Brick Township Public Schools elections (2017)
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Two of the seven seats on the Brick Township Public Schools school board in New Jersey were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Newcomers Jessica Clayton and Maria Foster defeated incumbent John Barton to win the seats. Clayton and Foster, along with the additional five board members, were tasked with hiring a new superintendent.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Brick Township school board consists of seven nonpartisan members who are elected at large to three-year terms. Elections are staggered with at least two seats up for election each year.
To run for a school board in New Jersey, candidates must be U.S. citizens, registered to vote in the district for which they are running, and have lived in that district for at least one year. Candidates must also submit nominating petitions with the signatures of at least 10 registered voters in the district to get on the ballot. The filing deadline for this election was on July 31, 2017.[2]
To vote in New Jersey, you must be a U.S. citizen and a resident of the county for at least 30 days prior to the election. A voter must also be at least 18 years old by the time of the next election in order to register. The voter registration deadline in this election was October 17, 2017.[3]
- See also: Voting in New Jersey and Voter identification laws by state
Candidates and results
At-Large
Results
| Brick Township Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jessica Clayton |
37.06% | 8,522 |
| Maria Foster |
36.21% | 8,325 |
| John Barton Incumbent | 25.98% | 5,974 |
| Write-in votes | 0.75% | 173 |
| Total Votes (100) | 22,994 | |
| Source: Ocean County Clerk, "2017 General Election November 7, 2017: Official Report," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Candidates
| John Barton | Jessica Clayton 
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Maria Foster
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: New Jersey elections, 2017
This 2017 school board election in New Jersey shared the ballot with elections for:
The Ocean County Board of Elections did not have information posted on its website about any local elections sharing the ballot with this 2017 school board election as of October 26, 2017.
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines in this 2017 New Jersey school board race:
Endorsements
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
Reports
No candidate in this election reported campaign contributions or expenditures as of October 17, 2017, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.[4]
General guidelines
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 bank account and file this information with the commission. Candidates must establish a reporting committee, and no later than 10 days after establishing a committee, the candidate must file the Single Candidate Committee Certificate of Organization and Designation of Campaign Treasurer and Depository form.[5][6]
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 thirteenth 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.[7]
The table below displays the campaign finance reporting dates for this 2017 school board election.
Past elections
To see results from past elections in Brick Township Public Schools, click here.
What was at stake?
Issues on the board
Outgoing board member highlights conflict on board, explains why she didn't seek new term
When Brick Township board member Sharon Cantillo announced she would not seek another term in the 2017 school board election, she addressed her decision at the end of a board meeting in August. "I do not believe partisan politics belong in our school district or its budget," she said. "While I am honored to have served our town as a board member for 9 years, I am not comfortable being identified with such a highly political board." Cantillo served on the board from 2004 to 2007 and served again from 2011 to 2017. She earned master board member status, which may be achieved by attending training in topics related to serving on the school board. Cantillo continued:[8]
| “ | I am disappointed that my training and experience was not valued as I thought it should be, and this board did not utilize it as I felt it should have. It has been difficult to sit as president for eight years and be involved to the extent I was, to now, barely knowing what is going on before the public does.[9] | ” |
| —Sharon Cantillo (2017)[8] | ||
Cantillo's comments alluded to the change in governing majority that had occurred on the board from 2015 to 2017. In November 2015, after no incumbents chose to seek re-election, four new members joined the board: John Lamela, Stephanie Wohlrab, Victoria Pakala, and George White. Lamela was elected as board president and Wohlrab as vice president in January 2016. According to the Brick Patch, the four new members displaced a majority of the district's outside professionals as well as then-interim Superintendent Richard Caldes. The Brick Patch also stated that Lamela, Wohlrab, and Pakala all had ties to the Democratic Party.[8]
Issues in the district
Four superintendents in two years
Brick Township Public Schools went through four superintendents in two years leading up to the election, beginning with the suspension without pay of former Superintendent Walter Uszenski in September 2015. The suspension followed the issuance of a 19-count indictment against Uszenski, his daughter, and two former school officials.[10] Judge Patricia B. Roe dismissed all criminal charges against Uszenski and his daughter in March 2017, but they were indicted again in June 2017.[11][12]
Uszenski was replaced by Richard Caldes, who served from September 2015 until his contract was terminated in February 2016, months before it was set to end. Caldes' termination followed a change in the governing majority of the board and the election of two new board members to the roles of president and vice president the month prior.
Caldes was then replaced by Thomas Gialanella. Gialanella served from February 2016 until June 30, 2017, when the board appointed another interim superintendent, Dennis Filippone, although Gialanella remained in an administrative role in the district. Filippone's contract ran through June 30, 2018, which was when Uszenski's term was initially set to end.[13]
Report a story for this election
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About the district
Brick Township Public Schools is located in Ocean County in east-central New Jersey. The seat of county government is Toms River. Ocean County was home to an estimated 592,497 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[14] The district was the 23rd-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 9,604 students.[15]
Demographics
Ocean County underperformed in comparison to New Jersey as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 26.9 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.8 percent of all state residents. The median household income in the county was $61,994, compared to $72,093 for the entire state. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 10.9 percent, while that rate was 10.8 percent for all state residents.[14]
| Racial Demographics, 2016[14] | ||
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| Race | Ocean County (%) | New Jersey (%) |
| White | 92.9 | 72.4 |
| Black or African American | 3.5 | 15.0 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3 | 0.6 |
| Asian | 2.0 | 9.8 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 1.3 | 2.2 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 9.1 | 20.0 |
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 Brick Township Public Schools New Jersey election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Brick Township Public Schools | New Jersey | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ocean County New Jersey, "2017 General Election November 7, 2017, Unofficial Results," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey School Boards Association, "How to Become a School Board Member," accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Department of State, "Register to Vote!" accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Filings," accessed October 17, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Permanent Statutes, "Title 19:44A-11," accessed January 9, 2014
- ↑ New Jersey Permanent Statutes, "Title 19:44A-10," accessed January 9, 2014
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Compliance Manual for Candidates," accessed January 9, 2014
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Brick Patch, "Brick School Board Race 2017: Three Candidates, And Cantillo's Not Among Them," August 14, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ APP, "Brick BOE suspends Superintendent Walter Uszenski without pay," September 30, 2015
- ↑ Brick Patch, "Judge Throws Out Charges Against Brick Superintendent: Report," March 12, 2017
- ↑ Brick Patch, "Brick Superintendent Uszenski, 3 Others Indicted Again: Prosecutor," June 22, 2017
- ↑ APP, "Brick graduate, former principal, to lead school district," June 27, 2017
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 United States Census Bureau, "Quickfacts:Ocean County, New Jersey," accessed September 5, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
| Brick Township Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Ocean County, New Jersey | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-Large: Incumbent, John Barton • Jessica Clayton • Maria Foster |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
