The “Moms for Progress” slate swept the Hoboken Board of Education race in a largely uneventful contest that saw four candidates running for three, three-year terms.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Trustee Chetali Khanna was the top vote getter with 3,754, BOE President Sharyn Angley was right behind her at 3,704. Their running mate, Sheillah Dallara, received 3,590 votes, according to preliminary tallies from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
Dallara, who opted not to seek re-election last year after winning three-year terms in 2016 and 2019, ran in place of Trustee Melanie Tekirian, who coincidentally also decided not to run again after two terms in office.
Meanwhile, Angley and Khanna ran unopposed in 2020 with Tekirian as the “Hoboken Together” team.
This time around, their only opponent was perennial candidate Pat Waiters, who had some success, notching 2,539 votes, but leaving her just under a thousand votes from a board seat.
She was also on the ballot in the 2nd Ward council race, but she received only 65 votes, stating last month that she was going to focus on the BOE contest.
The school board race was largely absent of conflict this time around, with one of the only notable moments being when Trustee Ailene McGuirk endorsed the Moms Leading Progress slate and questioned why Waiters had campaign literature suggesting to write McGuirk in.
Quite a strong protest vote there using the Waiters ballot position.
She only received 65 votes for council so this is clearly a very strong message.
Can you hear us now?
I hope that the Board will be open to engaging all of Hoboken (parents of kids in charter schools, private school parents, residents without children, etc). Supporting an ill conceived high school plan for a district with a half empty high school — even before you subtract the kids from other city’s who come through school choice, was definitely a trust destroyer in the community. As with the mayor, it would be a mistake to take running unopposed as a sign of support. It is more a sign of frustration with the current state of politics in town. Hopefully, we will all have learned and can start the new term off in a fresh, new collaborative way.