8 Candidates Vie For 3 Seats On Hoboken School Board

HOBOKEN, NJ — Last November, a slate of three Hoboken Board of Education candidates faced only one opponent for re-election. But thanks to a defeated $241 million referendum this past January, more people are paying attention to public school issues — and now there are two slates and two independents in the race.

In this year's Nov. 8 election, incumbent Alejandro "Alex" De La Torre Jr. is running again, now with runningmates Leslie Norwood and Antonio Grana. They don't list a name for their slate.

In January, Grana was the head of a group supporting the "Yes" group on the referendum.

Running against them as "Kids First" are Pavel Sokolov — who publicly opposed a recent $241 million school referendum — and local moms Donna Magen and Cindy Wiegand.

Running independently, as she did last year, is local mom Patricia Waiters with the slogan "Transparency, Respect, Integrity."

John Madigan, who has served on the board before, is also running. His banner is "Hoboken Children First."

Board members Sheila Dallara and Joyce Simons will not run again.

The deadline to file to run was this past Monday.

"We want to bring more community stakeholders to the conversation," said Sokolov in a Patch story about the race last week.

The Referendum And Other Issues

This year, a $241 million referendum in January — on a proposed plan to construct a new high school and make changes to the district's aging buildings — was defeated 2 to 1, so the board and school administrators, including Superintendent Christine Johnson, will have to come up with a new plan.

An analysis by Hoboken resident Kevin Davis showed that 60 percent of those who voted in the election were registered Democrats, a little over 14 percent were Republicans, and the rest were unaffiliated. Hoboken Board of Education elections are non-partisan.

Besides facilities, board members must also make decisions about programs, personnel, and budgets. The most recently approved school budget, for 2022-23, was $67 million.

Got a letter about the election? Post it any time of day using these instructions. Want to share a news tip or idea with Hoboken Patch? Red Rover, Red Rover, send it over.

Other Hoboken School Board News

• Read letters submitted about school board issues last week.
• The board recently voted on several major personnel changes.
• Read information specific to the Hoboken election here.
• Read Hoboken Patch's story about the most recent school board meeting here.
• The district is holding "community roundtables" in person and virtually for community members to talk about the district. Find out more here.