By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — Four residents are running for three seats on the borough’s K-8 Board of Education in the April 15 school election.
The three available terms are for three years.
The candidates are Victoria Muller of Club Place, Charles Valenti of Barkalow Avenue, Ronald Reich of Hance Boule-vard, and Matthew Weismantel of Broad Street.
Reich and Weismantel are incumbent members of the board who are seeking to retain their seats.
Board member Theresa Hicks is not running for re-election.
Weismantel, who will be finishing his fifth year on the board, is the university director of campus information at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
He served on the Strategic Planning Committee as well as the Freehold Education Foundation and said he loves serving on the panel.
"Public education is so important," Weismantel said. "It’s what makes our towns and our country great."
Weismantel, who has lived in the borough since 1991, sees key issues facing the board as the increasing enrollment in the district, cutbacks in state aid and the hiring of a new superintendent.
The board is currently in the process of seeking a successor for Janet Kalafat, who will be leaving the district after 13 years as its top administrator.
Reich, who will be seeking his second three-year term on the board, has lived in the borough since 1974. Reich was appointed to the board in September 1999 to fill a vacant seat. He then ran for and won his first three-year term in 2000.
The board member, who has a law practice in Freehold, said he considers himself a "dedicated public servant with a great interest in education." He said, "the future of our country lies in the education of our students."
To those who would ask why Reich is running even though his children have been out of the borough elementary schools for a while, he would answer, "My interest in our schools didn’t leave when my kids did."
Key issues Reich sees affecting the board are state cutbacks in funding and the hiring of a new superintendent.
Muller has lived in the borough for eight years and is running for her first three-year term on the school board. The mother of an 8-year-old in the Park Avenue School said the board needs more members whose children are attending the district’s schools.
"The board is out of balance," Muller claimed.
Muller said she feels parents need to be more informed about what’s going on in the schools.
She said that expecting parents to attend all meetings and pick up agendas at the schools is not realistic with the way people live today. She wants more information disseminated directly to parents from the school board.
Key issues for Muller are the district’s increasing enrollment and giving parents more of a voice on school issues.
Valenti, who will be running for his first three-year term on the board, has lived in the borough for seven years. His three children attend district schools.
The candidate said he would like to see the board engage the community more in the workings of the schools.
"I’d like to see the board take a proactive stance on this issue," he said.
Valenti has been a member of the district’s Strategic Planning Committee and said the issues that concern him are the enrollment and the new administration the school district will face this coming school year.
"We’re running our of space in our schools," Valenti said. "We’re also in the process of hiring a new superintendent. These are issues that I don’t mind putting work into."