Schneider, Rezabala and Ioffe appear headed for victory in Jersey City school race; Lyons wins seat in Secaucus

Matthew Schneider and Tia Rezabala, the For Stronger Schools ticket that was endorsed by two 2025 Jersey City mayoral candidates, and incumbent Natalia Ioffe appeared headed to victory in the Jersey City school board elections Tuesday night.
Schneider and Rezabala had the backing of Ward E Councilman James Solomon and City Council President Joyce Watterman in their fight against the Jersey City Education Association-backed Education Matters slate.
Melany Cruz Burgos, one of Ioffe’s running mates on the Education Matters slate, was 724 votes behind Ioffe, who was running third with 55% of the vote recorded, according to the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
Ahmed Kheir, the other Education Matters candidate was fifth. The results are not official.
Despite Ioffe’s apparent victory, it was loss for the union-backed ticket that had the endorsements of County Executive Craig Guy, Councilman Daniel Rivera and Hudson County District 2 Board of Commissioners member Bill O’Dea, who is also running for mayor.
There were a total of seven school board races decided Tuesday, three of them (East Newark, Guttenberg and Kearny) unopposed.
In Bayonne, the Together We Can slate of incumbents Melissa Godesky-Rodriguez, Pamela Sclafane and board President Jodi Casais won the three contested seats in the four-candidate race.
In Hoboken, the incumbent Building Futures Together slate of Malani Cademartori, Ailene McGuirk and Thomas Kluepfel swept the three seats in another four-candidate race.
In Secaucus, former Jersey City school board President Gerry Lyons was elected to the school board, along with running mate Tatiana Geller on the Excellence in Education slate.
Incumbent Melissa Howard was also victorious in the race among seven candidates for three seats. Lyons was the top vote-getter, followed by Geller and Howard.