Winners emerge in Edison school board race

A field of 10 candidates, including three incumbents, sought election to the Edison Board of Education on Tuesday, and preliminary results show the “Students First” slate featuring Xiaohan "Shannon" Peng, Joseph Romano and Vishal Patel with the best chances of serving.

Three incumbents – Vice President Shivi Prasad-Madhukar, Peng and Kevin Hajduk – all sought reelection, while Nisha Banginwar, Christo Makropoulos, Manasi Mathur, Yash Pandya, Minesh Patel, Vishal Patel and Joseph Romano also sought to join the school board.

With 78 of 78 districts reporting, unofficial results showed Romano leading with 8,542 votes followed by Peng with 8,018 and Patel with 7,246. Their "Students First" slate stressed accountability, parental choice, expanding schools with $0 tax increase and a "path to success" for all students.

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They were followed by Hajduk, Prasad-Madhukar and Mathur who ran together on the "Stronger Brighter Futures" slate which touted districtwide pre-K. Preliminary results showed Hajduk with 6,176 votes, Prasad-Madhukar with 5,338 votes and Mathur with 4,886 votes.

Pandya, who unsuccessfully ran for the board in 2020, is on the "Students, Teachers First" slate with Banginwar and Minesh Patel which promoted new leaders with fresh ideas. Preliminary results showed Pandya had 3,205 votes, Patel, 2,939 votes and Banginwar 2,738 votes.

Makropoulos ran under the "Protect The Children" slogan aimed at ensuring every child receives a quality education. He received 2,056 unofficial votes.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ election results: Students First slate lead in preliminary results