Eight running for three Passaic school board seats in April election

PASSAIC — Eight candidates are running for three open seats in the Board of Education election next month.

The city is among a handful of the 593 school districts in the state that still hold school board elections in April and still vote to approve or reject the annual school budget. The election will be on April 16.

This year it will be set against the backdrop of challenges facing the district. Perhaps most significantly, it received word that the state Schools Development Authority will fund a $328 project to build a new city high school.

Part of that money will be used to temporarily relocate the high school's 2,000-plus students while the existing high school is torn down and rebuilt.

Just how this will be done remains vague, but school officials said it involves "redistricting" students and that details will be coming shortly.

Work is tentatively slated to begin at the end of the 2024-25 school year.

The eight candidates are incumbents Luis "Danny" Rodriguez, Ronald Van Rensalier and Judith Sanchez and challengers Yosef Wolf, Michael Cohen, Marko Kopic, Diomedes Minaya and Lisa Wozniak.

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Voters will also be asked to approve or reject the proposed tax levy, the portion of the school budget raised in local property taxes.

The board is expected to approve the levy at its March 25 meeting. Going into the meeting, the board is proposing a $17.5 million levy in a $405 million school budget, or 4.4% of the total appropriations.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Eight to run for three Passaic school board seats in April election