JERSEY CITY– A slate of three candidates backed by Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop won the Jersey City Board of Education election on Tuesday.
Marilyn Roman received the highest vote total with 4,096 votes. Slate mate Vidya Gangadin received the next highest number of votes with 3,870 votes.
Sangeeta Ranade ranked garnered 3,432 votes.
The Fulop slate beat a rival slate of candidates that had been supported by the local teachers union and Mayor Jeremiah T. Healy, whom Fulop intends to challenge for the mayoralty in May 2013.
The election took place amidst voter discontent that the recent redrawing of district lines caused by the 2010 census in some cases forced voters to travel long distances to new polling places.
Also, a last minute campaign to defeat the school budget — called for by activists as a protest following a report by the Jersey City Independent that the local school board approved a 2 percent tax increase based on the inaccurate belief that such an increase was required to keep $100 million in state aid — was apparently unsuccessful.
Voters approved the school tax levy by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent.
Tuesday’s victory means all nine members of the city school board have been elected with Fulop’s support.