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Simmons, Martinez, and Hodges win Paterson school board seats | Paterson Times

Simmons, Martinez, and Hodges win Paterson school board seats

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Incumbents Jonathan Hodges, Kenneth Simmons, and newcomer Dania Martinez won seats on the Board of Education.

Simmons received 16,729 ballots. Martinez, the highest vote-getter, received 16,821 votes. And Hodges received 15,669 ballots, according to unofficial Passaic County election results.

Majority of the votes have been counted. Only provisional ballots remain to be counted. Results are unlikely to shift after the provisional count.

Simmons won his fourth term on the school board. He was first elected in 2010.

“I’m glad to be back. We still have a lot of work to do, especially as we gain local control. Now, you can’t blame the state,” said Simmons, who serves as the president of the Board of Education.

Paterson schools have been under state control since 1991.

Simmons’ running mate Herman Irving, a firefighter, fell short in the six-person race. He finished fourth place behind Hodges with 14,865 votes.

Simmons (pictured, left) said he will focus on restructuring high schools. He wants students graduating from Paterson schools to have certificates that would help them obtain jobs. He also wants the district to hire local people and firms to keep jobs in Paterson.

Hodges won his seventh term on the school board. He was first elected in 2002.

“I campaigned by working hard as a school board member every year that I have been on there and that paid off,” said Hodges (pictured, right). His campaign was mostly on Facebook this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hodges said his focus will be on improving quality of education in the district.

Both Hodges and Simmons said they avoided traditional campaigning, such as knocking on doors and in-person interaction with voters.

Simmons and Irving had billboards in various parts of Paterson. Their campaign also sent out mailers to voters.

Martinez (pictured, center) aligned herself with City Council candidates Alex Mendez and Shahin Khalique. Both Khalique and Mendez ran aggressive campaigns as if there was no pandemic, according to sources.

Martinez did not respond for this story.

Sole incumbent to lose was Joel Ramirez. He received 13,586 votes. He was elected three years ago and served a full term.

“I honestly campaigned as hard as I could,” said Ramirez. He said he tried to reach voters through mail and social media. “I didn’t want to put my life or my family at risk by going door to door. I think that hurt me.”

Some of those that did go door to door for other campaigns have tested positive for Covid-19.

Ramirez mentioned some of the issues he championed during his term.

“I led the charge in the halal food [initiative]. And I was very vocal about the restructuring of the high schools,” said Ramirez. “A lot of things we do is collective. You can’t really take full credit for specific things.”

Newcomer Shanikwa Lemon finished last place with 11,862 votes.

Email: [email protected]

Updated 1 p.m. on November 20.

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  • HankMorgan

    “ARE collective”! “Things we do ARE collective”! Good grief.

    • bigron

      It's called colloquial usage. It's how people speak, sir.

      • HankMorgan

        Ron, educators, as a rule, model good habits of all kinds for their students. Especially when it comes to language. Young and old people alike are expected to use formal, accepted and proper speech and grammar when interacting with the world at large. Such usage is expected of prospective employees, for example. Colloquial speech is perfectly acceptable in informal settings. Whether presenting yourself as a job candidate or a representative of the educational community in a public forum it is not.

        • John

          HankMorgan you are speaking too proper to be of Paterson.

  • HankMorgan

    Y’all have done such a magnificent job overseeing the corrupt administration and educational failures of Eileen Shafer! Give yourselves a big pat on the back.

  • Miss jamaica

    I am very happy to see that Mr Rameiz will no longer be apart of the board.
    Let thanks the people of Paterson.

    He will still be raping the taxpayers.

    Bd members let work together to get our kids safely back in schools.
    A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

  • John

    PATERSON.. AMERICAS NEW SHITHOLE. AND GETTING WORSE EVERY YEAR. DONT BELIEVE ME? ASK THE VICTIMS. KEEPON VOTING IN THE DEMOCRATS WHO ARE FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR.

    HISPANIC DEMOCRATS FOR TRUMP

    • MarquinhoGaucho

      Trump is loser, democrats suck, we need Sanders to take money out of politics and turn us into a northern european country run on common sense

  • MarquinhoGaucho

    They all suck Dania Martinez is a charter school lackey whose whole campaign was funded by those outside carpetbaggers who want to plunder the taxpayers of Paterson…property taxes up 25% in 2 years thanks to charters…she will do nothing but defund the public schools and vote to expand the charter schools and protect the sexual predators that run them and work there

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