Voter FAQ
Straight answers to the questions West Orange voters are asking.
Larry Weintraub is a candidate for the West Orange Board of Education in 2026. He is a physicist and public-school parent who has spent two years advocating for sustainable school funding and stronger community planning in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. Read Larry’s story.
Larry’s platform focuses on One Town collaboration, rebuilding community trust, addressing the structural deficit, improving communication, creating a Community Budget Advisory Council, settling the teacher contract, and reforming how New Jersey funds its schools. See the full platform.
Larry is running to bring West Orange together and ensure every child receives a high quality education despite rising costs and shrinking resources. He believes the district needs a long term strategic plan built openly with families, students, educators, and town leaders — not another round of last-minute cuts. Learn more about Larry or explore where he stands.
West Orange, like most New Jersey districts, faces a structural deficit of roughly $10 Million each year — the gap between rising costs (health care, energy, insurance, building maintenance) and the revenue the district can raise. In 2024-25 and 2025-26 the district eliminated 136 full time educational staff, outsourced nearly all 232 paraprofessionals, and cut programs like middle school sports, the Fall HS musical, and AVID. Read Larry’s plan on the financial deficit.
Larry proposes an independent Community Budget Advisory Council (CBAC) that represents every school and the broader community. It would review actual budget line items, propose alternatives to district proposals, and publish public recommendations ahead of the March–May budget approval process — giving residents a real voice before decisions are final. See the CBAC proposal.
Larry has lived in West Orange since 2018 with his wife Dayna and their two boys. He is a physicist researching machine learning for wireless communication, has coached youth baseball and basketball, and built a working computer model of New Jersey’s School Funding Reform Act that legislators have used to evaluate funding policy. More on Larry’s background and doing the work on school funding.
You can volunteer, request a lawn sign, host a meet-and-greet, or share the campaign with neighbors. Get involved, make a plan to vote, donate(opens in a new tab), or email larry4boe@gmail.com.