City Board of Education contenders announced

Tuesday, March 03, 2009
RON ZEITLINGER
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The snow may have closed the schools in the area yesterday, but Board of Education officials in several municipalities were in their offices to accept petitions on the last day to file to run in next month's school board elections.

In Jersey City, 13 people have filed to run for the three seats up for grabs, including incumbents Anthony Cucci and board president William DeRosa. Vice President Edward Cheatam decided not to run.

Other candidates seeking three-year terms are Evans Burke, Sean Connors, Khaled Dardir, Eric J. Goldsmith, Mario Gonzalez, Charles W. Johnson, Abdul J. Malik, Azam A. Riaz, Moshe Rozenblit, Patricia Sebron and Tom Wilen.

School board elections throughout the state are April 21.

And for the first time in 20 years, voters in Jersey City will have the opportunity to vote on the portion of the school district budget raised from local taxes. This is a result of the district's return to local control last year.

In Hoboken, seven people have filed petitions to run in the school board elections, board Secretary David Anthony said yesterday.

There are a trio of three-year seats up for election, with incumbents Frank Raia and Theresa Minutillo looking to retain their seats. The third seat became vacant when Anthony Romano was elected freeholder in November.

Besides Raia and Minutillo, the candidates are Anthony Oland, Barbara Claveria, Hector Irizarry, Ruth McAllister and Maureen Sullivan.

The three school board seats in both Jersey City and Hoboken will go to the top three vote-getters.