Joyce Rudin
Two incumbents were returned to the Board of Education while a newcomer was one of three people to win the race for the three seats on the township council.
In the council race, Joyce Rudin, Michelle Casalino and Joe Krakoviak won the three open seats.
Rudin took home the most votes with 10,146 or 22.30%, Casalino had 7,848, or 17.25% and Krakoviak had 7,839 or 17.23 %. They defeated Jonathan Redwine, 7,688 votes or 16.89 %, Doug Adams with 5,023 or 11.04% and Tammy Williams with 6,961 or 15.30%.
Williams and Casalino are incumbents while Rudin is the daughter of Corinne Miller, who was active in West Orange politics for many years.
Rudin has worked as an on-air reporter for PBS, NPR‘s Marketplace, and Consumer Reports TV and is currently a financial administrator. She has been invovled in several environmental activities in the township. She has said she hopes to end the practice of pay to play politics and to develop the township in a thoughtful, conscious way that promotes our quality of life and protects the environment.
Casalino is a licensed individual insurance producer working for Madison Commercial Real Estate services as a regional business director. She was on the West Orange Board of Education for 10 years.
She supported the approval of the Matrix Development Group as a Phase II Redevelopment partner and helped get West Orange designated as a Film Ready Community for New Jersey’s Motion Picture and Television Commission. She plans to work on the rodent infestation problem and other quality of life issues including improper use of public spaces.
Krakoviak is a business communications consultant, who served on the Town Council from 2010 to 2020. He hopes to increase transparency and communication in township council activities and actions.
In the Board of Education vote, incumbent Board President Brian Rock and incumbent member Eric Stevenson were reelected.
Stevenson was the top voter getter with 7,762, or 30.46%, while Rock had 7,655 votes or 30.04%. Jeffrey Lichtman was in the third with 7,062 or 27.71% while Adam Kraemer
finished with 3,005 or 11.79%.
Rock works as a data analyst for the New Jersey Education Association. He has been on the board for three years. He said that his priorities over the next three years would be to complete universal pre-k expansion for all 3 and 4 year old children in West Orange, continue with the planned facilities upgrades to air condition all of the schools, and to support Superintendent of Schools Hayden Moore.
Stevenson is the executive director of The Chad School Foundation in Newark. He has been on the Board of Education since 2021.
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