EDITOR’S NOTE The South Brunswick Post does not endorse candidates for school board.
The South Brunswick Post does not endorse candidates for school board.
While the paper has a commitment to endorsing candidates in Township Council races, we have made a conscious decision not to do so during the annual Board of Election vote.
There are two basic reasons for this, one logistical, the other philosophical:
Logistics: Our company policy for editorial endorsements is fairly straightforward. We will only endorse candidates who agree to participate in editorial board interviews with at least two members of our editorial staff in the case of the Post, that would be News Editor John Saccenti and myself, though we do have a reporter sit in to take notes during all interviews.
And any endorsement would have to run two issues before the election this issue leaving the final week for rebuttal.
Those are the ground rules. Six candidates have filed to run this year, meaning we would have had to have set up six individual interviews (not including candidates running in the three other towns for which my staff is responsible). That’s a lot of interviews especially when you consider they would have needed to be scheduled over an approximately three-week period. (We do run stories on the candidates and allow the candidates and their supporters to write letters.)
The filing deadline was Feb. 28, but it would be unreasonable to expect candidates to be ready to sit down with the paper before the middle of March, giving them two weeks to make arrangements to sit down with us. And the interviews would have had to be concluded by this past Friday, at the very latest, to give us time to digest our discussions and write our editorial. Once you factor in our production and editing schedule, that would have left us with a maximum of six or eight days on which to meet candidates.
Contrast this with the council. We send out letters in July inviting candidates to meet with us through the months of September and October, which gives them plenty of time to mesh their schedules with ours. It’s not always tidy, but the lead-time we have allows a much greater range of flexibility.
Philosophy: Even if we could address the logistical concerns, I’m not sure I would advocate endorsing in school board races. My experience as reporter and editor has led me to some basic conclusions about how these races unfold. 1. Candidates tend to run on their qualifications, knowledge and experience, with issues taking a back seat and I believe that endorsements have to be based, at least in part, on issues and philosophy.
2. In most years, there tends to be a sameness to the candidate pool. Apart from some obvious differences, most candidates tend to have similar backgrounds and qualifications. For instance, everyone running this year has at least a bachelor’s degree and has, or has had, children in the school district. Everyone lives in the community and pays taxes.
3. Nearly every non-incumbent candidate is a relatively new face. Unlike council candidates, who often are party activists, have served on the Planning Board or zoning board, school board candidates tend to come up through the PTAs and PTOs, through the school site councils and other groups that do their work under the public’s radar. They also do not have massive organizations behind them that help define their ideological directions or provide the kind of training and education on issues that can help challengers develop responses to the kinds of questions they will be facing from us and from the public.
4. Because of all of this, the endorsement process tends to favor school board incumbents who, by virtue of their time on the board, have a better understanding of school budgeting, curriculum rules and state regulations.
Does this mean that the incumbent would make a better school board member than the challenger? Not necessarily. All it means is that the incumbent has had more experience with the budget.
While we are not endorsing candidates, we do believe the school board election is an important one (we plan to comment on the budget next week). Between 65 and 75 cents of every property tax dollar go to local schools, which are responsible for turning the community’s kids into productive, inquisitive and engaged adults.
It’s an awesome responsibility that demands a lot from those who choose to run and are chosen to serve. We ask that residents take care in their selection and get out to the polls on April 19.
The Editor’s Note column will run as often as necessary as a way to explain the workings of the South Brunswick Post to our readers. So, please, send me your questions about the paper, about the news business, about the decisions we’ve made and any suggestions you have. I’ll try and answer as many as I can in future Editor’s Notes. Call me at (732) 329-9214, write me at P.O. Box 309, Dayton, N.J. 08810 or e-mail me at [email protected].

