Panfile among three to run unopposed
By:Sally Goldenberg
A retired borough educational administrator said he has one last hand to play in the district’s educational system: running for the Board of Education.
Louis Street resident Ned Panfile, a 41-year veteran of the school district, announced Monday he is running for an open three-year seat on the board.
"It was always my incentive to run for the Board of Education," said the former Manville High School vice principal and Roosevelt School teacher. "I feel that it’s (education) something that I know."
Mr. Panfile, who regularly attends board meetings, said he will bring a well-versed knowledge of education, mainly disciplinary procedures for students, to the board.
"My biggest thing was with discipline," he said of his term as vice principal. "There has to be something to help the students that have discipline problems."
Currently volunteering as an assistant to the high school football coaches keeps Mr. Panfile in touch with the students, he added.
"Whatever is good for the students, I’m 100 percent for," said Mr. Panfile, whose two children went through the district.
Mr. Panfile, a borough resident of 44 years, volunteers on the borough’s Board of Health, Office of Emergency Management, Façade Committee which assists small businesses in the borough and recently revived Manville Education Foundation.
The board has three open three-year seats and three candidates: Mr. Panfile and incumbents Jeanne Golden-Nowak of Driscoll Street and Dukes Parkway resident Ken Lessing. Mary Lou Cebula will not seek another term.
Residents will elect board members on April 15.
Mr. Lessing, a retired police officer from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department, said he will focus on continuing physical improvements to the district in the coming years if elected.
"That was my big thing when I got on the board, like the windows at the high school," he said.
Improvements in the district are under way, in part with the $2.3 million referendum passed in January of 2002.
"We’re going to have to do repairs to our track and just regular maintenance that has to be done, like some of the sidewalks that are in bad shape have to be replaced," said the Finance and Facilities Committee chairman.
Mr. Lessing, who has one child in the high school and another who graduated from the high school years ago, serves on the borough’s Board of Health.
Ms. Golden-Nowak was unavailable for comment this week.

