SOMA Action Endorses Nayar, Stephan, and Higgins for 2025 Board of Education
South Orange/Maplewood, NJ - After an extensive evaluation process, 90% of SOMA Action voters have voted to endorse Malini Nayar, Paul Stephan, and Meredith Higgins for Board of Education.
“We are very excited to endorse Malini, Paul, and Meredith,” said Allison Posner, Co-President of SOMA Action. “Throughout the evaluation process, we were consistently impressed by their dedication to partnering with us on our committees’ key priorities as well as by their openness to dialogue. They truly embody their motto of “‘Listen. Learn. Lead.’”
SOMA Action’s committees gathered information from candidates’ platforms, statements, professional experience, and interviews in order to assess how likely it seemed that each slate would contribute meaningfully to committees’ efforts to:
Help organize our community to protect our schools from ICE
Protect trans kids even if the district is threatened with retaliation for doing so
Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion even if the district is threatened with retaliation
Prioritize integration when making tough decisions
Prioritize the wellbeing of students of Color, students with disabilities, and other marginalized students instead of treating them as an afterthought
Advocate for the school district to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement sustainable policies
Advocate for well maintained grass fields and green spaces and oppose additional plans to install artificial turf
Keep students safe and able to learn without relying on segregation, coercion, and expulsion
The committees’ evaluations of the candidates are available via the SOMA Action Voter Guide under "Candidate Evaluations.” The evidence committees used in their evaluations is available by clicking each rating.
“I’m very proud of what our committees were able to accomplish this year,” added Erika Malinoski, SOMA Action’s Co-President and main author of the voter guide. “When I first moved to SOMA, it was really hard to figure out the differences between candidates in local races without ending up sucked into a toxic swamp of Facebook rumors. Our goal with the voter guide is to provide a better source of reliable, in-depth information that lets residents connect their values with their vote.”
Malinoski continued, “I wasn’t sure at the outset what we’d be able to pull off this year because nobody knew much about the candidates going in. Tara, our Education Committee chair, recused herself due to her involvement with the ‘Listen. Learn. Lead’ slate, and everyone else specializes in their issue area, not Board of Ed. But it turns out that when you start asking the right questions, the differences emerge fairly quickly. In addition to looking at what candidates chose to talk about, unprompted, in their platforms, we also reached out to the slates to do interviews about our specific issue areas. Only one slate was willing to interview with us, but we were still able to get a decent read on most issues. Who was willing to talk to us also gave us a sense of what kind of collaboration we could expect from candidates once they’re on the Board.”
“Overall, we’re really impressed with Malini, Paul, and Meredith,” Malinoski finished. “We feel they will bring thoughtful and valuable perspectives to the board as well as an openness to collaboration.”
Because only one slate chose to participate in the evaluation and endorsement process, the vote was a simple yes/no on whether to endorse the only participating slate.
Voting was open to all of SOMA Action’s 255 voting members, which consists of trustees, committee chairs, project leads, and sustaining members (those who have donated more than $20 in the last year). Sixty-eight members participated in the endorsement vote.