Jersey City Public Schools elections (2017)
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In the first election following the return of local control to the district, four of the nine seats on the Jersey City Public Schools Board of Education in New Jersey were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Three seats were up for regular three-year terms and one seat was up for a one-year unexpired term after former board member John Reichart resigned from the board.
Board members Amy DeGise and Lorenzo Richardson won additional three-year terms on the board and were joined in their victory by Matthew Schapiro. They defeated incumbent Gerald Lyons and challenger Yousef Saleh. Mussab Ali took the one-year term by defeating David Miranda.[1]
DeGise was appointed in January 2017 to Reichart's seat.[2]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Jersey City Board of Education consists of nine members who are elected at large to three-year terms. Board members receive no compensation for their service.
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.[3]
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.[4]
- See also: Voting in New Jersey and Voter identification laws by state
Candidates and results
3-year terms
Results
| Jersey City Public Schools, At-large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Amy DeGise Incumbent |
31.65% | 19,125 |
| Matthew Schapiro |
18.89% | 11,419 |
| Lorenzo Richardson Incumbent |
18.49% | 11,173 |
| Yousef Saleh | 15.61% | 9,433 |
| Gerald Lyons Incumbent | 15.25% | 9,216 |
| Write-in votes | 0.12% | 70 |
| Total Votes | 60,436 | |
| Source: Hudson County Clerk's Office, "General Election 2017," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Candidates
Amy DeGise 
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Gerald Lyons | Lorenzo Richardson
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| Yousef Saleh | Matthew Schapiro
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1-year term
Results
| Jersey City Public Schools, At-large General Election, 1-year term, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Mussab Ali |
50.15% | 9,388 |
| David Miranda | 49.78% | 9,320 |
| Write-in votes | 0.07% | 13 |
| Total Votes | 18,721 | |
| Source: Hudson County Clerk's Office, "General Election 2017," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Candidates
| Mussab Ali
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David Miranda | ||
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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:
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines in this 2017 New Jersey school board race:
Endorsements
Mussab Ali, Amy DeGise, Gerald Lyons, and Lorenzo Richardson received an official endorsement from the Jersey City Education Association.[5]
David Miranda was endorsed by Demetrius Terry, who was a candidate for the 2017 school board race before withdrawing from the election.[6]
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 except for Amy DeGise reported campaign contributions or expenditures as of October 23, 2017, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. DeGise reported $26,120.00 in contributions and $5,265.00 in expenditures.[7]
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.[8][9]
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.[10]
The table below displays the campaign finance reporting dates for this 2017 school board election.
Past elections
To see results from past elections in the Jersey City Public Schools, click here.
What was at stake?
District set to regain full local control
The New Jersey State Board of Education voted to return full local control to Jersey City Public Schools on July 5, 2017, ending 28 years of the state's takeover. The state's board gave the district local control over its instruction and programming, which was the last category the state was still supervising. "This is truly a historic day," remarked Arcelio Aponte, president of the state board. "The path ahead will certainly be a promising path, a hopeful path for the children of Jersey City."[11]
Jersey City Superintendent Marcia Lyles said the return to local control was only the beginning. "We have only just begun," she said. "Today's action acknowledges that hard work and signals that we are on the right path." In the months following the vote by the state board, the district planned to work with the state in developing a transition plan.[12]
The process of returning local control began in 2015 when the state granted the district control over several areas including school governance and finance. At that time, it withheld control of school instruction and programming. In 2016, the district regained control over operations and personnel/HR.[13]
New Jersey first took over Jersey City Public Schools in 1989, citing a 75-page report that accused the district of “academic bankruptcy.” In doing so, it became the first state in the nation to take over a school district.[14] At that time, The New York Times reported that Jersey City schools were “crippled by political patronage and nepotism, weak administration and management, fiscal irregularities, [and] indifference.”[12] The high school graduation rate in the district was less than 60 percent in 1989, according to the Hudson Reporter. In 2016, the district's four-year graduation rate had risen to almost 75 percent.[12]
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
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About the district
- See also: Jersey City Public Schools, New Jersey
Jersey City Public Schools is located in northeastern New Jersey in Hudson County. The seat of county government is Jersey City. Hudson County was home to an estimated 677,983 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[15] The district was the second-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 30,845 students.[16]
Demographics
Hudson County slightly outperformed New Jersey as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 37.5 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.8 percent of all state residents. The median household income in the county was $59,741, compared to $72,093 statewide. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 17.7 percent, while that rate was 10.8 percent for all state residents.[15]
| Racial Demographics, 2016[15] | ||
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| Race | Hudson County (%) | New Jersey (%) |
| White | 65.1 | 72.4 |
| Black or African American | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.2 | 0.6 |
| Asian | 15.9 | 9.8 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 43.2 | 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 Jersey City Public Schools New Jersey election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Jersey City Public Schools | New Jersey | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Elisabeth Moore, "Email exchange with Hilda Rosario, Hudson County Supervisor of Elections," August 7, 2017
- ↑ NJ.com, "4 join Jersey City school board, including county exec's daughter," January 12, 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
- ↑ Jersey City Education Association, "Board of Education Endorsement," August 12, 2017
- ↑ Insider NJ, "Demetrius Terry Withdraws From Jersey City Board of Education Race," August 20, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Filings," accessed October 23, 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
- ↑ NJ.com, "N.J. ends state takeover of Jersey City's public schools," July 5, 2017
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Hudson Reporter, "Jersey City public schools to regain local control," July 9, 2017
- ↑ Hudson County View, "Jersey City set to regain full local control of school district from state in 2016," October 7, 2015
- ↑ Newark Trust, "New Jersey was the first state to takeover of a school district. FACT OR FICTION?" accessed September 12, 2017
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 United States Census Bureau, "Hudson 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
| Jersey City Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Hudson County, New Jersey | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | 3-year terms: Incumbent, Amy DeGise • Incumbent, Gerald Lyons • Incumbent, Lorenzo Richardson • Yousef Saleh • Matthew Schapiro 1-year term: Mussab Ali • David Miranda |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
