15 candidates set to run for three spots on Jersey City school board

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal ,
June 21, 2013 at 4:02 PM

Jersey City?s first November election for school-board members is going to be wild, with 15 candidates seeking three three-year terms and two incumbents battling for a single one-year term.

According to Hudson County election officials, the candidates include a Downtown woman who heads an activist parents? group; the aide to outgoing City Councilwoman Viola Richardson; and a police officer who made an unsuccessful bid for a school board seat last year.

The election isn?t until Tuesday, Nov. 5 ? the council changed the date from April after voters last November overwhelmingly approved the change ? but applications from candidates were due this month.

Board of Education members whose terms are expiring are Carol Lester, Gerald Lyons, Angel Valentin and Sterling Waterman.

Lyons was tapped to fill the seat vacated when former BOE member Marvin Adames resigned last summer. The remainder of Adames? term is the one-year seat up for grabs in November, and Lester and Valentin are the only two gunning for the short term.

Lyons is seeking a three-year term. Waterman, who at the last minute backed out of seeking a council seat in May, is not seeking reelection to a second term.

Lester said being a BOE member takes up "an awful lot of time," and she?s not sure she can give "150 percent" for another three years.

But, she added, "we?re just at the beginning of getting some heavy lifting done to turn the district around, and I want to help the superintendent be successful."

Lester was part of the board majority that ousted former schools chief Charles T. Epps Jr. and then hired current Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles.

Van Vorst Street woman Josephine Paige was a critic of the process the BOE used to select Lyles, and Paige is one of the 15 candidates seeking to join the board in November.

The school board races have recently been mini-political battlegrounds, with Mayor-elect Steve Fulop using his influence to support every candidate who has won in the last three elections. Critics charge Fulop is too involved in the process, but the mayor-elect has said he believes improving the school district is key to improving the city has a whole.

Joining Paige on the ballot are Micheline Amy; Peter A. Basso; Jay Cordero; Denise Davis; Jessica Daye; Telissa E. Dowling; Carol L. Gabriel; Susan Harbace; DeJon Morris; Lorenzo Richardson; Ellen Simon; Gina Veribello; and Kevaan G. Walton.

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