School Board To Interview Six Candidates For Open Seat At Special Meeting

Former Board of Education member Robert Trautmann.

Six candidates for an unexpired term will be interviewed April 25 during a special Board of Education meeting.

The candidates hope to fill the seat of Robert Trautmann, who left in February midway through his first term.

The candidates who filed for the position are:

• Alex Kharazi of Margaret Drive. Kharazi is founder and president of Educational Excellence, which provides tutoring for SAT tests and other educational services. Kharazi is also an adjunct professor at Rutgers University and Middlesex County College, and is a certificated math teacher.
• John B. Kinghorn of Weston Road. Kinghorn is an investment manager with Prudential Financial in Newark. He also served on the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, D.C. from 1983 to 1985.
• Edward Potosnak III of Home Street. Potosnak is executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters in Trenton. He’s also a part-time lecturer in Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education’s chemistry department, and runs a home remodeling business. He was a chemistry teacher in Bridgewater-Raritan High School from 1999 to 2007.
• Brian K. Redd of Gallop Lane. A U.S. Navy veteran, Redd has been a substitute teacher in the district since 2004 in social studies, physical education, art, math and English. He has also taught in Plainfield and New Brunswick.
• Raleigh F. Steinhauer of John E. Busch Avenue. Steinhauer is an attorney with Lieberman & Blecher of Princeton. He’s a 2012 graduate of Seton Hall University’s School of Law, and has been a professional actor.
• Jennifer A. Welch of Joan Road. Welch is a teacher at Passaic High School, and is pursuing her Masters in Education in teaching social studies.

Board secretary John Calavano said the board will pick Trautmann’s replacement after the interviews have been completed.

Trautmann left the board suddenly, but not quietly.

In his resignation letter, Trautmann vowed to work to remove board president Julia Presley, vice president Eva Nagy and member Richard Arline.

“To say the district faces challenges would be a gross understatement,” Trautmann wrote in his letter. “The problem is that, absent a monumental shift in the composition of the Franklin Township Board of Education, there is no chance that these problems can be rectified.”

The special meeting is set for 6 p.m. in the Middle School cafeteria.

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