Farinola, Gonzalez, Kish Lead In Secaucus BOE Race

SECAUCUS, NJ — The "Change We Need" slate of Leah Farinola, Abigail Gonzalez and Ruby Kish are leading this year's very competitive and crowded Secaucus school board race.

Mail-in and provisional ballots have not been counted yet.

"We have campaigned tirelessly for eight weeks so I hope the mail-ins follow suit," said Farinola on Tuesday night. She said she was out at the polls all day Tuesday, from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and "turnout has been great!"

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Mayor Mike Gonnelli and his Council slate of Robert Costantino, Mark Dehnert and Bill McKeever ran with no challengers.

From the Hudson County Clerk:

Mayor & Council:

Gonnelli: 2,789

Dehnert: 888

McKeever: 698

Costantino: 544

Secaucus School Board:

Leah Farinola (Change We Need slate): 1,467

Abigail Gonzalez (Change We Need slate): 1,347

Ruby Kish (Change We Need slate): 1,292

Kelli D'Addetta: 1,024

Joan Cali: 750

Alexander de Hombre: 484

Bill Miller: 339

Mary Eccles: 364

Audry Yule: 384

David Kraatz: 135

Carry Chan: No longer on ballot

Current board members Joan Cali and Mary Eccles sought re-election, but Secaucus voters have said they want an entirely new slate on the board, citing a lack of transparency and communication from the board, especially when schools were closed last year.

Bill Miller ran on a platform that the Secaucus school district kept schools closed for too long last year.

Kish, Gonzalez and Farinola ran on a similar platform of wanting more transparency and communication. Kish specifically argued that special-needs students should have been allowed to return to school sooner, as they were in neighboring districts like Rutherford. Farinola did get some pushback from voters for not having a child actually enrolled in the district (she has no children).

Farinola said she has a PhD in education and is a school administrator, and pointed out that there is no requirement to have a child to be on the school board. She also said some of the other candidates running sent their children to private schools.

D’Addetta is a 45-year resident of Secaucus formerly on the board and now seeking to return. She has been the Clarendon PTA president and vice president.

Yule is also currently on the Clarendon PTA.

Kraatz ran on a platform that masks should be optional and that the closure of schools last year was wrong and continued for too long.

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