Fulop endorses slate for Jersey City school board

JERSEY CITY – Ward E (downtown) City Councilman Steven Fulop today announced his endorsement of three candidates for the upcoming Jersey City Board of Education election. The election will be held on Wednesday, April 27.
A slate of three Fulop-endorsed candidates swept the 2010 school board elections last spring. Should at least two of Fulop’s candidates win this year, a majority of the nine seats on the BOE would be allied with the councilman.
Having the majority on the school board would help Fulop politically, as he is widely assumed to be gearing up for a 2013 run for mayor. Also, his allies on the board could force a decision to conduct a national search for a new superintendent of schools.
Other candidates are likely to enter the BOE race by the filing deadline of Tuesday, March 8.
In a statement released today, Fulop announced his support for Carol Harrison-Arnold, Marvin Adames, and incumbent Sue Mack. The three candidates will run together as a slate.
“I couldn’t be more excited about these three candidates,” said Fulop in a statement. “In addition to one incumbent, we are looking to encourage a new wave of young activists who are smart and capable and who care about making the schools meaningfully better. We are trying to get past the days when the Board of Education was used as a political patronage dumping ground. My hope is that we are going to run these candidates hard and get them elected. They are running for the right reason: to improve the schools, not for politics.”
Adames currently works as the chief municipal prosecutor in Newark. Harrison-Arnold, who also holds a law degree, is the former president of the Lincoln High School Parents Council a board member at Hoboken Charter School, the president of Monticello Community Development Corp., and a director of Jersey City Episcopal Community Development Corp. Mack is a five-term member of the BOE and is a past board president.
The Jersey City Education Association — the teachers’ union — has also endorsed Harrison-Arnold, Adames, and Mack. – E. Assata Wright