BY WALTER ELLIOTT
MONTCLAIR – Four individuals here, from among the newcomers and incumbents from seven towns who have filed their petitions for boards of education seats by 4 p.m. July 25, will be making history no matter how their township’s voters will decide on Nov. 8.
Officials County Clerk Christopher Durkin’s offices are currently examining the petitions for Yvonne W. Bouknight, Brian Fleischer, Noah Gale and Mfreke “Monk” Inyang after they have passed Montclair Public Schools’ clerical muster.
The quartet are participating in Montclair Public Schools’ first November General Election. MPS, following the will of a majority of that township’s participating registered voters’ Nov. 3, 2021 referendum approval, held a special March 8 election that added two members to its seven-member panel.
Montclair is undergoing a three-year process to convert its public school board from a mayor-appointed panel to one elected by voters. Orange Public Schools went through a similar process in 2018-20.
Montclair and Orange’s school administrators, however, had decided to hold their BOE elections on the otherwise mostly partisan November General Election ballot. They followed West Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Nutley in putting their candidates on that ballot instead of the third Tuesday in April.
South Orange-Maplewood has always held their board elections in November. Newark and Irvington remain the last “Local Talk” towns holding annual April school board and budget elections.
Clerk Durkin’s Election Division and the respective school board clerks/secretaries are leaving a door for any school-related ballot referendum questions until Sept. 8.
School boards who hold November elections are allowed to put budget item questions before voters should the questions exceed five percent of the school year budget. School budgets, as a state condition of shifting elections to November, are otherwise left to the boards and administrators.
“Local Talk,” as of press time, does not know of any forthcoming school referendum questions.
School board elections, whether held in November or April are nonpartisan. Candidates are not allowed to identify themselves with any political party during their campaigns. Candidates are allowed to run solo or under a common slogan or platform.
Elected public officials may endorse a school board candidate or ticket. Political party committees or organizations may lend their campaign resources to one or more candidates.
In MONTCLAIR, there is one incumbent and three challengers seeking to fill three school board seats here.
Mfreke “Monk” Inyang was Mayor Sean Spillar’s last appointed board member. Inyang was made successor to the late Dr. Alfred Davis, Jr.’s season on Jan. 12.
It appears that current Board President Latifah Jannah and Vice President Priscilla Church have decided not to run for elective office.
Challenging are Yvonne W. Bouknight, Brian Fleischer and Noah Gale. Bouknight and Gale ran in the March 8 special election; Fleischer is making his first run.
SOUTH ORANGE – MAPLEWOOD voters will be picking at least two new members on the two-town school board panel.
Board President Thair Joshua and member Erin Siders have decided not to run again, leaving South Orange’s Johanna Wright as the sole incumbent seeking re-election.
The five challengers are all first-time candidates.
Regina Eckert and William “Bill” Gifford III are the Maplewoodians running. South Orangites Will Meyer, Ritu Pancholy and Nubia DuVall Wilson have also filed petitions.
BELLEVILLE voters may have two incumbents and four challengers to choose from.
Board of Trustees President Luis Muniz and Vice President Gabrielle Bennett-Meany are seeking re-election. Trustee Ralph Tunis, however, has declined to run again.
Challenging are Michael Louis Derro, Lissa Missaggia, Ruben Angel Rodriguez and Michael Sheldon.
Sheldon, currently a critic of Belleville’s municipal government, is seeking his return to the trustee board. Missaggia is conducting her second straight campaign. Derro and Rodriguez are first-time runners.
NUTLEY continues the local trend of fresh and familiar faces among this year’s school board candidates.
Former board president and longtime member Charles Kucinski is seeking re-election Current Board President Daniel Carcinella and member Frank DeMaio, however, have opted not to run again.
Theresa “Terry” Quirk, who was unseated in last year’s election, is seeking a comeback. Daniel Fraginals is making his second straight campaign.
Tom D’Elia, Gregory J. Palma, Andrea Lynn Podgarsky, Emanuel Triggiano and Laura Valente are conducting their first campaigns.
Candidates for ORANGE and WEST ORANGE’s BOE elections were not immediately available. Seats held by current ORANGE Board President Shawneque Johnson and members Guadalupe Cabio and Sueann Gravesande, who were elected in 2019, are up for the Nov. 8 election and Jan. 7, 2023 inauguration/reorganization.
WEST ORANGE Board President Jennifer Tunnicliffe and Vice President Gary Rothstein, who were also elected in 2019, are also up for election or re-election. The board annually offers two seats before its voters.
Prospective Nov. 8 voters have until Oct. 18 to register or transfer their registration with Essex County. Nov. 1 is the last day to apply for a Vote By Mail Ballot by mail.
Nov. 1-5 early voting – by mail, dropbox or at selected voting machine polling stations – are to be announced. Nov. 8 voting machine polling station locations are also to be announced in October. Visit essexclerk.org for details.
