Paterson Public Schools elections (2017)
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Three of the nine seats on the Paterson Public Schools school board in New Jersey were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Incumbent Jonathan Hodges was re-elected and was joined on the board by Joel Ramirez and former board member Kenneth Simmons. A total of nine candidates originally filed in the race, including incumbent Chrystal Cleaves, Sebastian Mejia, Joyed Rohim, Fannia Santana, Andres Scott, and Juan Kivelier Sosa. Sosa withdrew prior to the election and did not appear on the ballot.[1] Lilisa Mimms, the third board member whose term ended, did not file for re-election.[2]
The district has been controlled by the State of New Jersey since 1991, and was poised to have local control returned to it in 2017. In order for this to happen, the district must score sufficiently in two more areas of the New Jersey QSAC (Quality Single Accountability Continuum). If local control had been returned, this school board election would have been the last to occur before its board had full control in district matters.
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Paterson school board consists of nine nonpartisan members who are elected at large to three-year terms. Three seats are 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.[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
At-Large
Results
| Paterson Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Kenneth Simmons |
19.03% | 4,843 |
| Joel Ramirez |
18.07% | 4,597 |
| Jonathan Hodges Incumbent |
17.82% | 4,534 |
| Chrystal Cleaves Incumbent | 15.08% | 3,836 |
| Fannia Santana | 11.26% | 2,866 |
| Joyed Rohim | 9.08% | 2,311 |
| Sebastian Mejia | 5.55% | 1,411 |
| Andres Scott | 3.99% | 1,014 |
| Write-in votes | 0.13% | 32 |
| Total Votes (100) | 25,444 | |
| Source: Passaic County New Jersey, "November 7, 2017 Summary Report Passaic County," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Candidates
Jonathan Hodges 
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Chrystal Cleaves | Sebastian Mejia | |||
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| Joel Ramirez
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Joyed Rohim | Fannia Santana | |||
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| Andres Scott | Kenneth Simmons
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Juan Kivelier Sosa | |||
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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 Passaic County Board of Elections did not have information posted on its website about any local elections sharing the ballot with this 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
The only candidate in this election who reported campaign contributions or expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission was Fannia Santana. She reported $9,891.00 in contributions and $4,480.00 in expenditures.[5]
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.[6][7]
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.[8]
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 Paterson Public Schools, click here.
What was at stake?
Issues in the district
District could regain local control in 2017
Paterson Public Schools has been under the control of the State of New Jersey since 1991. Since then, its school board has served only in an advisory capacity. The board lost control over finances and operations in the district, and most choices about curriculum and programs have been made by a superintendent appointed by the state.
The performance of New Jersey school districts is measured by the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC), the state's method of monitoring schools which was established in 2007. This continuum measures a district's performance in five areas: instruction and program, personnel, fiscal management, operations, and governance. In order for a school district to qualify for a return to local control, it must meet certain criteria in each of those areas.[9]
Prior to 2016, the system called for districts to hit specific targets in the five areas in order to qualify for their return to local control. But in 2016, the requirements were changed by a special waiver. This adjustment meant that districts needed only to show adequate progress in the five areas rather than hit final benchmarks. For example, one original specification of the QSAC was that 95 percent of students pass state proficiency exams, whereas the modified specification stated that a district needed to show progress in student scores by a few percentage points each year.[10]
As of the 2017 school board election, Paterson Public Schools had scored sufficiently well to regain control in three of the five areas: fiscal management, personnel, and operations. In an op-ed published in North Jersey, Paterson Councilman Andre Sayegh said, "I am encouraged that the district has made significant strides in the two remaining categories and I am cautiously optimistic that local control will be attained before the end of this year."[11] If local control were returned by the end of 2017, the members serving on the district's board would be the first in 26 years to exert full control over district matters.
Paterson school board to sell district buildings
During a board meeting on September 20, 2017, the Paterson school board voted to put three district buildings up for sale. The school board hoped to make at least $5.4 million by selling its former headquarters as well as two other district buildings. The headquarters and one of the two other buildings had been vacant for over a decade, and the third property was used first to house an alternative education program and after that, an all-boys elementary school. However, those students were moved out of the building in 2016.[12]
School officials originally estimated the district would generate at least $11 million from the sale of the buildings, but that number was reduced to minimum bids totaling $5.4 million in September 2017. “I don’t know exactly where that $11 million figure came from, but it may have been old assessments,” said school board member Manny Martinez. The finance chairman for the board, Flavio Rivera, said the minimum bids set for the public sales of the buildings were based on appraisals done for the district.[13]
The September 20 vote passed 4-2, with board members Lilisa Mimms and Jonathan Hodges voting against the sale. They expressed concerns that the buildings would be bought by groups trying to start new charter schools in the district. If that happened, they said, the financial gains for the district would be offset by the funding the district would have to give up to the charters.[13]
Report a story for this election
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About the district
- See also: Paterson Public Schools, New Jersey
Paterson Public Schools is located in Passaic County in northern New Jersey. The seat of county government is Paterson. Passaic County was home to an estimated 507,945 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[14] The district was the third-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 30,058 students.[15]
Demographics
Passaic 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 26.0 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.8 percent of state residents. The median household income in the county was $59,739, compared to $72,093 for the entire state. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 17.3 percent, while that rate was 10.8 percent for all state residents.[14]
| Racial Demographics, 2016[14] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Passaic County (%) | New Jersey (%) |
| White | 74.7 | 72.4 |
| Black or African American | 15.2 | 15.0 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.5 | 0.6 |
| Asian | 5.8 | 9.8 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 2.7 | 2.2 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 41.1 | 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 Paterson Public Schools New Jersey election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Paterson Public Schools | New Jersey | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ NorthJersey.com, "Nine candidates running for three Paterson school seats," August 1, 2017
- ↑ Passaic County New Jersey, "November 7, 2017 Summary Report Passaic County," 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 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
- ↑ New Jersey Department of Education, "Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC)," accessed September 21, 2017
- ↑ NJ Spotlight, "The Long Goodbye: State Board Plans Newark Exit Strategy," August 18, 2017
- ↑ North Jersey, "Like Newark, Paterson could regain full control of its schools," September 14, 2017
- ↑ North Jersey, "Paterson to hold public sales of school district buildings," September 21, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedsales - ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 United States Census Bureau, "Quickfacts:Passaic County, New Jersey," accessed August 31, 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
| Paterson Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Passaic County, New Jersey | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-Large: Incumbent, Jonathan Hodges • Incumbent, Chrystal Cleaves • Sebastian Mejia • Joel Ramirez • Joyed Rohim • Fannia Santana • Andres Scott • Kenneth Simmons • Juan Kivelier Sosa |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
