Endorsements: We urge you to give these three candidates your serious consideration when deciding who should receive your three Board of Education votes. We are convinced they will bring fresh perspective and reasoned judgment to their service.

14.5% of New Jersey households LOST SNAP benefits TODAY. This includes seniors, individuals with disabilities, and SOMSD families. Click here to read more about how you can help and how Superintendent briefly spoke about the resources available for our community.

Only by separating historical transportation issues from those introduced by III can we make targeted, effective improvements. As we consider potential modifications to III, it’s critical that we evaluate data across all overlapping factors — transportation, zoning, and placement — to isolate the right areas for focused improvement and ensure that changes are addressing the actual problems.

About the Author

Malini Nayar is a community development finance professional with over 20 years of experience in finance, credit, and risk management. She has overseen investments in affordable housing, schools, and sustainable energy projects nationwide, and has served on nonprofit and educational boards. Her work is rooted in fiscal prudence, equity, and community impact — principles she will bring to her approach to school board governance.

For students with special education needs, these delays are not abstract—they are real. A delay or loss of this funding could have tangible impacts, like loss of services, if we do not have budget expertise on the Board to plan for this. 

We will work in lock-step with the townships, the District, and community organizations to ensure every family has access to equitable, affordable, and enriching before and after care. By mobilizing the talent and resources we already have, we can lift a heavy burden from working families and create stronger, safer, and more connected schools.

The Listen Learn Lead campaign is committed to the protection and development of our LGBTQIA+. Malini Nayar’s endorsement is that commitment in action.

We believe the Intentional Integration Initiative (III) reflects our community’s values and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and is an important aspect of our District’s vision to develop children into thoughtful, open-minded, caring young adults. III will improve academic outcomes, reduce bullying, and in the long term, our children will become caring, smart leaders of the next generation.

Our student athletes deserve top-notch facilities. Turf is not being installed in 2025 and there are currently no plans to improve Ritzer for the spring 2026 sports season. The District should work to improve the field before 2026.

While children laughed and played downstairs, we listened to stories, brainstormed solutions, and imagined stronger connections between district, township, and community. Each has its limits, but by working together, we can build the kind of community that supports every family.

YouthNet has been serving our community for 17 years, with recent support from the Maplewood Foundation, South Mountain YMCA, and NJ American Water. Their work reminds us that building strong schools requires strong partnerships across our entire community. Together, we can ensure that every student has safe, enriching opportunities during the hours they need it most.

We are proud to receive this endorsement as pro-equality candidates for the Board of Education in the South Orange Maplewood School District!

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Every family in SOMSD deserves the peace of mind that their child will get to and from school safely and on time. When the student transportation experience is long, unpredictable bus rides, missed pickups, or being the last child dropped off, it can create real stress and anxiety for children. No student should start or end their school day feeling unsafe, worried, or forgotten.

Over the past two days, three men have been abducted in our community—on September 8 and again on September 9—by masked ICE and Border Patrol agents. We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and are deeply troubled by actions that create fear and uncertainty throughout our community, harming not only those directly targeted but also their families and neighbors.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our launch party! In attendance were parents, kids, teachers, high school students, and community leaders came together to celebrate the start of our campaign. The room was full of energy, ideas, and commitment to our schools. We’re grateful for the strong turnout, especially from district teachers and elected town leaders who took the time to stand with us.