Board of Education Election

The League of Ocean Township invited candidates to send a brief biography, and posed three questions:

Candidates were asked to limit their answers to 50 words for the bio, and 100 words for each question. Responses exceeding the limit were truncated.

In order by last name, here are the candidates' responses.

Amy McGovern

Bio information: Like all residents, I have a vested interest in our district. As the mother of two children enrolled in our schools, I value serving our community. My board experience gives me a broad viewpoint of the needs of the district. I hope my open communication with neighbors enhances my service.

Q: Looking ahead three to five years, what is your greatest concern about the future of the district and how would you propose to address the issue?
A: My greatest concern about the future of our district is the rising number of Special Education students and the need to find creative solutions to meet the rising costs associated with this increase. We have had a necessary rise in Special Education staff to keep up with the additional Individualized Educational Plans and have used natural attrition to repurpose positions. With the creation of a K-5 Special Education Supervisor, we can help identify students needing early intervention and offer solutions. Our new reading program, Wonders, will help bridge the gap keeping more students in general education where appropriate.

Q: What would you do to strengthen trust, communication, and cooperation among the board, administration, faculty, and community?
A: I feel that being open minded and listening to all perspectives is the best path to trust. Currently, I serve on the Instructional Council, a committee consisting of Board Members, Teachers, and Administration, collaborating on ideas and offering solutions for our district. As someone that has unwavering support for the good of all students and staff throughout our schools, I’ll always advocate for what is truly needed and necessary for student and professional growth, while taking seriously my responsibility to our neighbors in the district. We live in a community that is active and I will always encourage community input.

Q: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge to the district in staying within the state-mandated budget cap? Where would you make budget cuts if they are needed?
A: The greatest budget challenges are fixed costs, followed by a growing Special Education population without a commensurate increase in state funding. My experience with the budget over three years on the board has given me the background knowledge to identify areas where costs may be cut. For example, within the district’s technology plan we are implementing one-to-one computers per student, therefore reducing the need for new computers in computer labs. However, advocating to adopt a new reading program this school year, which will help our professionals identify and begin to effectively work on student reading challenges, was an essential investment.
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James Sintic

Bio information:

Q: Looking ahead three to five years, what is your greatest concern about the future of the district and how would you propose to address the issue?
A: The working relationship between the Board, the Administration, and the Faculty is my greatest concern and must be addressed immediately so the district can get those groups working “together” again in the best interest of the students. I would propose starting a working group made up of representatives from all these key stakeholders to identify all the contentious issues to determine how each of the issues can be addressed through a collaborative process so we can, as one collaborative team, work the issues affecting our school district to help create a short and long term strategic plan for the district.

Q: What would you do to strengthen trust, communication, and cooperation among the board, administration, faculty, and community?
A: Create more transparency between the board, administration, faculty, and the community through a more efficient public relations outreach forum so the community is more informed about what decisions are made in the district and why they were made. This can be accomplished by using a multi-communications channel approach combining “live” forums such as town hall meetings and social media content. Also, it’s important to try and encourage participation from the residents to serve on special working groups that are formed to tackle tough district issues. When residents feel involved, the district is more likely to get consensus on BoE decisions.

Q: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge to the district in staying within the state-mandated budget cap? Where would you make budget cuts if they are needed?
A: A strategic approach would be to establish working groups to evaluate current and future expenditures to see where efficiencies can be gained instead of making wholesale program or service cuts. The district should evaluate all contracts to identify where we could be more efficient based on market surveys and evaluating what similar sized districts are paying for the same services. The district could also look “outside” the classroom and establish agreements with our town to “share” services across the same functions. Pooling purchasing power can yield savings for the district by reducing operating expenses for utilities, equipment, maintenance, and supplies.
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John Stuppi

Bio information:

Q: Looking ahead three to five years, what is your greatest concern about the future of the district and how would you propose to address the issue?
A: The current relationship between the Board, the Administration, and Faculty is strained and will only worsen if we don’t collectively – the Board, Administration, Faculty, and Community (parents/students) – increase the communication and collaboration between all parties. I propose a working group made up with representatives from all factions, including teachers from all three school levels. The focus of this working group will be to collectively identify the pain points and issues that are top of mind for each faction, determine which issues can be addressed through collaborative participation, and start making a positive impact on the issues affecting our school district.

Q: What would you do to strengthen trust, communication, and cooperation among the board, administration, faculty, and community?
A: In my opinion – as evidenced by my answer to the first question - this is the #1 issue affecting the school district as a whole. Strategically, I feel we need to increase transparency between the board, administration, faculty, and the community. Tactically, we can do this using several different communication vehicles. In addition to the working group described previously we need to open up communications channels (both formally & informally) for everyone. We can do this through the use of holding informal gatherings around town, holding Town Hall meetings, and by leveraging Social media.

Q: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge to the district in staying within the state-mandated budget cap? Where would you make budget cuts if they are needed?
A: While the initial reaction to keeping within the budget is to make hard & fast cuts to existing services, programs, etc. by removing entire line items from the budget, I think a more prudent and strategic approach is to perform deep dives into existing and future expenditures. We should look more closely at contracts, current and newly proposed ones and identify opportunities where we can spend less money while getting the same amount of services (or more!). This could help free up funds for programs that may need additional spend going forward, e.g. technology, arts, sports, and salaries/benefits.
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Sylvia Sylvia

Bio information:

Q: Looking ahead three to five years, what is your greatest concern about the future of the district and how would you propose to address the issue?
A: One of the greatest challenges that is faced by our district is shared by every public school district in the state. That challenge is maintaining quality and well-balanced opportunities in education for the student population, while complying with state mandates. These mandates change frequently and rapidly, often ahead of the State’s ability to thoroughly review them. One current example is the state mandated standardized testing commonly known as the PARCC assessment. Valuable time and resource is derailed in effort to be compliant. Our best recourse is to have experienced BoE members who will petition the State for relief.

Q: What would you do to strengthen trust, communication, and cooperation among the board, administration, faculty, and community?
A: With the advent of technology, mass communication has improved greatly. During my tenure on the Board we have made improvements to the District website, initiated an email based push notification resource known as WebBackPack, as well FaceBook and other social media venues. However, to improve communications, the board should continue our initiated “town hall” type meetings with our Superintendent and the community stakeholders, as well as frequent meetings with the faculty/staff leadership. I believe firmly that an open-door, fully transparent atmosphere is a basic tenant of the relationship within the school district as well as the community.

Q: In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge to the district in staying within the state-mandated budget cap? Where would you make budget cuts if they are needed?
A: I am always mindful of the variable State Aid distribution. The uncertainty of that amount requires a commitment to facilitating the creation of a budget that is conservative, yet provides a high quality level of education. I will, as I have throughout my nearly seven years on the BoE, continue to encourage alternate revenue streams that will assist us in achieving a budget within the 2% cap. Some of these initiatives include procuring new, as well as customary, grant funding, continually take audit of our current expenditures, as well as reviewing efficiencies in current programs.
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