Newark Public Schools elections (2017)

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2018 → ← 2016
Newark Public Schools Elections
General election date
April 25, 2017
Enrollment (14-15)
34,861 students

The Newark Unity slate of candidates—Reginald Bledsoe, Josephine Garcia, and Flohisha Johnson—was victorious in the general election on April 25, 2017. This was the last election the Newark Public Schools Board of Education held before the board regains local control of the district. The board has held advisory status since it was taken over by the state of New Jersey in 1995. A total of 16 candidates filed to run for three seats up for at-large election, including one incumbent. Three of these candidates made up the Newark Unity slate, which was endorsed by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Three other candidates formed the Community Team slate. Following the 2016 election, all nine members of the board were Baraka-endorsed candidates and had been members of either the Children First Team or the Newark Unity slate.

Besides board incumbent Philip Seelinger, the candidates who filed to run in this election were Swapan Basu, Reginald Bledsoe, Patricia Bradford, Denise Cole, Anthony Diaz, Josephine Garcia, EZDehar Hatab, Jameel Ibrahim, Flohisha Johnson, Charles Love, Sheila Montague, Ryan Talmadge, Deborah Terrell, and Jimmie White. Bledsoe, Garcia, and Johnson ran as a part of the Newark Unity slate. Cole, Seelinger, and Talmadge made up another slate called the Community Team. Sixteenth candidate Sharon Smith filed for election but later decided she did not want to run in the race. Her name still appeared on the ballot. Diaz's name did not appear on the ballot.

Following an agreement made in 2015 by Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the school district began to transition back to local control after the April 2016 general election. The two officials formed a nine-person panel charged with creating an overarching district plan. The Newark Board of Education requested to regain full control, and a report outlining the full plan, "Pathway to Local Control," was released in August 2016. According to the plan, the district was expected to make the full transition by the 2017-2018 school year.

Learn more about issues in the district here.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

Newark Public Schools is overseen by a nine-member board, all the members of which are elected at large to three-year terms. Three seats are up for election each year.

People had to register to vote by April 4, 2017, to vote in this election. In order to register to vote in New Jersey, one must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old by the election, and a resident of the county for 30 days before the election.

At-Large

Results

Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Josephine Garcia	17.93%	3,595
Reginald Bledsoe	17.01%	3,411
Flohisha Johnson	13.66%	2,740
Charles Love	7.82%	1,568
Deborah Terrell	7.45%	1,494
Patricia Bradford	7.30%	1,465
Philip Seelinger Incumbent	5.88%	1,180
Denise Cole	5.25%	1,053
Sheila Montague	3.79%	761
Swapan Basu	3.65%	732
Jimmie White	2.99%	599
Ryan Talmadge	2.37%	475
Sharon Smith	2.28%	458
EZDehar Hatab	1.55%	311
Jameel Ibrahim	0.91%	182
Anthony Diaz	0.00%
Write-in votes	0.15%	31
Total Votes		20,055
Source: Essex County Clerk, "2017 School Board Election," accessed May 26, 2017

Candidates

Philip Seelinger	Swapan Basu	Reginald Bledsoe	Patricia Bradford
Incumbent (2014 - Present) Works in community relations	Heads nonprofit Rhyming Poets International Former teacher	Member of Newark Unity slate	Program development specialist, Newark Public Safety Fire Division
Denise Cole	Anthony Diaz	Josephine Garcia	EZDehar Hatab
U.S. Army Reserve veteran Former substitute teacher		Member of Newark Unity slate Legislative aide to Councilman Carlos Gonzalez	Biology professor
Jameel Ibrahim	Flohisha Johnson	Charles Love	Sheila Montague
Co-founder of the Hope Institute	Member of Newark Unity slate	Community organizer in Newark Founding partner, Middle Generation Systems	Professor at Essex County College Published poet
Sharon Smith	Ryan Talmadge	Deborah Terrell	Jimmie White
	Works as a security officer at Rutgers-Newark	Served as interim superintendent of the district in 2011 Former teacher, vice principal, and principal	Owns local business I.M.P.A.C.T.

Additional elections on the ballot

The 2017 Newark Public Schools election did not share the ballot with any other election.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for this 2017 Newark Public Schools election:

Deadline	Event
March 6, 2017	Candidate filing deadline
April 4, 2017	Deadline to register to vote
April 25, 2017	General election date

Endorsements

The members of the Newark Unity slate of candidates—Reginald Bledsoe, Josephine Garcia, and Flohisha Johnson—were given official endorsements by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; New Jersey Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D); Newark City Council members Mildred Crump, Eddie Osborn, and Anibal Ramos; and Michele Mason of the Newark Charter School Fund (NCSF).

Deborah Terrell and Charles Love were endorsed by Newark City Council member Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins.

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at elections@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

The only candidate in this election who reported campaign contributions or expenditures as of April 12, 2017, was Flohisha Johnson. She reported $4,100 in contributions and no expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

See also: Campaign finance requirements in New Jersey and List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2017

School board candidates in New Jersey had to file reports of their campaign financial activity with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Each candidate is required to appoint a treasurer (a candidate may serve as his or her own treasurer) and create a campaign depository (a bank account) and file this information with the commission. Candidates must establish a reporting committee, which has the sole name under which a candidate receives contributions, makes expenditures, labels his or her political identification statements, or otherwise does business. No later than 10 days after establishing a candidate committee, the candidate must file the Single Candidate Committee Certificate of Organization and Designation of Campaign Treasurer and Depository form.

A candidate must begin filing reports with the commission on a date that depends upon when the committee's financial activity begins. If a candidate committee is set up within five months or less of the due date of the 29-day pre-election report, the committee must file a 29-day pre-election report as the initial election fund report. If the committee is established more than five months prior to the due date of the 29-day pre-election report, the committee must file a quarterly report as its initial election fund report. Beginning the 13th day before the election day and ending on election day, if a candidate receives more than $1,600 from a single source, the committee must file a report within 48 hours.

There were five campaign finance reporting deadlines in 2017 for this school board election. Each deadline required the candidate to file a cumulative campaign report.

• March 20, 2017 (29th day pre-election report)
• April 5, 2017 (48-hour reporting began)
• April 7, 2017 (11th day pre-election report)
• April 18, 2017 (48-hour reporting ended)
• May 8, 2017 (20th day post-election report)

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2016 See also: Newark Public Schools elections (2016) Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2016 Candidate Vote % Votes Deborah Kim Thompson-Gaddy 21.92% 5,909 Tave Padilla 21.86% 5,892 Leah Owens 18.62% 5,018 Sheila Montague 9.56% 2,576 Carole Graves 8.09% 2,180 Tamara Moore 6.59% 1,775 Thomas Ellis 3.32% 896 Jody Pittman 2.95% 794 Juan Silva 2.29% 618 George Tillman 1.87% 505 Jimmie White 1.68% 452 Jason Dotson 1.25% 338 Total Votes 26,953 Source: Essex County Clerk, "2016 School Board Election," accessed May 10, 2016 2015 See also: Newark Public Schools elections (2015) Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Crystal Fonseca 21.9% 3,745      Nonpartisan Marques-Aquil Lewis Incumbent 21.8% 3,729      Nonpartisan Dashay Carter 19.4% 3,311      Nonpartisan Charles Love III 11.4% 1,955      Nonpartisan Sheila Montague 10.1% 1,729      Nonpartisan Veronica Branch 9.6% 1,637      Nonpartisan Natasha Alvarado 3.4% 584      Nonpartisan Ronnie Kellam 2% 347      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.4% 63 Total Votes 17,100 Source: Essex County Clerk, "2015 School Board Election," April 27, 2015 2014 See also: Newark Public Schools elections (2014) Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Philip Seelinger Incumbent 20.1% 2,894      Nonpartisan Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson Incumbent 19% 2,734      Nonpartisan Donald G. Jackson Jr. 16.8% 2,421      Nonpartisan Reginald Bledsoe 16.4% 2,352      Nonpartisan Crystal Fonseca 12.1% 1,743      Nonpartisan Rachelle Moss 8.3% 1,198      Nonpartisan Shakima K. Thomas 4% 575      Nonpartisan Ronnie Kellam 2.8% 405      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.3% 48 Total Votes 14,370 Source: Essex County, New Jersey, "2014 School Board Election," accessed June 11, 2014 2013 Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Khalil Sabu Rashidi 26.3% 3,223      Nonpartisan Ariagna Perello 24.7% 3,020      Nonpartisan Rashon K. Hasan 18.8% 2,304      Nonpartisan Philip C. Seelinger Jr. 15.5% 1,893      Nonpartisan Sheila Montague 9.7% 1,191      Nonpartisan Gerrell Elliot 4.7% 571      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.3% 33 Total Votes 12,235 Source: Essex County, New Jersey, "2013 School Board Election," accessed February 18, 2014 2012 Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan DeNiqua Matias 21.3% 5,721      Nonpartisan Marques-Aquil Lewis Incumbent 15.8% 4,237      Nonpartisan Rashied McCreary 13.8% 3,720      Nonpartisan Ariagna Perello 13.5% 3,628      Nonpartisan Tara Williams 11.7% 3,151      Nonpartisan Masiel Valentin 10.1% 2,712      Nonpartisan Philip C. Seelinger Jr. 6.3% 1,701      Nonpartisan Rafael A. Brito 3.7% 983      Nonpartisan Rashon Kashif Hasan 2.9% 788      Nonpartisan Swapan Basu 0.7% 182      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.2% 45 Total Votes 26,868 Source: Essex County, New Jersey, "2012 School Board Election," accessed February 18, 2014 2011 Newark Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Eliana Pintor Marin Incumbent 15.4% 5,111      Nonpartisan Alturrick Kenney 14.4% 4,806      Nonpartisan Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson 13.7% 4,550      Nonpartisan Tave Padilla 13.6% 4,508      Nonpartisan DeNiqua Matia 13.4% 4,459      Nonpartisan Chris T. Pernell 12.9% 4,298      Nonpartisan Ariagna Perello 6% 1,981      Nonpartisan Philip C. Seelinger Jr. 5.3% 1,774      Nonpartisan Donald G. Jackson Jr. 3.4% 1,133      Nonpartisan Willard Andrews 1% 346      Nonpartisan Alfred McIntyre 0.8% 254 Total Votes 33,260 Source: Essex County, New Jersey, "2011 School Board Election," accessed March 24, 2014

What was at stake?

Issues in the election

Baraka-backed Newark Unity slate returns to election

Ballotpedia staff summarizes issues in the Newark school board election.

The Newark Unity slate of candidates, endorsed by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, ran in the 2017 school board election. This election was the seventh consecutive race to feature a slate of candidates backed by Baraka. Reginald Bledsoe, Josephine Garcia, and Flohisha Johnson made up the slate, which published the following statement on its website:

“	Our focus must be on a high quality, equitable school district, in support of all of Newark's children. ​ The next school board will, in all likelihood, shepherd in local control for the first time in over 20 years. Having voices from diverse backgrounds including, parent, advocate, supporter, educational leader as well as legislative experience and the willingness to stand up for all of our children will help shape what local control will look like from all angles. We need a school board with experience fighting in support of local issues from a local perspective. We need a school board of strong characters, men and women from diverse backgrounds with whom our parents and children can look up and recognize a partner in their education, striving for excellence and accepting nothing less.	”
—Newark Unity Slate (2017)

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka

Three candidates—Leah Owens, Tave Padilla, and Deborah Kim Thompson-Gaddy—ran as members of a slate of the same name in the 2016 election. All three won spots on the board, leaving it fully composed of Baraka-backed candidates.

Baraka helped form a seven-member majority on the Newark Board of Education from 2011 to 2015 through his Children First Team slate. The 2015 election resulted in the Children First Team (CFT) accumulating a seven-member majority on the nine-member board. The team, organized by Baraka, first became a part of the board elections in 2011. Baraka was then the South Ward representative on the Newark City Council. He served on the council from 2010 until 2014, when he was elected mayor of Newark. Baraka backed three candidates for the board each year. From 2011 to 2014, the CFT won at least two seats in each election.

Student activists halt candidate forum

A Newark Public Schools candidate forum on April 5, 2017, was temporarily halted by a group of students who showed up to protest charter schools in the district. The students, who were connected with NJ Communities United, stopped the forum with a mic check asking the school board candidates to establish a moratorium on charter school expansion and end the One Newark Universal Enrollment program. The students passed around a document asking the candidates to sign it and pledge to accomplish their two demands. Seven candidates signed it: Patricia Bradford, Denise Cole, Josephine Garcia, Jameel Ibrahim, Sheila Montague, Philip Seelinger, and Charles Love.

Candidate statements from the forum

Each of the 13 candidates present at the forum were asked to speak about five issues in the Newark school system. The issues included "participation of community and parents, fiduciary responsibilities, effective educational policy, effective curriculum programs and the balance between autonomy and accountability," according to TAP into Newark. The table below highlights the candidates' statements.

Position summaries for school board candidates
Swapan Basu	Reginald Bledsoe	Patricia Bradford	Denise Cole
"I have seen the pitfalls of our education. Why the students are not thriving, why the students are not achieving, and I have a solution for that. We have to improve student performance. To do that, we need to hire and retain qualified teachers."	In stating the importance of vocational training and traditional educational training: "We have to make sure all of our students are college and/or career ready."	Stated that she "unequivocally supports the public school system." "I’d like to see our children go to school around the corner from where they live."	"My longterm vision is for every student to graduate with a post-graduation plan. From early childhood to high school. From acceptance into college to vocational training."
Josephine Garcia	EZDehar Hatab	Jameel Ibrahim	Flohisha Johnson
Speaking about her vision for Newark schools: "Local control is not just about getting local control, but about maintaining local control."	"I hope that Newark district schools become the national model for improvement and excellence...Families and relatives will be competing to live in Newark because our schools are stellar schools."	"There are ten floors of employees, wall to wall, and probably most of them have never been in the school system. I want to eliminate the unnecessary contracts that put salaries in peoples’ pockets, but don’t necessarily help the students."	"Without parent involvement and parent engagement, the school advisory board is nothing. We need that. We need the voice of the community."
Charles Love	Sheila Montague	Ryan Talmadge	Deborah Terrell
"There are too many students graduating Newark public schools going to college, taking remedial classes in math or reading. There are too many students trapped into a permanent prison pipeline. And there are also too many of our babies being killed everyday."	"As a career educator and lifelong learner I am committed to ensuring that all Newark students receive an excellent education regardless of any socioeconomic, mental, emotional or language barriers, physical challenges. There are no barriers."	"I believe in well rounded education. That means taking kids places inside and outside their community, teaching them disciplines inside and outside of their classroom and giving them diverse athletic opportunities."	"We need to reengineer our school system, because it’s really not a school system. Right now it’s a cluster of schools. We have charter schools, we have community schools, we have magnet schools, but is there a system that all of our children in this city can be educated in to the best of their ability? Right now it’s not there."

Philip Seelinger
"Every child deserves an education that is the same for everyone. I am proud of being in Newark."

Issues in the district

District makes progress toward return to local control

Former New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe

Former New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe returned more local control to the Newark Public Schools Board of Education in the area of personnel in August 2016. In a letter addressed to the district's Superintendent Christopher Cerf, Hespe wrote,

“	In the most recent (7/2016) evaluation, the district scored 100% in Personnel, demonstrating its ability to sustain the substantial progress achieved to date, and showing evidence of adequate programs, policies, and personnel in place and in operation. As a result, I am recommending to the State Board of Education that this area be returned to local control.	”
—David Hespe (2016)

Remarking on the step toward full control, Superintendent Christopher Cerf said, "I could not be more excited by today's news." The district also regained local control of operations in October 2007 and of fiscal management in June 2014.

Newark Public Schools still had a gap to fill in the area of instruction and program, according to Hespe's letter. He stated that the district's Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) score in this area was below the minimum requirement of 80 percent.

Hespe's letter was written at the same time the district released a three-year strategic plan outlining its proposal for further progress toward regaining local control. The plan listed tiers of priorities that the district planned to target from 2016 to 2019.

Priority 1: Strengthen Academics and Student Supports

Priority 2: Ensure Great Talent in Every School and Department

Priority 3: Engage the Community

Full control was expected to be restored to the district by the 2017-2018 school year. The district first began moving toward local control in 2015, when an agreement was made between Gov. Chris Christie (R), Mayor Baraka, and an appointed board to remove the "advisory status" of the Newark Board of Education. The state originally took over the district in 1995.

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About the district

See also: Newark Public Schools, New Jersey

Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County, New Jersey.

Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County, New Jersey. The seat of county government is Newark. Essex County was home to 797,434 residents between 2010 and 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 34,861 students.

Demographics

Essex County underperformed compared to New Jersey as a whole in terms of higher education attainment between 2011 and 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 32.7 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.8 percent for the state as a whole. The median household income in the county was $53,976, compared to $72,093 for the entire state. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 16.8 percent, while that rate was 10.8 percent for all state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2015
Race	Essex County (%)	New Jersey (%)
White	49.6	72.6
Black or African American	41.8	14.8
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.7	0.6
Asian	5.5	9.7
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.3	2.1
Hispanic or Latino	22.4	19.7

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Newark Public Schools New Jersey election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Newark Public Schools elections (2017) - Google News

See also

Newark Public Schools	New Jersey	School Boards
Newark Public Schools elections (2016) Newark Public Schools elections (2015) List of school districts in New Jersey	New Jersey school board elections, 2017 Public education in New Jersey Local ballot measures, New Jersey	School board elections, 2017 School board elections, 2016

External links

• Newark Public Schools
• Essex County Clerk