PEABODY — Voters ousted School Committee member Edward Nizwantowski last night, choosing instead to return incumbent Beverley Griffin Dunne as the top vote-getter followed by newcomers Thomas Rossignoll and Jarrod Hochman.

Nizwantowski, the former Peabody High baseball and football coach, spent one four-year term on the School Committee. Last night, he took a total of 4,167 votes. He could not be reached for comment. First-time candidate John Olimpio finished last in the field of five, reaping 4,088 votes.

It's the third time Dunne has topped the ticket in her bid for School Committee. She finished last night with 6,297 votes.

"I feel wonderful and very grateful," said Dunne, who waited at City Hall with her husband, Robert Dunne, last night for the official results. "It makes me feel like people do understand what I'm trying to do. It makes me want to work even harder."

Rossignoll, who took the committee's second seat with 5,655 votes, said he was "elated and exhausted." He called it an honor to run.

"It just shows you with hard work, anything is possible," he said. "If your heart is in it and people know you are doing it for the right reason, things will follow."

Rossignoll credited his friends and family for helping him get elected.

Hochman, who cinched the third and final seat, said his campaign worked hard. In his second bid for the School Committee, he received 4,936 votes.

"Everybody ran a great campaign," he said. "Now, we're just ready to work."

Hochman said he had a stronger network of supporters this time and a better understanding of how to reach voters.

"I had so many more people helping me, so many people encouraging me," he said. "The difference was much more delegation."

Olimpio said he was disappointed but knew the three elected candidates were qualified.

"It made it easier to swallow," he said. "I got a lot of support for the first time. I gave it my best shot. I think it's a question of people getting to know me."

Olimpio said he couldn't be sure if he would run for public office again but didn't rule it out last night.

"A lot can change in two years," he said. "We'll see what happens."

He congratulated the next trio of School Committee members.

Nizwantowski still has an age discrimination law suit against the schools wending its way through the court system. After he was passed over as baseball coach in 2005, he filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Nizwantowski would later lose his job as head football coach. But he would soon play a different role in the schools, as a member of the School Committee when he took office in January 2006.

Nizwantowski, through his attorney, later pitched a deal to return him as football coach, but the offer fell flat when details of the proposal became public. He was running for his second term last night.

In other city races:

Incumbents Thomas Paras and Robert Wheatley were returned to the Municipal Light Commission last night. Voters elected Margaret Tierney, Anne Quinn, Wesley Merrill and Richard Shruhan as trustees to the Peabody Institute Library's board.