PASCACK VALLEY—While most upcoming Pascack Valley school board elections are uncontested, seats representing Hillsdale on the Pascack Valley regional high school board and on Park Ridge’s local Board of Education are being contested Nov. 3.
On the local level, school boards generally comprise 60% or more of the property tax bill, while municipal budgets consume about 20% and county taxes about 10%.
In the Pascack Valley, four towns contribute local taxes to budgets supporting two regional high schools: Pascack Hills High School in Montvale and Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale. Hillsdale and River Vale send students to Pascack Valley, while Montvale and Woodcliff Lake send students to Pascack Hills.
Pascack Press will reach out to candidates in contested races to ask what local issues are on their minds. School board members serve three-year terms.
In New Jersey, school elections are nonpartisan, though in recent years controversies have swirled around a state-mandated health and sex education curriculum, “parental rights” and notification policies, and LGBTQ and gender identity issues that have sometimes divided parents and educators. Lately, “parental rights” and school funding formulas have dominated local education debates.
Open seats on regional school boards
Three candidates are competing for two Hillsdale seats on the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education. Newcomers Beth Kornblatt, Patrick Farley and Robert Stephen Oosting have declared. Incumbents Gini Varghese and Kristin Martin are not running for reelection.
Incumbents Michael Weaver and Stephanie Mong-Ping Huang are running uncontested for one open seat each in Montvale and Woodcliff Lake, respectively.
Three uncontested seats in the Westwood Regional School District, which serves Westwood and the Township of Washington, are sought by incumbent Nicole Martin in Westwood and incumbents Heather M. Perin and Loni Azzolina in the Township of Washington.
Park Ridge’s contested race
The Park Ridge Board of Education has drawn attention following a tumultuous end to 2025 and start of 2026, when trustee Robert Fisher Jr. resigned under pressure from a parent-led recall effort.
The recall effort was tied to Fisher’s living away at college, his attendance record at meetings and charges that he was not properly representing his constituents, according to the local Committee to Recall Fisher.
Four candidates are running for three open Park Ridge seats, including incumbents Rachelle Browne, Shanai Jensen and Amara E. Wagner. Newcomer Josephine V. Hunt has also joined the race. No petitions were filed for an unexpired one-year term by the Aug. 3 deadline.
Uncontested BOE races
- In Emerson, incumbent trustees Amanda Riccardi and William Graulich V are running for reelection to two open seats.
- In Hillsdale, incumbent trustees Kathleen Puerta and Michael Kenduck are running for reelection to two open seats.
- In Montvale, three incumbent trustees — Vice President John Carvelli, Dominic DiSalvo and Rachel Baskin — are running for reelection to three open seats.
- In River Vale, incumbents Jamie Assor and Patrice Pintarelli are running for reelection, along with newcomer Thomas Gallione, for three open seats. Gallione is running uncontested for the seat formerly held by school board President Steven Rosini. Rosini is not seeking reelection. He has been a board member since 2008 and president since 2022 and is the board’s longest-serving member.
- In Woodcliff Lake, incumbent Kristan Saks and newcomer Jennifer Stroger are running uncontested for two open seats. Trustee Lysbeth Espinosa is not seeking reelection.