CANDIDATES FORUM, April 2
By:
Jeffrey Spear
Princeton Township candidate,
Princeton Regional Board of Education
As a township member of the Princeton Regional Board of Education, I am proud to have participated in the rejuvenation of our district over the past three years. Where once there was rancor and meddling, there is now civil discourse and a board performing its proper function of setting goals and policies for an administration it then evaluates. A decimated central administration has been reborn with a new superintendent bringing consistent, evenhanded, academic and financial administration. Once one of the last districts to hire teachers, now we are among the first and have the widest possible choices.
Generations of deferred maintenance had left our schools outdated, overcrowded and in some places dangerously dilapidated. This board proposed and the people approved a second question that replaced our depleted reserve with a self-perpetuating fund for maintaining and upgrading facilities including educational technology.
We brought many frustrating years of long-range planning to closure. The board proposed and the people approved a bond issue for the construction of up-to-date classrooms, arts, performance and athletic facilities including an interscholastic competition gym at Princeton High School and swimming pool at John Witherspoon. Prompt action by this board secured $18 million in state aid from a fund that the governor has now frozen, and secured very low interest on our bonds. State money, not local property tax dollars, will pay almost the entire cost of renovating our elementary schools.
Three years ago, I promised to advance both excellence and equity in our schools including support services outside the classroom. I was the lead writer of the 21st Century Learning Centers IDEAS grant that is bringing $750,000 in federal money into our schools over three years. I made the demographic case for our eligibility, researched and wrote its educational rationale. The IDEAS centers provide after-school enrichment programs at every Princeton elementary school, a summer program, before- and after-school tutorial at JW and the IDEAS tutorial center in PHS that is now serving 95 students a month.
These are the highlights of my record of collaboration and individual initiative on the board. If you approve of it, I hope you will allow me to continue so we can:
*Sustain our academic, arts and athletic programs through the construction process and expand upon the cooperation with local institutions helping us with transition parking and athletic facilities.
*Seek new funding for the best of the IDEAS programs before federal funding expires.
*Make sure that our academic, arts and sports programs take full advantage of our new facilities and encourage our creative staff to respond to changing university admissions standards.
My work on the 21st Century Learning Centers grant drew upon my years of experience as a tutor in the district and as an English professor and academic administrator at New York University. It makes sense to have at least one person on the Board of Education with experience as an educator. Sometimes it makes dollars and cents.
Salvatore Astarita
West Windsor candidate,
West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education
I, Salvatore Astarita, am running for one of the West Windsor seats in the upcoming school board election on April 16. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and my platform, to the voters of West Windsor.
I have a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Technology in Brooklyn. For over 30 years, I worked as a senior engineer and manager at the research and corporate education centers for various AT&T and Lucent technology divisions. I also served in the National Guard and retired as a major after serving for 26 years in the 42nd Division of the New York National Guard.
I was the first in my family to attend and graduate from college. I have always emphasized, to my children, my commitment to education. My one son has an engineering degree from Cornell University, while the other is an anesthesiologist from the Johns Hopkins University.
The decision to run for the school board was a difficult one. After attending many school board meetings and observing board operations, I decided to run to make a positive contribution to the functioning of the board and its relations with the community.
Like many senior citizens in this community, I have young family members attending the WW-P school system. Therefore, I have a very real stake in maintaining the excellence of the WW-P district. However, as a resident retiree, I also have a stake in guaranteeing that providing an exceptional education for our children is accomplished in the most cost-effective manner.
The last year has been a challenging year for the community, the teaching staff and the school board. If elected, I will work hard to change the way the board operates and get all interested parties involved in the decision making process. In particular, I will:
*Involve the entire community in the decision-making process.
*Work cooperatively with parents, teachers and building administrators to develop appropriate plans.
*Hire an outside audit firm to review financial and operational aspects of the school district.
*Develop a survey to get feedback from the community on the performance of the school board and the administration. Responding to the feedback from the community will help us re-establish trust.
*Provide complete information to parents, students and the public on all educational issues and school policies.
*Make sure that every dollar is used wisely for the benefit of the education of our children.
I believe with my experience as a major in the National Guard, and as a manager in the corporate world, I bring a unique perspective to the school board. As a retiree, I have the necessary time to devote to the job, and my engineering experience has given me the analytical ability to make informed decisions after weighing all the evidence. If elected, I will work to provide all children in our district with an excellent and equitable education. I ask for your support on April 16.