Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • June 13, 2012 Area Candidates file for local, regional school boards by Frank J. McMahon As of the June 5 filing deadline, eight candidates for the Franklin Lakes Board of Education and three candidates for the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education had filed nominating petitions. Candidates for the three available seats on the Franklin Lakes K-8 Board of Education include incumbent trustee Margaret Bennett and incumbent trustee and current president of the local school board Kathleen Schwartz. Shirley Hermansen O’Reilly, Evros Vassiliou, Michael Ben-David, Jacqueline Veliky, John J. Butto, and Julie L Kim have also filed nominating petitions seeking election to one of the three seats available on the local school board this year. Trustee Joseph Conti is not seeking reelection. Candidates for the regional school board include incumbent Oakland trustee Elizabeth M Pierce and incumbent Franklin Lakes trustee Debra Strauss, who was appointed last November to fill the vacancy created on the regional school board when former school board president Wayne Peterson resigned due to his move outside the state. Both are seeking three-year terms on the board along with Kenneth A Porro, who is seeking a three year-term as a trustee from Wyckoff. No candidate filed for Peterson’s unexpired term, which will be filled by the candidate with the highest number of write-in votes or by appointment by the Bergen County Superintendent. Trustees Ira Belsky, a Franklin Lakes representative; and Robert Gebhard, a Wyckoff representative, will not be seeking reelection to the board this year. The school board election will be held on Nov. 6 this year. All the terms on these two school boards will be effective as of Jan. 1, 2013. Republican incumbents in Franklin Lakes and Midland Park will run unopposed for the available council seats in the November general election following the results of last week’s primary election. No Democrats were on the ballot, and there were no write-in candidates nor were there any filings by Independent candidates by the 4 p.m. deadline. Franklin Lakes In Franklin Lakes, incumbent Councilmen Charles Kahwaty and Thomas Lambrix received 479 and 472 votes, respectively, in last week’s primary. Ten percent of the borough’s 7,586 registered voters cast ballots. Candidates unopposed in general election In November, Kahwaty will be seeking his first full three-year term, although he has been a councilman since he was chosen by the governing body in February 2011 to fill the vacancy created when Frank Bivona was sworn in as mayor of the borough on Jan. 1, 2011. In November 2011, Kahwaty was elected to Bivona’s unexpired term, which will end in December 2012. Lambrix will also be seeking his first full three-year term. He was appointed to the council on May 1 to replace former William Smith who resigned so that he could be appointed as the borough attorney. (continued on page 26)