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Louisa Ho
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2025
Louisa Ho currently represents West Windsor on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District school board in New Jersey. She was first appointed to the board in May 2013 to replace Robert Johnson and won election to the seat in November 2013.[1] Ho won re-election in the general election on November 8, 2016.
Biography
Ho earned a bachelor's degree in civil Eengineering and a master's degree in transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked for 15 years with New Jersey Transit before she became a stay-at-home mom. Ho and her husband, Carl Van Dyke, have two children currently attending district schools.[2]
Elections
2016
Three of the nine seats on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District school board were up for by-district general election on November 8, 2016. Incumbent Yu Taylor Zhong defeated Shrenik Dagli, Russel Melville, and former board member Todd Hochman for the Plainsboro seat. In the race for the West Windsor seat, incumbent Louisa Ho and Carol Herts won the two seats up for election by defeating incumbent Scott Powell, Deborah Marinsky, Mirna White, and former board member Richard Kaye.[3]
Results
| West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, West Windsor District General Election, 3-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Louisa Ho Incumbent |
23.93% | 4,388 |
| Carol Herts |
23.49% | 4,306 |
| Deborah Marinsky | 22.96% | 4,210 |
| Richard Kaye | 19.70% | 3,611 |
| Scott Powell Incumbent | 6.97% | 1,278 |
| Mirna White | 2.95% | 541 |
| Total Votes | 18,334 | |
| Source: Mercer County, New Jersey, "Official Results," accessed December 1, 2016 Middlesex County, New Jersey, "Historical Election Results," accessed December 1, 2016 |
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Funding
Ho reported $3,275.30 in contributions but no expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, which left her campaign with $3,275.30 on hand in the election.[4]
2013
Incumbent Alapakkam Manikandan lost re-election for the Plainsboro seat to challenger Yu Taylor Zhong. The race for two seats from West Windsor included incumbent Ho and challengers Rakesh Kak, Scott Powell and Yingchao Zhang. Powell and Ho won those seats. Incumbent Hemant Marathe ran for Mayor of West Windsor after serving for nine years on the board.[5]
Results
| West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School School Board, West Windsor District, 3-year term, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Scott Powell |
30.2% | 2,977 | |
| Nonpartisan | Louisa Ho Incumbent |
29% | 2,866 | |
| Nonpartisan | Rakesh Kak | 24.8% | 2,448 | |
| Nonpartisan | Yingchao Zhang | 15.8% | 1,560 | |
| Nonpartisan | Personal choice | 0.2% | 19 | |
| Total Votes | 9,870 | |||
| Source: Mercer County Clerk, "Election Results," November 13, 2013 | ||||
Funding
Ho reported $2,000.00 in contributions and $0.00 in expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, which left her campaign with $2,000.00 on hand.[6]
Campaign themes
2013
In an interview with the League of Women Voters of the Princeton Area, Ho explained her views on major issues facing the district:[7]
District growth
|
"Enrollment has been relatively stable for the last 4 years and is projected to be stable for the next 3 years. With some new developments in the works in West Windsor, continued growth is on the horizon, but not at the dramatic rates experienced earlier. The planned expansion of Village School will provide six additional classrooms, that can be used to absorb some growth. We need to constantly monitor growth and attendance for each school, to address capacity issues at individual schools and insure that class sizes are fair across the district. I bring to the school board the right skills and experience for addressing this issue. I have a bachelor's and a master's degree from MIT, and managerial and planning experience in the public sector at NJ Transit, where I was responsible for budgets of up to $50 million, and 900 personnel. I also know the school district as a customer and taxpayer. Both of my children have attended WWP schools since kindergarten. For the last 15 years, I’ve dedicated my time to parenting and volunteering, as a Girl Scout troop leader and co-service unit manager for all WWP Girl Scout troops, and, more recently, serving on the School Board, and being co-President of the HSS marching band." |
Financial challenges
|
"Our school district offers an excellent educational program at a competitive cost. Our costs per pupil are well below those of school districts like Princeton and Hopewell. For the 2013-2014 budget year, the school district was able to produce a budget with no increase in the total amount of tax support needed from the two towns, compared to the prior year. Looking forward, we need to continue to seek opportunities for cost containment, such as through out-sourcing, class scheduling efficiencies, and additional grants, while addressing new administrative requirements, and maintaining educational quality." |
School safety
|
"I support changes to improve school safety that are cost-effective, tested, and balanced in their approach. The school district has already implemented changes along these lines, such as 42 additional video cameras and the “eyes on the door” pilot program which is being expanded from 2 to 4 schools this year. We need to always be looking for new approaches for technology security to keep up with ever-evolving technology." |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Louisa Ho West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- New Jersey
- West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, New Jersey
- West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District elections (2013)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ West Windsor & Plainsboro News, "From Field of Four, Louisa Ho Chosen," May 10, 2013
- ↑ West Windsor & Plainsboro News, "Candidates Forum: Louisa Ho," accessed October 23, 2013
- ↑ Mercerspace, "10 file in WW-P school board election," July 29, 2016
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Public Information," accessed December 12, 2016
- ↑ NJ.com, "West Windsor-Plainsboro school board president to challenge mayor in November election," June 24, 2013
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Standard Search," accessed December 27, 2013
- ↑ League of Women of the Princeton Area, "West Windsor Candidates for WW-P School Board 2013," accessed October 23, 2013
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