In the recent Metuchen Board of Education election, there was a last-minute attempt to denigrate the three candidates who were endorsed by the Citizens for Quality Education. An email message was widely disseminated, claiming that the endorsed candidates were part of some CQE “agenda” and were “biased” in some way that was not described, and suggested that the recipients should therefore not vote for those candidates.
The endorsement process CQE undertook was open and unbiased, and all four candidates sought the endorsement. The fact that the endorsed candidates had current or prior affiliation with the organization only reflects that their interests and priorities are similar to CQE’s. We congratulate the winners of the election, and we look forward to working with them in the near future.
CQE’s agenda has always been the betterment of the education of the children in Metuchen — all children in all grades — by ensuring that they are challenged and guided and prepared for each phase of their development through graduation. We believe that this is an agenda that all Metuchen residents can agree on, and we welcome input from any member of the community in pursuit of this goal.
CQE is also involved in the school district in many ways that are unrelated to the Board of Education annual election. We sponsor CQE Story Lunch at Campbell Elementary School, we co-sponsor the Alumni College Day at the high school, and we advocate for education-related issues to the board. We also send out newsletters periodically to keep the community informed of school- and education-related news, and our members serve on board-sponsored advisory committees. CQE has always supported the school budget, and our many members have spent their time and resources in encouraging the public to vote for its passage.
More than anything else, CQE supports Metuchen’s schools. We are members of this community, and our children are students within the school district. We invite everybody to visit our website, www.metuchencqe.org, to learn more about our organization and join us in pursuing our agenda on behalf of Metuchen’s children.
Jim Jaques
CQE President
JoAnn Sabatino-Falkenstein
CQE Vice President
Kathy Liss CQE Vice President
Metuchen CQE