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Incumbent Kanileah Anderson and her running mates Louis Maisonave Jr. and David Daughety appeared headed to victory Tuesday night in the Newark school board election according to preliminary results that didn’t include mail-in ballots.
The three candidates are part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, a contingent that has historically been heavily backed by Mayor Ras Baraka and other powerful Democrat lawmakers. The slate has won every school board election since 2016.
Among all 11 candidates, Anderson was leading with 22% of the vote, while Maisonave Jr. and Daughety both received roughly 18% of the votes, according to preliminary results.
If the leading candidates hold onto the win, the nine-member Newark Board of Education will continue to be composed entirely of members who ran for election as part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate.
As of 9:17 p.m. Tuesday, candidates on the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate were trailing behind the mayoral-backed slate. Returning candidate Ade’Kamil Kelly received nearly 8% of the votes, according to preliminary results, and his running mates Shana Melius and Nathanael Barthelemy received roughly 6% of the votes each.
The two slates were joined by returning candidates Latoya Jackson and Yolanda Johnson and newcomer Elaine Asyah Aquil, who received about 5% of the votes each. Jordy Nivar received 3% of the votes, and DeWayne Bush just under 2% of the votes.
The winning candidates will decide policies for the district, which is home to about 40,000 students across 64 schools.
Newark youth become the first in state to take historic vote
On Tuesday, Gabrielly Ferreira started her day like any other: getting ready for school, going to classes, catching up with friends, and taking tests. But in the back of her mind, the 16-year-old student at Science Park High School knew it was a historic day for Newark’s youth.
After school, Ferreira’s mom took her to Hawkins Street School in the city’s Ironbound neighborhood, where she would cast her ballot in an election for the first time. As she walked inside the school’s gym, Ferreira noticed only one other person voting, but she was still excited to participate in the election.
The sophomore student was greeted by poll workers who checked her ID, verified her information, and handed her a ballot marking a milestone moment in her civic journey.
“It was pretty simple, and they were really friendly, actually. I knew who I was voting for, so it only took a couple of minutes. All teens who can vote today should do so,” said Ferreira, who spent weeks preparing to vote and helped organize a school board candidate forum last month.
Ferreira joined hundreds of Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds who were the first of those ages in New Jersey to vote in a school board election. City residents chose from 11 new and returning candidates running for three seats on the Newark Board of Education.
The winners will serve a three-year term and be tasked with deciding policies, holding the superintendent accountable, approving a budget, and overseeing New Jersey’s largest school district.
More than 90 churches, senior centers, and schools across the city’s five wards opened their doors from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day to serve as polling places.
By midday Tuesday, polling places at East Side and University high schools were quiet, with just a trickle of voters coming in after school. At Science Park, a poll worker said there were roughly 200 16- and 17-year-olds registered to vote at that location, but the worker had yet to see a teen voter by 3:30 p.m. Newark Public Schools students were not allowed to leave class during the school day to vote.
City leaders, organizers spent weeks getting students vote ready
This year, city leaders spent weeks working to get new youth voters registered and ready to vote in the historic election.
Nearly 1,800 teens registered to vote, but that number fell short of the 7,257 eligible to sign up, based on estimates from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León previously said he aimed to register at least 3,000 students before the March 25 deadline.
City leaders hoped youth voters would impact the school board election, which historically has drawn around 3% to 4% of registered voters.
Charter school students such as Domonique Bateman hope city teens will increase the historically low turnout. A senior at North Star Academy’s Lincoln Park High School, Bateman feels it’s just as important for charter students to vote in the April election because under state law, school districts must provide charter schools with at least 90% of per-pupil funds for students who live in the district.
Bateman wants the winning candidates to focus on providing more bus tickets for students, since many rely on public transit to get to school. She also wants to see more funding for extracurricular programs such as the arts and STEM.
“I know that the funds that [the district] give us go towards our lunches, go towards our extracurricular programs, and help with our students that have special needs and require other educational services. So, I think it’s really important that the people who are directly impacted by this money have a voice in who is elected,” said Bateman on Tuesday.
Science Park senior Tahiyah Williams, 18, said she wasn’t able to vote during the school day on Tuesday despite her polling place being at her school. She plans to vote with her mom later in the day, because she wants to “improve the school system for the kids that are coming” after her.
Jibola Omotoyinbo, a senior at North Academy’s Washington Park High School, also voted to improve the conditions in Newark schools. She wants to have a say in the people that will represent her on the city school board.
“Being able to prioritize education for all and equal education for all is something I do hope, that, like, somebody in office would be able to do,” Omotoyinbo said.
Newark became the first city in New Jersey last year to lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections. But the youth vote was delayed until this election due to voter registration issues, according to city officials in 2024. This year’s youth vote also sparked school and local efforts to ensure teens were ready for Tuesday’s election.
In February, Newark Public Schools launched the Vote 15+ voter registration campaign to get students registered. Nonprofit groups such as The Gem Project held civics trainings for new young voters, where they said they want to see younger school board members represent them, improve school lunches, and adopt a curriculum that reflects their experiences. The Newark branch of the NAACP also held a forum to hear about candidates’ positions on school policies, funding, and looming federal cuts.
Newark Public Schools also welcomed Gov. Phil Murphy, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, Baraka, and other officials in March to the Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology to encourage youth to vote in the school board election.
The winning candidates must also contend with recent criticism from the community over transparency in addressing racism in schools, the school board’s attempt to remove one of its longest serving members, the district’s decision to roll back on paying board members’ attorneys fees in their fight against an ethics complaint initiated by a high school principal, and the board’s approval of thousands of dollars for a staff fun day that the state’s education department deemed an inappropriate use of funds.
In Essex County, Newark joined Irvington in holding April school board elections.
On Tuesday, young voters throughout the city, including Ferreira, were seen wearing “I voted today” stickers to mark the first of many votes they will cast throughout their civic journey.
“Our voice actually does matter even though we may feel like it doesn’t,” Ferreira added.
Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
