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Rakesh Kak
Rakesh Kak was a candidate for West Windsor Township representative on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District school board in New Jersey. Kak was defeated in the by-district general election on November 7, 2017.
Kak was an unsuccessful candidate for the board in 2013 and 2010.
Biography
Kak's professional experience includes serving as the managing partner of an investment bank called View Partners. He moved to the U.S. from India to complete an M.B.A. in finance at Columbia University. Prior to that, he studied electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology.
Elections
2017
Three of the nine seats on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District school board in New Jersey were up for by-district general election on November 7, 2017. For the Plainsboro Township seat, board member Isaac Cheng filed for re-election and defeated former candidate Russel Melville and newcomer Peter Syrek. For the two seats in the West Windsor Township, board member Dana Krug and newcomer Martin Whitfield defeated former candidate Rakesh Kak and newcomers Veronica Mehno and Yanping "Helen" Ming.[1]
Results
| West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, West Windsor Township General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Dana Krug Incumbent |
26.86% | 3,582 |
| Martin Whitfield |
26.80% | 3,573 |
| Yanping Ming | 16.56% | 2,208 |
| Veronica Mehno | 16.52% | 2,203 |
| Rakesh Kak | 12.99% | 1,732 |
| Write-in votes | 0.27% | 36 |
| Total Votes | 13,334 | |
| Source: Mercer County, "General Election November 7, 2017: Official Results," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Funding
Kak did not report campaign contributions or expenditures in this election as of October 24, 2017, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.[2]
2013
Incumbent Alapakkam Manikandan lost a re-election bid for the Plainsboro seat to challenger Yu Taylor Zhong. The race for two seats from West Windsor included incumbent Louisa Ho and challengers 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.[3]
Results
| West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, West Windsor Township, 3-year terms, 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
Kak reported $150.00 in contributions and $131.53 in expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, which left his campaign with $18.47 on hand as of December 27, 2013.[4]
Campaign themes
2013
In an interview with the League of Women Voters of the Princeton Area, Kak explained his views on major issues facing the district:[5]
District growth
| “ | Even though future enrollments are not currently expected to grow as rapidly as the previous 10 years, new housing developments are still coming up in West Windsor. Any major new residential development poses significant challenge to future school boards. The school board needs to keep a watchful eye on the population trends and be prepared for any adverse changes. We should take proactive steps to work closely with the mayor’s office and the township council and prepare years ahead of any proposed residential development. In addition, we should continually assess our facility utilization and make incremental changes to be equipped for any unexpected increases.[6] | ” |
Financial challenges
| “ | One of the major financial challenges faced by the school district is managing the budget while staying within the mandated 2% cap. Annual increases in the cost of employee healthcare benefits, a reduction of our fair share of state aid coupled with unfunded state and federal mandates, have decreased the financial flexibility of the school boards. Since these challenges are here to stay, we will have to come up with a long term plan to manage inflation in costs while maintaining the excellence in education for each child, whether they are in the A&E program, regular education program or have special needs. We need to make data driven decisions and start saving smarter, such as combining/collapsing programs/activities that are currently underutilized or investigating shared-services agreements.[6] | ” |
School safety
| “ | I applaud the increased measures the district has taken including visitor controls, facility improvements, training and intervention and staffing, including its “Eyes-on-Doors” policy. I am glad that the district did not take a reactive approach to the horrible events at Newtown but made practical and financially prudent changes to the security system starting with the pilot at Village and Millstone to be expanded to the middle schools and beyond. We should continue to work in cooperation with police/fire departments of both townships and parents on how to further make our schools safer. Technology security is a concern for most organizations. We should make sure that our school IT networks are well protected and all student data, including their personal & medical records, are safe. The new Chromebook program with its cloud computing platform seems to have been planned well to prevent any technology breaches.[6] | ” |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Rakesh Kak West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, New Jersey
- West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District elections (2017)
- West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District elections (2013)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, "Board of Education Election," accessed August 30, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Filings," accessed October 24, 2017
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District elections in 2017 | |
| Mercer and Middlesex Counties | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Plainsboro Township: Incumbent, Isaac Cheng • Russel Melville • Peter Syrek West Windsor Township: Incumbent, Dana Krug • Rakesh Kak • Veronica Mehno • Yanping "Helen" Ming • Martin Whitfield |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
