Ellen Simon

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Ellen Simon

Prior offices

Jersey City Public Schools Board of Education At-large

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Education

Bachelor's

Northwestern University

Personal

Profession

Freelance Writer

Ellen Simon was an at-large member of the Jersey City School Board in New Jersey from 2014 to 2016. She won election to the board on November 5, 2013. Simon did not seek re-election in 2016.

Biography

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When she served on the school board, Simon resided in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Simon earned her bBachelor's degree from Northwestern University. She began her career as a journalist with the Associated Press and The Star Ledger. As of October 2013, she worked as a freelance writer. Simon co-founded the Parents for Progress volunteering group to advocate for better public schools in Jersey City.

Elections

2013

See also: Jersey City Public Schools elections (2013)

Simon and ten other candidates challenged incumbent Gerald Lyons for one of three at-large seats with three-year terms in the general election on November 5, 2013. Simon was a member of the "Candidates for Excellence" slate of candidates endorsed by Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, which included Jessica Daye and Micheline Amy for the three-year term seats and Carol Lester for the one-year term seat. A separate slate of candidates campaigned under the name "Children First," which included Lyons, Gina Verdibello and Lorenzo Richardson for the three-year term seats and Angel Valentin for the one-year term seat.

Results

Jersey City Public Schools, At-large General Election, 3-year term, 2013
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Jessica Daye	21.1%	9,351
	Nonpartisan	Micheline Amy	17.7%	7,879
	Nonpartisan	Ellen Simon	10.6%	4,702
	Nonpartisan	Lorenzo Richardson	10.2%	4,511
	Nonpartisan	Gerald Lyons Incumbent	8.9%	3,950
	Nonpartisan	Gina Verdibello	7.6%	3,383
	Nonpartisan	Kevaan G. Walton	6.2%	2,770
	Nonpartisan	Denise Davis	4.8%	2,137
	Nonpartisan	Dejon Morris	4.3%	1,914
	Nonpartisan	Carol L. Gabriel	2.7%	1,214
	Nonpartisan	Josephine Paige	2.2%	982
	Nonpartisan	Susan Harbace	2.2%	961
	Nonpartisan	Telissa E. Dowling	1.4%	608
	Nonpartisan	Personal choice	0.1%	44
Total Votes				44,406
Source: Hudson County Clerk, "Official Election Results," November 14, 2013

Funding

Simon ran as part of the Friends of Amy, Daye, Simon and Lester, which reported $35,360.49 in contributions and $11,505.03 in expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Endorsements

Simon received an endorsement for her campaign from Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. She also received endorsements from board members Vidya Gangadin, Sangeeta Ranade and Carol Harrison-Arnold along with Jersey City Council President Rolando Lavarro and Councilwomen Diane Coleman and Candice Osborne.

Campaign themes

As part of the "Candidates for Excellence," Simon shared the following campaign themes with Jessica Daye, Micheline Amy and Carol Lester:

We believe the best way to improve public schools is by focusing community-wide efforts on public schools, by better engaging public school parents and attracting new families to public schools. We believe every child can learn and every child deserves access to a quality education. We support the administration’s efforts to increase the number of African-American and Latino students doing advanced work in elementary school and college-prep work in middle school and high school. We support the administration’s efforts to lower the drop-out numbers, which resulted last year in the lowest number of drop-outs in a decade. We support the district’s plan to follow up with children who do drop out to find a way for them to earn a high-school degree or GED. We support more alternative paths for children returning to school from the criminal justice system. We support a longer school day, with time for children to have recess. We support the goal, laid out in the mayor’s transition report, to build a playground at every elementary and grade school, so every child has a safe place to play. We believe a one-size-fits all curriculum doesn’t work. We believe in giving teachers flexibility. We believe in differentiated instruction. We want translation services, both at schools and at Board meetings, for families. We want clean schools. Our schools suffer from chronic absenteeism on the part of many janitors. We support the district’s efforts to solve this problem. We support the district’s initiatives to ensure every classroom always has certified teachers and substitutes. We support the district’s efforts to clean our children’s drinking water after a long history of lead contamination. We support the district’s efforts to ensure that all children start the day with a federally funded school breakfast. Last year, half the children in our district were in danger of starting the school day hungry. We were glad to see expanded breakfast programs last year and we expect to see more this year. We would like to see the district’s central office reorganized, with additional hires shifted to schools. We want Board meetings to start later, to accommodate working parents. We want them to be shorter and more efficient. We support collective bargaining.

Note: The above quote is from the candidate's website, which may include some typographical or spelling errors.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Ellen + Simon + Jersey + City + Public + School"

Ellen Simon News Feed

See also

• Jersey City Public Schools, New Jersey
• Jersey City Public Schools Elections (2013)

External links

Suggest a link

• District page
• Campaign website
• LinkedIn page