Four candidates have filed to fill four open seats to represent Hopewell Township on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education.
The filing deadline was July 27. The school board election is set for Nov. 3.
There are three, three-year terms on the ballot and one, two-year unexpired term on the ballot for Hopewell Township voters this fall general election.
Two incumbents, Board Vice President Pamela Lilleston and Board member John Slotman, are seeking re-election. They are joined in the filing for a three-year term by newcomer Luis Martinez, who is looking to earn his first term on the school board.
For the one, two-year unexpired term William Keithler is vying for his first term on the school board.
Incumbent school board member Anita Williams Galiano, who serves as school board president, is not seeking re-election to the school board this fall.
The one, two-year unexpired term comes became available this year because of former school board member Hope Cotter’s resignation from her seat this summer.
In this year’s general election there are no seats available on the ballot to represent Hopewell Borough and Pennington.
Lilleston, not only serves as vice president, but chair of the Policy Committee. She is also a member of the Finance and Facilities Committee, and previously the Education Program Committee. She works as director of applied research and evaluation and as a science advisor at New Jersey Department of Children and Families.
Slotman chairs the Community Relations Committee for the board. Additionally, he is a member of the Education Program Committee and the Negotiations Advisory Committee. He works as director of government affairs for Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Martinez is on the Hopewell Valley Education Foundation (HVEF) Board and has served as the PTO president of Hopewell Elementary School. He has been in Hopewell Valley since 2023 and works as a marketing director TISSIUM.
Keithler, who ran in 2025’s race for two open seats to represent the township, is a board member at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and has served as a mentor to active-duty service men and women transitioning out of the military and into civilian careers. He works in the investment office of AIG.
The school board in Hopewell Valley is a nine-member body which consists of residents from the township, Pennington, and Hopewell Borough.
The township has seven representatives on the board, Pennington and Hopewell Borough each have one representative.
The current makeup of the board – Board President Anita William Galiano (Hopewell Township), Board Vice President Pamela Lilleston (Hopewell Township), Jacquie Genovesi (Hopewell Township), John Slotman (Hopewell Township), Dhruv Kapadia (Hopewell Township), Amanda Stylianou (Hopewell Township), Mark Peters (Hopewell Borough), and Alex Reznik (Pennington).
The school board will be selecting a candidate to temporarily fill Hope Cotter’s seat for the remainder of this year. Come the new year, the winner in the general election for her unexpired two-year term will be sworn in.
