Five spots on the nine-member school board of the Radnor Township School District will be filled by voters on Nov. 8.

Radnor voters have 10 candidates to choose from: five Democrats and five Republicans.

Incumbent Eric Zajac leads Lisa Borowski, Eric Budin, Kimm Doherty and Shelia Palmer on the Democratic ticket, against board members Patricia Booker and Chuck Madden, who are leading the Republican’s ticket ; also on the GOP slate are Steven Modell, Janie Partridge and Howard Garland.

“As a homeowner and taxpayer, I understand my investment in the district crosses over several sectors,” said Palmer, who lives with her husband, Bob, and their three children in St. Davids. “Radnor’s a destination location, that’s why so many Philadelphia businesses chose this area to expand to, because the driving force of the community is a strong school district.”

Palmer, a Villanova alum with a degree in business administration and a concentration in finance, worked at CoreStates Bank. In addition to being an active member of the Radnor Educational Foundation and Grants and Strategic Planning committees, Palmer has also served two terms as Radnor Elementary School PTO president.

Palmer said she was proud to run along with her fellow Democratic candidates.

“I’m part of a good team, and each member brings a breadth of perspectives when looking at how to manage the school district, and looking at balancing those perspectives as well,” she said.

Steven Modell said he was enthusiastic about the makeup of the Republican ticket. He said the diverse backgrounds range from Booker, a businesswoman and current president of the board, to Madden, an incumbent who has served as part of the Delaware County Delegation of the Federal Relations Network, in addition to having more than 20 years of public administration experience.

Modell has lived in Radnor for seven years, where he’s raised his step-daughter, who’s now 25 and lives in Seattle, and a daughter who is a fifth grader at Wayne Elementary School. A graduate of Columbia University, Modell runs a national life insurance marketing organization called Modell Brokerage.

Both tickets named the budget as a key issue that the district will deal with now and in the future.

“if you look at our opponents on the Democratic side, they don’t talk about money, they talk about adding full-day kindergarten and raising money from corporations in the community,” Modell said. “All that is the pie in the sky wishful thinking not going to get us [what we will need].”

Modell said taxing, even with the Act 1 limits, was not the solution, and the district would have to look at contracts and benefits and programs and find ways to cut corners efficiently.

“We’re an affluent community, but there are those in the community having trouble paying medical, mortgage and other bills, and you cannot keep taxing these people,” he said.

Palmer said she and her team were in favor of examining all options before making cuts.

“We need to be a more proactive voice in Harrisburg,” Palmer said. “But importantly, as in any business model, any board is not doing its job if it doesn’t look at costs and benefits of working in the tax bracket…look for things from a strategic perspective and map a plan from a priority perspective."

“Beyond that, I think it’s important that people realize they need to get out and vote,” Palmer added. “These local elections impact their home values, their kids and their schools.”

Modell said the district needs to be like the biology experiment, the terrarium, where a small closed off area or tank without any water or condensation uses plants and light to add water and support organisms.

“A terrarium is a closed ecosystem,” he said. “We need to become just as self sufficient as that ecosystem, and be on stable footing with money so the district can just exist.”