“Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to get the latest news about the city’s public school system delivered to your inbox. Incumbent Hasani Council and his running mates Quamid Childs, Mark Comesañas, and Jordy Nivar appeared headed to victory on Tuesday night in the Newark Board of Education election, according to preliminary election results. The four candidates are part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, a political group backed by Mayor Ras Baraka, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, and other state and local lawmakers. Council, Childs, and Comesañas would serve three-year terms, while Nivar would serve a one-year term. Among all nine candidates, Council led with 3,160 votes, or 25% of total votes; Childs with 2,675 votes, or 21%; Comesañas with 2,674 votes, or 21%; and Nivar with 1,956 votes, or 47%, according to the official results . If the leading candidates hold onto the win, the nine-member Newark school board will be composed entirely of members who ran for elections under the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate for a second year in a row. As of 9:23 p.m. Tuesday, Lisa Gray, a former Newark Public Schools employee with over 20 years of experience as a school social worker, and John Farrell, a charter school teacher, trailed behind the mayoral slate for a three-year term with nearly 12% of votes, according to the results. Both were followed by Tawheed Peters, a Newark parent, who received 8% of the votes. Latoya Jackson, a four-time school board candidate, was closely behind Nivar for the one-year term and received nearly 37% of the votes. She was followed by Tammy Hollaway, who received nearly 16% of the votes, according to Tuesday results. Newark teens voted for the second time in a school board election On Tuesday evening, a few students told Chalkbeat they had trouble voting. Students reported issues with getting provisional ballots or being redirected to other polling locations, and one had to remind poll workers that 16-year-olds were allowed to vote. Newark students gathered at Bethany Baptist Church to catch a ride to their polling locations on Election Day in Newark, N.J. on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. After school on Tuesday, roughly 20 teens showed up at Bethany Baptist Church to catch a ride to the polls, an initiative sponsored by the Youth Power Action Coalition. Preston Beckham, a 16-year-old sophomore at Bard High School Early College, said he was nervous to vote for the first time in an election. He wasn’t sure what the process would be like, but he was glad to be joined by his peers and Newark adult volunteers. “I want to see how my vote can impact schools. This is my first time officially voting for anything so I’m just nervous but really excited for this experience,” Beckham said. Newark Public Schools students weren’t the only ones voting in Tuesday’s election. Aaron Meighoo, a 16-year-old junior at the Essex County Donald Payne School of Technology, was also excited to vote, although he knows the Newark school board doesn’t make decisions for his school. His siblings attend Newark Public Schools, and as a former public school student, Meighoo said he was voting to ensure his siblings have a better school experience than he did. “I can say that from when I was in Newark Public Schools in middle school, there were a lot of things I personally didn’t like and things I don’t agree with. And if I can’t make any change for me, at least I can help my little brothers,” Meighoo said. Qawy Drayton, also a 16-year-old junior at the Essex County Donald Payne School of Technology, said he also has siblings who attend the public schools and hopes that his vote can help them have a better experience. “My brother is in high school, he is a sophomore and he’s told me so many things about his school that he doesn’t like. So I want to make change for him,” Drayton said. Those teens were joined by Malcolm X Shabazz high school seniors Shayla Zachary and Brenda Checo, who said they did not make the deadline to register to vote but wanted to show their support for the teen voting experience. “I’m going to come back next year to vote, so I wanted to see the process in action,” Zachary, 18, said. “If you really want to make a change, like the school food, the building infrastructure, then I would tell my peers to vote. Don’t complain — just vote.” Election Day got off to a slow start On Tuesday morning, Newark’s bustling Broad Street in downtown was business as usual, with no campaign signs posted on lamp posts or outside City Hall as in previous years. If you didn’t stumble upon a polling place with signs reading “vote here” in English and Spanish, you’d be hard-pressed to find any sign of an election. At 10:30 a.m., poll workers at the Old First Presbyterian Church said they had not seen a voter since doors opened at 7 a.m. Schools are in session, but they hope to see a few more people after school and closer to the end of the day. At a school board debate in March, the nine candidates in this year’s race have pledged to revise and expand on district policies such as mental health, boost academic achievement, draw more community feedback on district decisions, and improve district transparency. Overall, 161,585 Newark residents are registered to vote in this year’s April school board election. That’s a pattern advocates say limits how much of a say community voices have in district decisions. After a high-profile push to register 16- and 17-year-old voters last year, teen registration has dropped, with 1,524 signed up this year – down from last year’s 1,772 in 2025, according to the Essex County Superintendent of Elections on Tuesday. Last year, Newark Public Schools launched a Vote 15+ campaign to register student voters and hosted state and city officials to encourage teen participation. This year, the district made no visible effort to register teen voters or promote youth participation for the April 21 election. While the election energy is low, that silence is stark in contrast to what’s at stake. The Newark school board plays a key role in shaping New Jersey’s largest school district and makes decisions that impact more than 41,000 Newark Public Schools students. On Monday, dozens of Great Oaks Legacy Charter High School students marched to Newark City Hall to cast their mail-in ballots. But where the public school district felt short, some charter school students stepped up. On Monday, dozens of Great Oaks Legacy Charter High School students marched to Newark City Hall to cast their mail-in ballots, while others marched in solidarity despite not yet being eligible to vote. That march reflected months of student-led civic engagement at the charter school driven by the school’s Student Advocacy Club, and initiatives led by the Youth Power Action Coalition , convened by The Gem Project. “This was a proud moment for our school and for Newark,” said Jared Taillefer, CEO of Great Oaks Legacy Charter School and a Newark resident who also casted his vote Monday morning. “Our students are learning that their voice matters right now.” For advocates, the dip in teen registration is also concerning because students are directly affected by school board decisions, but historically have had little say in them. Amanda Ebokosia, founder and CEO of The Gem project, said getting youth to the polls isn’t just about enthusiasm, but it’s about cultivating a tradition of civic participation from an early age. “You have to show up more than once, and you have to want to prioritize it more than once, not when it’s hot and shiny,” Ebokosia said. “It’s also about having a commitment to young people, and I think that more could have been done, definitely when it comes to prioritizing the youth vote.” Adding to the city’s low political engagement, the Board of Elections website still listed polling locations from the prior year on Election Day. Parents, students, and advocates say they want their new board to improve school lunches, add more translation services to the district and board meetings, and hold Superintendent Roger Leon accountable for his spending decisions, among other demands. But advocates say it’s been a challenge to boost voter turnout around school issues in Newark. Historically, voter turnout in the Newark school board election has been low, with participation hovering around 3% to 4%. Last year, just under 4% of city residents voted in the election, with only 73 teens showing up to vote. Tuesday’s election may also be falling victim to voting fatigue. In the runup to the school board election, state and national political attention was focused on the April 16 special election to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s seat in the 11th Congressional District, which includes parts of Essex County. Locally, Newark’s May 12 municipal race has been front and center in the landscape, with candidate posters and signs displayed across the city. That flood of political activity may be drowning out the school board race entirely. Jhamar Youngblood, a Newark mayoral candidate, said it doesn’t feel like an election is happening today, with few people talking about it. Youngblood believes the city could do more to promote the school board race, but he also feels it’s a strategy to keep residents disengaged “so they can do whatever it is they want.” “We just need more courageous people to talk about what’s happening, because that’s the only way, historically, that we’ve seen some type of accountability in our city,” Youngblood said. Ebokosia, the founder of The Gem Project, thinks teen voters can be the courageous voice the city needs to enact change. But for that to happen, leaders need to work together to create consistent efforts to boost teen voter turnout and remove the barriers that limit them from voting, including a lack of information about the school board election. ”We have to make an honest assessment as to who we are actually making this a priority for. If we’re not making it a priority, how can we work together to ensure that as many young people know about this election?” Ebokosia said. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org .
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