JERSEY CITY – The Jersey City Board of Education planned to hold a special meeting Tuesday evening to try to fill the vacant seat of former school Trustee Marvin Adames who resigned last month. The meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m.
at the Board of Education Central Office, at 346 Claremont Ave.
Several parents and other members of the community have rallied behind Gerald Lyons, a teacher at the Hudson County Schools of Technology. Lyons ran for the Board of Education in April and finished in fourth place behind the three winners who joined the board in May.
Some segments of the community have also come out in support of Peter O’Reilly, a parent who has children in the school district. Lyons has no children in the district.
Since Adames is Latino, there have also been some calls for the board to appoint another Latino to his seat.
The school boards remaining eight members – Board Chairwoman Suzanne Mack, Vidya Gangadin, Sterling Waterman, Marilyn Roman, Sangeeta Ranade, Carol Lester, Carol Harrison-Arnold, and Angel Valentin – will vote on whom to appoint to the seat. Whomever they appoint will serve until April 2013, at which time there will be a special election held for a candidate to serve out the remainder of Adames’ term in office. Adames’ term ends in May 2014.
Adames was first elected to the Jersey City School Board in April 2011. He resigned from the board last month after being appointed chief municipal prosecutor in Newark. – E. Assata Wright