By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The School Committee’s incumbent members will be joined by a political newcomer, Vimala D. Phongsavanh, when the new panel takes office in December.

 Phongsavanh’s addition to the five-member committee was the only change resulting from Tuesday’s city election that some had predicted would be all about change.
Instead, veteran school committee chairman Marc A. Dubois retained his top vote-getter status with a total of 3,775 votes. School Committeewoman Anita McGuire-Forcier came in second with a tally of 3,510 votes, School Committeewoman Linda Majewski third with 3,455, School Committeewoman Eleanor Nadeau fourth with 3,273, and Phongsavanh, 3,017 for the fifth panel seat.
Candidate George E. King came in sixth with a respectable tally of 2,956 for his door-to-door campaign work and Anthony J. Gabriele, making a second bid for the office collected 2,669 votes. Evelyn G. Mack-Loggins, another political newcomer in the election, came in eighth with a tally of 1,753 votes.
The campaign season’s focus on city spending and the school department’s effort to balance its current budget to available revenues had raised questions in the final days as to whether the issue would turn the election into a referendum on the current committee’s management of local schools.
The potential for change in fact appeared to have a quieting effect on Dubois’s election gathering at Ciro’s Restaurant on Cherry Street Tuesday evening.
 Attended by members of his family, fellow candidate Eleanor M. Nadeau, City Council candidate Thomas W. Wrona, and about two dozen supporters, the gathering had none of the flair and exuberance on display just down the street at Mayor-elect Leo T. Fontaine’s City Side party.
 The Dubois group focused intently on a projected computer screen as WNRI radio results were read off for the various city polling places.
 Dubois held a lead of about 81 votes early on with less than 500 total votes counted and only saw that grow in small increments as new polls were added.
 Eventually numbers cementing his first place finish arrived that also showed Phongsavanh’s success as the sole new member of the panel and mood became upbeat.
 Dubois brother, Michael, finally announced the new panel’s members and concluded with “and the No.1 vote getter is Marc Dubois,” to gain the room’s applause.
 Dubois thanked his supporters for their work on the campaign and also voiced happiness over Nadeau’s re-election to what will be her fifth term on the panel.
 While there had been criticism of the school department in the weeks prior to the election, Dubois said he believes voters understood the fiscal problems were the result of cuts in state aid to Woonsocket and not the actions of the committee.
 In the end, Dubois said the voters saw “many positive things” that the committee has accomplished in the past two years and voted accordingly.
 “Our tests scores are improving, we have many new alternative programs for students in place, and we have school uniforms going into place next year,” he said. Local residents will also soon be able to tour the new middle school facilities just completed at Hamlet Avenue as part of a-voter-approved $80 million school improvement bond.
 With the results of the election, Dubois said he sees the implementation of school uniforms taking place as scheduled by the panel. “Given the committee’s support in past, I’m sure the policy will definitely stay in place,” he said.
 Dubois said he also wished to congratulate Phongsavanh on her win. “It was certainly a good showing for her first time running for office and I look forward to working with her,” he said.
 Gabriele linked his campaign efforts to Todd Brien’s endorsed Democrat team, just as McGuire-Forcier had joined Fontaine’s camp at City Side, and remained optimistic Tuesday despite the eventual outcome.
  Gabriele said he too had walked the city in the search for votes and put much of his free  time into campaigning and would stay involved in school affairs no matter how the vote turned out.
 “I will stay involved in the Parents Advisory Council and I will definitely be involved for the kids, that’s not a question,” he said. Gabriele had worked to see the school department’s two new middle school’s approved by the voters and has a daughter, Ariana, attending the high school as a freshman this year.