SCHOOL BOARD CAMPAIGN CORNER
To the editor:
I am seeking one of the Hopewell Township seats in the April 2003 school board election. I have lived in the township since 1986 and have two children in the HVRSD: one at Hopewell Elementary and one at Timberlane Middle School.
My approach to problems is to look at the evidence, ask questions, do the math, and try to engage in reasoned discussion. My platform has three basic planks:
More Public Input If you don’t learn from your mistakes, there is no sense in making them. We can all agree that the way the introduction of football was handled was a mistake; the only question is, what do we learn from it?
It’s clear that there’s something wrong about the way the school board and the public communicate, and the way decisions are made. We need to open up the process more: make more draft reports available online, for instance, and have focused public meetings on specific topics.
Rational Budget Priorities The next few years are obviously going to be a time of budgetary stress. We cannot afford to waste time, energy and money on nonessentials. HVCHS doesn’t require four years of math for graduation: should it? Some students have problems scheduling AP courses: should we add some? The German program at the high school is dying: should we try to resurrect it? There are always more things you’d like to spend money on than you have money to spend. We have to focus on saying "yes" only where it is truly educationally important.
Lighter Backpacks Even without spending a lot of money, there are things we can do to improve the lives of all the students in the district. For instance, lighten their backpacks.
Everyone knows the children’s backpacks are too heavy, averaging about 25 pounds for high school students. What’s in there? Too many heavy binders, and too many heavy textbooks. If the adults of Hopewell Valley work together, we can change this: the teachers can figure out how to reduce the number of binders, while parents and other volunteers can work to rebind textbooks into more portable units.
Why do I think the people of the Hopewell Valley can successfully solve a problem that bedevils schools nationwide? Because of who we are when you look at what the people of Hopewell Valley actually vote for, you’ll see that we believe in education and in open space, but not in spending money when we don’t have to.
I think the school board has lost track of these community values over the last two years, in its near-obsessive focus on extracurricular athletics. Yes, the board must be responsive to the needs of the children but they must be real, educational needs, and have the democratic support of the community. That is why I have been involved with the Honor Our Vote movement (I run the Web site at www.honorourvote.org) and support its goal of honoring the spring 2001 vote until it is overturned at the polls.
The Hopewell Valley can’t function as a democracy if the school board and the community feel like enemies. I believe that with only a moderate amount of change, the board can refocus on the core educational values of the community, and the community can pitch in to support the board’s goals. I would be very honored to be part of this process.
Mary Ellen Curtin, Titus Mill Road, Hopewell Township

