vote for either Lillibridge or Boyd. She had two weeks to prepare and spent any free time she had at the transfer station meeting with local community members.

Lillibridge served on the MSAD 11 school board since the 2018-19 school year and strongly supported the proposal for the school-based health center. Boyd was recruited to run by a nonprofit out of Brewer as a conservative candidate, and advocated against transgender rights and for the Bible to be a regular part of public school education.

McKinnon says that she will serve the role with a back-to-basics approach and advocate for transparency from the school district to families, specifically for students who identify as transgender.

McKinnon’s first meeting will be Thursday, May 1.

“I’m ready to get started,” she said.