Foil: Your right to Know.
“A well-organized late-entry write-in challenge didn’t change the status quo in Suffern Central School District.
But the move sent a message.
The school board incumbents won handily and the budget passed by a wide margin. But private school families from the growing yeshiva community made clear that they want services they believe the district fails to adequately provide.
“We’re all taxpayers,” said Andrea Jaffe, who grew up in the district and now lives there and sends her children to local yeshivas. “We all contribute to the huge budget.”
Children who attend private schools should get timely busing and special services that are mandated by the state, she said. A write-in campaign for Joanna Klein and Asher Wieder apparently was launched after two candidates from the non-public school community were thrown off the ballot. The write-in candidates could not be reached for comment.
Preliminary results showed that incumbent board president Matthew Kern received 5,182 votes; incumbent Dr. Chris Nicpon, 5,194; write-ins 1,523. The district had not released detailed information on write-in votes.
The budget also passed by 4,555 to 1,294. Two propositions also passed by similarly wide margins.
High turnout led to lines at the polls – something seen in other districts, too.
Suffern Central: District’s yeshiva busing policies stir ire
Update: Yeshiva parents removed from Suffern Central school board ballot
‘Culture wars’: School board elections turn into political battlegrounds
The write-in candidates’ message differed in one significant way from the platform of Lieby Bruer and Chaim Feig, who were removed from the ballot after the district said they didn’t meet a one-year residency requirement. A card handed out that included write-in instructions also urged a “no” vote on the budget and propositions.”
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