Courtesy photo
- Occupation: retired
- Hometown: grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. Lived 31 years in West Windsor, New Jersey.
- Years in Summit County: 11
- Family: Wife, Stephanie, and two grown children: Jeff and Dan
- Civic involvement: West-Windsor-Plainsboro, New Jersey board of education, 1997-2008; Johns Hopkins University Endowed Scholarship creator (Department of Financial Economics); Summit County Housing Authority advisory committee member; Mountain Scholars committee member; Grand Lodge Peak 7 Homeowners Association advisory board member; Colorado certified high school lacrosse referee.
I am running for the Summit School District board because I
believe in high-quality public education. We owe our children the best education that we can give them,
and I have always been an advocate for the strongest curriculum possible. I
believe that my prior extensive experience as a former school board
member, both in curriculum and budget development, can help move the Summit
School District to a much higher level than it is currently.
I spent many years involved in public education, serving as
a school board member in a large (9,500 students) high-achieving district in
New Jersey. As the Finance Committee chairman for many of those years, I
was instrumental in creating budgets of about $130 million. Those budgets
allowed us to achieve rankings every year somewhere between No. 5 and No. 10 of
567 districts, yet at the same time, our per-pupil spending was
slightly below the state average, so I know that I can help make this district
educationally stronger, even with our historically inadequate support from the
state.
Priority No. 1: Raising the district’s educational
results and expectations
By most state measures, Summit is a slightly above-average
school district, but it could be a lot better, and I would like to help move it
in that direction. To be truly successful, a school district needs to have a
good balance between social outcomes and educational outcomes. Our district has
had good results emphasizing the social side, graduating more than 96% of its students,
but unfortunately, it has allowed the educational side to slide, as evidenced
by our mediocre state assessments. The state has set a very low bar for its
educational goals, and we have allowed the district to work its way down to
that level. There is no reason why Summit County, one of the wealthiest in the
state and one of the most supportive of public education, cannot also have one
of the highest achieving public school districts.
Reading
competency is vital to both school success and later in life. As our state
scores indicate, one educational area that needs serious strengthening in our
district is the literacy curriculum. For better or worse, most tests of
academic skills, even in mathematics, involve “word questions,” and students
who are not fluent readers are at a distinct disadvantage. I do not believe
that one size fits all in this vital area — we need to incorporate all of the
elements of phonics, sight reading, context and vocabulary building.
Priority
No. 2: Creating a better situation for our teachers
Two of the
most critical components of a high-quality school district are the ability to
attract the best teachers and to retain those teachers. Not surprisingly,
adequate teacher pay and access to professional development are major factors
for accomplishing those goals. We need to continue, and enhance wherever
possible, these efforts. I support increasing current teacher salaries and
raising the current entry-level salary to a level that can attract and retain
teachers.
But still
more can be done, especially with regard to ensuring adequate housing
opportunities for these important members of our community, including a
possible mortgage-assistance program for them. We don’t want to lose these
people after a few years as a result of their inability to afford to live in
our high-housing-cost, tourist-economy county. I am a strong proponent for
continuing the county’s efforts to create more affordable housing, permanent
and rental, especially for our public employees. Anything that the school board
can do to promote this issue will be beneficial to the ability to retain its
teaching staff and, by extension, to the county as a whole.
Priority
No. 3: Promoting more board activism
After 12 years of school board experience in a large
district with a reputation for board activism and high-quality results, I
firmly believe those two items go hand in hand. In contrast, I have been surprised at the general
passivity of the Summit school board, which seems content to leave many of its
vital decision-making roles to its administrators. For example, I was extremely
surprised to find out that the board doesn’t have its own Finance Committee, a
situation I would like to see corrected. While the next board, even with
me on it, might choose not to take that step, I would at least like the
opportunity to promote that sort of change, because I believe it would result
in an improved district.
If you
believe, as I do, that we can be better, I would appreciate your vote.