Newark Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Newark Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
April 21, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
New Jersey Newark Public Schools Essex County, New Jersey ballot measures Local ballot measures, New Jersey

Three seats on the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board were up for general election on April 21, 2015. At-large incumbents Marques-Aquil Lewis, DeNiqua Matias and Rashied McCreary's seats were up for election, but only Lewis filed to seek re-election. He faced the following seven challengers: Natasha Alvarado, Veronica Branch, Dashay Carter, Crystal Fonseca, Ronnie Kellam, Charles Love III and Sheila Montague.

Mayor Ras J. Baraka formed and endorsed the "Children First Team" slate of Lewis, Carter and Fonseca. The slate won the three seats up for election, making the Advisory Board fully comprised of Children First Team slate members elected over the past five election cycles. Baraka's slate held seven of the board's nine seats heading into the 2015 election. Lewis had previously been re-elected as part of the slate in 2012. The other two seats up for election in 2015 were the last two remaining not held by Baraka-endorsed candidates.

The elected Newark school board has served in an advisory capacity for two decades following a state takeover of the district in 1995. The move, heatedly debated at its inception, has continued to be a contentious topic of discussion for the district. The decision to renew Superintendent Cami Anderson's contract, which came earlier in 2015, has added fuel to the ongoing efforts to end state control of the district and Anderson's controversial One Newark plan.

As of April 17, 2015, over $70,000 had been raised by candidates for the Advisory Board seats. However, all of those funds were raised by two candidates, Lewis and Fonseca, and the slate to which they both belong. Despite the high fundraising, less than $4,000 in expenditures were reported as of the same date. Individual candidates who expected to spend more than $4,500, receive more than $300 in contributions from one source or receive any cash contributions were required to file campaign finance reports.

See also: What was at stake in Newark's 2015 school board election?

About the district

See also: Newark Public Schools, New Jersey

Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County, N.J.

Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County in northeastern New Jersey. The county seat is Newark. Essex County was home to approximately 789,565 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau. Newark was the largest school district in New Jersey, serving 35,543 students during the 2011-2012 school year.

Demographics

Essex County underperformed in comparison to the rest of New Jersey in terms of higher education achievement, median household income and poverty rate in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 32.0 percent of Essex County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 35.8 percent for New Jersey as a whole. The median household income in Essex County was $55,095, compared to $71,629 for the state of New Jersey. The poverty rate in Essex County was 16.6 percent, compared to 10.4 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Essex County (%)	New Jersey (%)
White	49.9	73.4
Black or African American	41.9	14.7
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.7	0.6
Asian	5.1	9.2
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.2	2.0
Hispanic or Latino	21.7	18.9

Presidential Voting Pattern, Essex County
Year	Democratic Vote	Republican Vote
2012	236,618	64,406
2008	240,306	74,063
2004	203,681	83,374
2000	185,505	66,842

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.

Voter and candidate information

The Newark Advisory Board consists of nine members at-large elected to three-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was April 21, 2015.

Candidates had to file by March 2, 2015, and they had until March 9, 2015, to withdraw from the race. The drawing of ballot positions was held March 11, 2015.

In order to vote in the election, district residents had to register by March 31, 2015.

Elections

2015

Candidates

At-large

• Marques-Aquil Lewis
  • Incumbent, first elected in 2009
  • Minister
• Natasha Alvarado
  • Human resources staff assistant, Montclair School University
  • Bachelor's degree, Montclair School University
• Veronica Branch
  • Bachelor's degree, Bloomfield College
• Dashay Carter
  • Aviation operation specialist, U.S. Army Reserve Branch
  • Bachelor's degree, Emory University
• Crystal Fonseca
  • Employed in community relations and outreach department, Jersey City Incinerator Authority
  • Bachelor's degree, Saint Peters College
• Ronnie Kellam
  • Security and loss prevention officer, Conway Stores and McDonald
  • Associates degree, Essex County College
• Charles Love III
  • Founding partner, Middle Generation Systems
  • M.A., Lincoln University
• Sheila Montague
  • Professor, Essex County College
  • Founder, Changing the Lenses Together (CTLT) Foundation and Face Structure

Did not appear on the ballot

• Ivan Holmes
  • Withdrew
• Michael Diaz
  • Disqualified

Election results

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

Endorsements

Mayor Ras J. Baraka formed and endorsed the "Children First Team" slate of Marques-Aquil Lewis, Dashay Carter and Crystal Fonseca.

Veronica Branch, Charles Love III and Sheila Montague were endorsed by the Newark Parents Union.

Campaign finance

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2015

Candidates received a total of $70,845.00 and spent a total of $3,920.01 as of April 17, 2015, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The amounts in the table below reflect any funds candidates had on hand from prior campaigns.

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Marques-Aquil Lewis	$7,920.00	$808.81	$7,331.19
Natasha Alvarado	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Veronica Branch	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Dashay Carter	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Michael Diaz	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Crystal Fonseca	$46,875.00	$0.00	$76,398.90
Ivan Holmes	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Ronnie Kellam	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Charles Love III	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Sheila Montague	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Fonseca, Carter & Lewis Children First Team	$16,050.00	$3,111.20	$16,938.80

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission regulates school board campaign contributions. Candidates who receive any contributions, including their own funds, are required to appoint a treasurer and open a bank account for their campaign contributions and expenditures. Within 10 days of doing so, candidates must file "Certificates of Organization and Designation of Campaign Treasurer and Depository" forms with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Individual candidates who expect to spend more than $4,500, receive more than $300 in contributions from one source or receive any cash contributions are required to file campaign finance reports. Similarly, joint campaigns exceeding the threshold of $8,500 for two candidates or $12,300 for three or more candidates must also file.

The deadline for the 29-day pre-election campaign finance report was March 23, 2015. Between April 8, 2015, and April 21, 2015, candidates and committees were required to report any expenditure or contribution from any one source in excess of $1,400 within 48 hours. The 11-day pre-election report deadline was April 10, 2015, and the 20-day post-election report was due May 1, 2015.

Candidates who planned to run in a future election after this one were required to file a quarterly report on October 15, 2015. Those not planning to run in the future must certify their 20-day post-election report as their final report.

Past elections

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

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 C. Seelinger Jr. 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?

2015

From 2011 to 2014, Newark's Advisory Board elections garnered an average of 2.92 candidates per seat up for election. With eight candidates running for the three seats up for election, 2015's ballot was slightly below that average at 2.67 candidates per seat up for election.

Issues in the election

Children First Team majority to stay

2014-2015 Newark Advisory Board & Children First Team candidacy
Member	Term Ends	CFT ?
Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson	2017	Yes
Marques-Aquil Lewis	2015	Yes
Rashon K. Hasan	2016	Yes
Donald G. Jackson Jr.	2017	No
DeNiqua Matias	2015	Yes
Rashied McCreary	2015	No
Ariagna Perello	2016	Yes
Khalil Sabu Rashidi	2016	Yes
Philip Seelinger	2017	Yes

Mayor Ras Baraka helped form a seven-member majority on the Advisory Board through his Children First Team slate in the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 elections.

Over the four election cycles leading up to the 2015 election, the Children First Team (CFT) accumulated a seven-member majority on the nine-member Advisory Board. The team, organized by Ras J. Baraka, first became a part of the Advisory 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 Advisory Board each year. From 2011 to 2014, the CFT won at least two seats in each election.

With eight candidates seeking the three seats up for election in 2015, the CFT could have increased or decreased in its majority power. Even if all three seats had been won by non-CFT candidates, the group was guaranteed at least a six-member majority following the 2015 election.

In 2011, Alturrick Kenney and Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson were the first CFT candidates to join the board. Two more seats were secured by the Baraka-backed group in 2012, when Marques-Aquil Lewis and DeNiqua Matia won in that general election. In 2013, the entire CFT slate, Khalil Sabu Rashidi, Ariagna Perello, and Rashon K. Hasan, won election to the board. Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson retained her seat and Philip Seelinger secured another for the CFT team in the 2014 election.

In 2015, two seats held by CFT members were up for election. While Marques-Aquil Lewis sought re-election on the slate, the other CFT member, DeNiqua Matias, did not run. The other incumbent up for re-election, Rashied McCreary, did not file to run for re-election. He was one of just two non-CFT members on the board prior to the 2015 election.

Spring New Jersey school board elections increasingly rare

Only 18 New Jersey school districts, including Newark Public Schools, held school board and budget approval elections in April instead of November in 2015. In 2012, Gov. Chris Christie (R) signed a law removing the voter approval requirement for school districts' proposed budgets unless they exceeded a mandatory 2 percent property tax cap. Additionally, the law allowed school districts to move their elections from the spring election date to the fall general election date.

A significant number of districts signed on to the changes in order to avoid the costs of holding additional elections; as of the April 2012 elections, 87 percent of districts had chosen to adopt the changes. Nevertheless, some districts chose to wait due to a requirement that those who moved their election to November had to stick with that choice for at least four years before changing back. Other districts stated they would keep budget approval voting to respect their residents' role in the decision-making process. Due to Newark's district being state operated, no budget election was held in 2015.

Issues in the district

State control & superintendent controversies continue

Over two decades of state control of the district and tensions with state-appointed Superintendent Cami Anderson continued to foster resistance from community members and local politicians leading up to the 2015 election. The February 2015 announcement that the state would be renewing Anderson's contract highlighted anew the ongoing turmoil in the district.

Background: State control and One Newark

Gov. Chris Christie (R)

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten

Since 1995, the state government has controlled Newark Public Schools. In 2013, the Newark Students Union led two mass boycotts against state control of the district in April and November, with the April walkout reportedly drawing about 1,000 students. Superintendent Cami Anderson, who was nominated by Gov. Chris Christie (R) and appointed by the State Board of Education in 2011, had put forward a controversial district reform plan labeled One Newark that included school closures, teacher layoffs, Teach for America hirings and changes to the district's enrollment system for both traditional and charter schools.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten sent a letter to Gov. Christie criticizing Anderson's plan to use teacher performance evaluations instead of seniority in deciding which teachers to lay off. She concluded the letter by arguing that the state should relinquish control of the school district. Community protests of the plan were held in Trenton, as well as student protests that included walkouts from school.

Legislative critiques
Anderson moved forward with One Newark despite the resistance, and faced a steady stream of criticism into 2015 regarding the plan and its effectiveness. In January 2015, Anderson appeared before the Joint Committee on Public Schools to explain the intentions and progress of the program since it was first discussed. Members of the committee were highly critical of Anderson and the program, emphasizing the alienation residents of the district have felt and a lack of transparency in the plan's implemenation.

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D-29)

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D-29), a former Newark Advisory Board member, questioned Anderson's school board meeting attendance record. Anderson stated that she could not remember when she last attended a meeting and that it had been "quite some time," but added, "I listen to people who disagree with me. It’s part of my job.” Pintor Marin responded, “It is part of your job to attend board meetings. That’s the main problem. There is no sell factor for the Newark Public Schools [about the One Newark plan] when you don’t attend.”

Not long after this heated hearing, Gov. Christie announced the renewal of Anderson's contract for another year, which Anderson accepted, saying, "I am proud of the progress that my administration has made over the past three years in increasing graduation rates, teacher and administrator quality and school choice, but know that there is more work to be done on behalf of our students in the year ahead." The contract set Anderson's compensation at $255,000, which included a 1.6 percent cost-of-living raise.

On March 10, 2015, a second joint committee hearing was held to hear testimony from New Jersey Education Association President Wendell Steinhauer, City Association of School Administrators (CASA) Executive Director Leonard Pugliese, and Mark Weber, a public teacher and doctoral student in education theory, organization and policy at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. Steinhauser called the renewal of Anderson's contract an "insult to every parent, students and teacher in Newark who has seen the destruction she’s caused." Weber, who had previously presented his research on the plan to the legislature in 2014, stated at this hearing that it had, "not only failed to improve student achievement in Newark; they have had a racially disparate impact on the [Newark Public Schools" [sic] certificated teaching and support staff."

Pugliese's testimony drew particular interest as he pointed out that the New Jersey School Performance Reports done by the state Department of Education showed most Newark schools as having 100 percent attendance rates. He questioned the accuracy of these reports, as the same schools had been shown as having 30 to 40 percent absentee rates before the state assumed control of the district. Attendance rates are part of the state's measurement of whether or not One Newark is succeeding in preparing students for college and careers. Reducing absentee rates is also part of Anderson's contractual performance goals. Pugliese said of the dramatic decrease reported in the performance scores, "This is outrageous–and impossible. What’s equally outrageous is that the state department of education would post this document. Someone had to compile this data. Someone had to produce this graph." These accusations led some committee members to suggest that the legislature should subpoena state documents to verify the validity of the reports.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the annual April school board elections in New Jersey in 2015:

Deadline	Event
March 2, 2015	Candidate filing deadline
March 9, 2015	Last day to amend a defective candidate petition
	Last day to withdraw from election
March 11, 2015	Drawing of candidate ballot positions
March 23, 2015	Campaign finance report deadline
March 31, 2015	Voter registration deadline
April 10, 2015	Campaign finance report deadline
April 21, 2015	Election Day
April 27, 2015 - May 10, 2015	Newly elected board members sworn into office
May 1, 2015	Campaign finance report deadline

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: New Jersey elections, 2015

New Jersey school board elections in 2015 could have been held on either April 21 or November 3. No other elections were scheduled for the April ballot.

Recent news

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

Newark Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Newark Public Schools	New Jersey	School Boards
Newark Public Schools elections (2014) List of school districts in New Jersey	New Jersey school board elections, 2015 Public education in New Jersey Local ballot measures, New Jersey	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Newark Public Schools
• Newark, New Jersey
• Essex County Clerk