By Sunayana Prabhu
COLTS NECK – Voters will see a hotly contested board of education (BOE) election in the township this year, with nine candidates running for three open seats.
School board actions in recent years have been divisive in the community, and the upcoming elections will determine whether the current leadership remains in power.
According to the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office, the unofficial list of candidates includes three candidates each running on three different slates in the upcoming Nov. 3 election. School board elections are on the same ballot as municipal and other government elections.
Running under the Colts Kids First banner are Angela Mansour, Alice Dean Finney and Vincent Rugnetta, the sole incumbent; running under the Act For Excellence banner are Alicia Raia-Hawrylak, Thomas Colella and Camila Fernandez-Cohen; and running under the Education First banner are Jamie Mark Jacoby, Michal Mateusz Kalisz and Alainah Robilard.
Each BOE member serves one three-year term. The three incumbents whose terms end this year are Rugnetta, Jason Orrico and current board president Angelique Volpe. The three were elected in 2023 as part of the Colts Kids First slate. Neither Orrico nor Volpe chose to run for reelection. Rugnetta has been a resident of Colts Neck for 25 years and also served as vice president of the board in 2024.
According to social media announcements from candidates on the Act For Excellence slate, Fernandez-Cohen has been a Spanish language teacher for the past 20 years and a Monmouth County resident for the past 25. Colella is a father of two and a high school teacher. Raia-Hawrylak is an educator currently leading a statewide research-to-practice project at Rutgers University that uses data and research-based strategies to improve conditions for teaching, learning and academic outcomes across New Jersey school districts. The mission of the slate, as stated on Facebook, is “committed to strengthening our schools through excellence in education, thoughtful leadership, and collaboration.”
Colts Kids First and Education First have yet to release mission statements.
Early in-person voting for the general election runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1. Visit vote.nj.gov for early voting sites and polling booth locations. In-person voting will be held from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov.3.
String of Controversies
The school board has dealt with controversy over policy decisions in recent years. Critics of the board have called its policies “political” and “divisive” during several heated BOE meetings.
The Colts Neck School District serves students in preschool through eighth grade, with an enrollment of nearly 1,000.
Last year, the BOE passed a Parental Bill of Rights after a tense back-and-forth between advocates and critics of the policy. The bill of rights consolidates and protects parents’ ability to access information about their child’s education, health and school records. It generally spells out how parents can review curriculum, opt their children in or out of certain services, and be notified about significant changes affecting their child, particularly information pertaining to any gender identity changes requested by the student.
“This district is a predominantly conservative district, and all nine of us (school board members) represent majority views in this town, and those majority views basically are that they want academic excellence over anything,” Volpe said during the Nov. 15, 2025, school board meeting.
Rebutting the LGBTQ+ advocacy groups that criticized the measure during the meeting, she said, “Sexuality does not play a big role in schools, nor should it.”
The district has been singled out for national attention. On Dec. 5, 2025, the BOE hosted U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon during her 50-state civics tour, which was backed by conservative groups. McMahon’s “History Rocks” educational tour began at Colts Neck’s Cedar Drive Middle School, with heavy security. District officials said the event was intended to highlight the district’s commitment to civics education ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary, but some parents and activists accused the board of partisan politics.
The media, several parents and members of advocacy groups were denied entry to what was considered to be an open public meeting. Many protested outside the school against the BOE for hosting an event tied to groups such as Turning Point USA, PragerU and Hillsdale College, entities listed in McMahon’s press release about the event and mentioned in the board’s letter to parents as organizational partners in the History Rocks coalition.
The article originally appeared in the August 6 – 12, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
