East Lyme — Party changes have helped shape this year's ballot, with a high-profile defection in the Board of Selectmen race and some switches on the Board of Education.

With Deputy First Selectman Kevin Seery putting in a bid for first selectman against Democratic Finance Board Chairwoman Camille Alberti, the only incumbents running for the five available selectmen seats are Democrat Dan Cunningham and Rose Ann Hardy. A former Democrat, Hardy is now an unaffiliated candidate running under the Republican banner.

In a surprise development this summer, Hardy failed to get the Democratic endorsement for the first time in 36 years. She said she agreed to run with the Republicans after looking over their goals and deciding she "could fit in."

Hardy, 77, is a retired social studies teacher in the East Lyme school system. She served as deputy selectman three times and as interim first selectman once since she was first elected in 1985.

Hardy said she considered forcing a primary to get on the Democratic line of the ballot, but concluded it would be too divisive.  "I just felt a lot of these people are my friends. I just didn't want to do that," she said.

Republicans Marc Salerno and Paul T. Dagle are departing after multiple terms on the board. In the running are Hardy, former Board of Finance Chairman William Weber and current finance board member Anne Santoro.

The three Democrats running on the "Moving Forward with Team Camille" platform are Cunningham, finance board Vice Chairman Ann Cicchiello and Zoning Commission member Terence P. Donovan.

Cunningham, 67, an attorney in Niantic who is married with four children, is seeking his fourth term. He has served as an ex-officio member of the Historic Properties Commission, Waterford/East Lyme Shellfish Commission and Brookside Farm Museum Commission.

"The buzzword is transparency in government," he said. "I think there's a perception, and I think the perception is accurate, that oftentimes projects were started and things got underway without input from the public and other members of the Board of Selectmen."

Those vying for their first term as selectman are split between Republicans and Democrats.

Cicchiello, 55, is an attorney covering civil litigation, personal injury and workers compensation law in private practice with her husband. The couple has two children. After a failed bid for Board of Education in 2017, she won election to the Board of Finance and became its vice chairman in 2019.

She identified the allocation of federal pandemic relief funds as a priority for the incoming administration. The town so far has disbursed $606,610 of its expected $5.4 million allotment, which must be spent by the end of 2024. Earlier this month, Cicchiello made a motion to postpone finance board approval of the latest, $1.01 million batch of projects forwarded by the selectmen after a previously approved purchase turned out to be ineligible for federal funding.

She said the process going forward should invite more public participation and each expense should be carefully vetted by town counsel. "I don't see there being really a big halt in the distribution of these funds."

Donovan, 54, is a tradesman with experience in carpentry and plumbing who also runs the Niantic-based Beef Fat Fry Guys food truck. He is in his third term on the Zoning Commission and was previously active in the Niantic Fire Department, where he remains a lifetime member.

He said he's not afraid to speak up at the selectmen's table about the issues that are making people talk in town. He cited improving the building permit process and educating residents about affordable housing as important conversations.

"I'm not in an office all day," he said. "I'm out in the street, so I know what's going on."

Santoro, 65, is a graduate of Stanford University in California and the University of Connecticut School of Law who worked for several years as an attorney for the Smithsonian Institution's contracting office and for the municipalities of Milford and Greenwich. She is married with two children.

Santoro said her priorities include supporting the nonprofit Niantic Main Street organization's efforts to build on 20 years of success by commissioning the Yale Urban Design Workshop to do another study of the economic development climate on Main Street and in the Flanders section of town.

Selectmen approved $30,000 for the study in the batch of projects slated by selectmen for funding with federal pandemic relief funds that was put on hold by the finance board. She voted against the motion to postpone a decision.

Weber, 61, is married with two children. He retired at the end of last year from Pratt & Whitney as an engineering manager. He holds a master's degree in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University and served for six years as a submariner with the U.S. Navy. He has been chairman of the finance board, Zoning Commission and Board of Assessment Appeals.

He described himself as adept at empowering people to work as a team, something he said is lacking on the finance board led by Alberti. "I feel in the last couple of years on the Board of Finance that we're getting too many people polarized by party affiliation and that, to me, keeps us from being as efficient as we can," he said.

Board of Education

The ballot includes seven candidates — two of them incumbents — running for five open seats on the evenly divided school board. Republicans Timothy Hagen, chairman, and John Kleinhans are not seeking reelection.

Two candidates previously endorsed by the Democrats are running this time with the Republicans. Candice Carlson is unaffiliated and Alisa Bradley has registered with the party.

Carlson joins incumbent Leigh McNamara Gianakos, also unaffiliated, on the Republican ticket, along with party members Lawrence Fitzgerald and Alisa Bradley. The Democrats put up incumbent Bill Derry, former school board member Laura Greenstein and newcomer Nickie DeLucco Padilla.

Carlson, 48, has been on the school board since 2013 as a Democrat. This is her first time running with the Republican endorsement. "I have always been a bipartisan person and choose candidates that best represent me versus party affiliation," she said. "I wanted to be part of a group that respected that."

A caseworker with the state Department of Developmental Services for 28 years, Carlson is married with two children in the school system.

"We need a parent's perspective and representatives on the (school board) that navigate for the betterment of our community and that put our children's education and well-being as a priority," she said.

McNamara Gianakos, 31, is married with a toddler and a preschool-aged child. A member of the board since 2017, she taught middle school language arts in Nashville, Tenn., and now works in the educational technology field developing curricular resources for teachers.

She said she is unaffiliated because she doesn't think the school board should be political. "I believe the Board of Education should operate in a balanced and nonpartisan fashion."

Both Carlson and McNamara Gianakos said addressing the social-emotional needs of students is a key priority as the district emerges from the pandemic.

Derry, 57, is married with a daughter in 10th grade at East Lyme High School and a son in college. He's in his 36th year as a teacher at Lyme-Old Lyme High School. He's served on the school board since 2015.

He cited the school board's work on diversity, equity and inclusion, which has included bringing in an independent consultant to study the school climate and make recommendations for improvement. He said he hopes the board will engage students and staff members "to hone in on the areas that are causing uncomfort or making it less welcoming."

Fitzgerald, 57, is married with two adult children. A neuroscientist with a Ph.D. in pharmacology and a master's degree in business administration, he worked in the biotech industry for established pharmaceutical companies and his own startup before transitioning to education. He's now a full-time adjunct professor of psychology at Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University.

"Being a psychologist and being a teacher working with students daily, I've really come to appreciate the impact the COVID pandemic has had on our students," he said. "It's not like a light switch you can turn on and off. There's going to be a protracted impact." He said one of the school board's key roles going forward will be to "remain vigilant" in assessing how students are doing socially, emotionally and intellectually in the wake of the pandemic.

Bradley, 52, was a Democrat when she ran in 2009, losing in a close race that came down to a recount. She recently became a registered Republican. She has a master's degree in education and one in organizational leadership, and taught middle school English before starting a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

She said her involvement with the schools began when her oldest daughter was entering kindergarten in the East Lyme school system amid budget cuts. Now, her two children are 15 and 19 years old and she said she wants to run again with a deeper understanding of the district and personal and professional experience that will allow her to represent the concerns of the wider community.

DeLucco Padilla, 44, is the mother of two elementary students in the school system. She has a master's degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages and is pursuing a master's degree in fine arts in writing. She's been a teacher for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and is an adjunct professor at Mitchell College.

A member of the nonprofit Southeastern Connecticut Organization for Racial Equity, DeLucco Padilla said she has been attending school board meetings for a year and a half, galvanized by the murder in 2020 of George Floyd by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. "I knew if we were going to make any change in this town whatsoever, it was going to have to start with the school system," she said.

Laura Greenstein, 71, is married with two children and two grandchildren. An educator, she taught students at all levels, from preschool through graduate school, and earned degrees including a doctorate in educational leadership. She has written five books on education assessment for teachers. She previously served on the school board from 2008 to 2012, when she moved to Waterford.

Back "at home" in East Lyme, she said she wants to listen to residents' concerns and work to address them with the understanding she doesn't "have the power to change everything for every parent."

"And I think it's important for parents to understand they can't make every classroom in school to be exactly what they want. It's a compromise," Greenstein said.

Also running is Matthew Borrelli, a registered Democrat who recently put in his name as a write-in candidate.

Borelli, 83, has three children and three grandchildren. He is a retired educator with a master's degree in guidance and counseling who worked as a teacher and then director of pupil services in South Windsor and West Hartford. After retiring, he served as interim superintendent in Hartford, Bloomfield and Waterbury.

He said his campaign revolves around the school board's failure to address his concerns about the districtwide diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. He said the school board did not provide information about the effort to the public nor did it give those with differing views a chance to be heard.

"I will listen," he said. "If you call, I will return your calls. If you write, I will read and return. I will be responsive."

e.regan@theday.com