Despite being outspent as much as ten-to-one by the NJEA and its candidates, the "Children First!" team of concerned parents, Barbara Rigoglioso and Ryan Battershill, won a decisive victory in the Wayne Board of Education election Tuesday. Rigoglioso led all candidates with a very impressive 8,341 votes. Battershill was close behind in second place with 7,508 votes.

There were eight candidates running for three seats on the board. Also elected was Matthew Giordano, the third-place finisher, with 5,631 votes.

This is the second consecutive year that concerned parents were elected to the school board. Last year Michael Fattal, Harry Prassakos, and Iveta Wentink, running on the slogan "Education First," took all three slots. This year, only two concerned parents bracketed together. A third parent, Wilson Alequin, ran independently finishing in seventh place with 3,906 votes. Cindy Simon, a highly regarded former board member, received 3,244 votes. 

The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and the Wayne Education Association (WEA) endorsed three other candidates -- Jacob Van Lunen, board president Suzanne Pudup, and former board member Stacey Scher. The WEA is the local teachers' union and the NJEA represents teachers statewide. These three candidates ran under the slogan "United Not Divided."

The WEA made a $5,500.00 contribution to the UNITED team through its "independent expenditures committee." This type of committee is permitted under New Jersey law to contribute large sums of money without identifying the committee's own donors. The WEA front group is called the Committee for Academic Excellence ("CAE").

The NJEA spent a great deal of money to aid the UNITED team. A total of $24,600.00 was donated by the NJEA directly to the UNITED candidates' joint campaign fund. The NJEA's own front group, "Garden State Forward," also paid for the production of four full-color mailers sent to Wayne voters. It is estimated that each mailing cost about $8,000.00.

If the mailing estimate is correct, and if the cost of NJEA's social media advertising is factored in, the amount of money spent by NJEA in Wayne this year was about $60,000.00. This is far more than the NJEA spends on its candidates in any other town in New Jersey with the possible exception of Jersey City.

Despite being outspent ten-to-one, the Children First team easily defeated NJEA's UNITED team. Mr. Van Lunen garnered 5,127 votes, Ms. Pudup received 5,432 and Ms. Scher received 5,510.

Children First election night celebration at The Village Inn