The April 19th West New York Board of Education race will see the three incumbent’s face one slate of challengers and one independent, based on filings with the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Trustees Jonathan Castaneda, Ana Sanchez, and Douglas Velasquez will be running under the “Your Children’s Future” banner, which has become commonplace for incumbents in recent years.
Castaneda, also the special projects manager for the town, was first elected in 2015 and then re-elected in 2018.
Last time around, he ran with Adrienne Sires, the wife of U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-8), and Joseph Rodriguez, the husband of County Commissioner Caridad Rodriguez (D-7).
Sires and Rodriguez decided not to seek re-election and reappointed in their places last month were Sanchez and Velasquez.
The four-month appointments are necessary after the board of commissioners passed a measure in August 2019 moving their school board elections to April, like neighboring North Bergen and Weehawken do, instead of November.
This led to Beatriz Amaro and Ismail Dalia being appointed in January 2021, before they were elected as part of a ticket with Trustee Ruben Mendoza. The team ran unopposed.
There will be some competition this year though, as long time residents Dorinne Auriemma and Vipul Parekh are running with fellow first time candidate Jose Valdez.
They are running without a slogan at this time, but are bracketed together as a three-person slate, the county clerk’s office said today.
Additionally, Kelvin Hiciano, the assistant business administrator and board secretary for the Ridgefield Public Schools, is running by himself under the “Prioritizing Our Students” banner.
North Bergen, Weehawken and West New York have moved their School Board Elections from November back to April. Other cities should do this too.
Hoboken should move their School Board election back to April too. It was a bad idea to move the election to November – it was a Chris Christie idea.
Let’s move it back to April. One BIG difference is that the PUBLIC can vote again on the School Board Budget!