By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
The three incumbents up for re-election to the East Windsor Regional Board of Education seek to tweak the schools’ curriculums, continue with the longer class periods for Hightstown High School and contend with an ever-tightening budget that has called for teacher layoffs the past two years. A challenger to one of those incumbents said she seeks to bring the board back to focusing more on the children rather than “budgets and facilities.”
Board President Alice Weisman, of East Windsor, faces competition from New Brunswick Middle School math teacher and 13-year East Windsor resident Lisa Abel as she seeks her third three-year term. Hightstonian board members Susan Lloyd and Suzann Fallon, both of whom have served on the board for the past nine years, will be unopposed in the April 27 election.
Ms. Weisman, 53, is a staff representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 73, a union covering about 11,000 employees in Central Jersey. She’s a 16-year East Windsor resident and has two children who attend Hightstown High School along with a younger child at Kreps Middle School.
Ms. Weisman said she expects an improvement over the quality of education with longer class periods at the high school that started this school year. She listed the school board’s selection of Ed Forsthoffer as its new superintendent last year among her biggest accomplishments.
”That’s probably one of the most substantial things we did,” Ms. Weisman said. “I have every hope that this is going to result in our district’s great success we have been having with our last superintendent.”
Ms. Abel, 40, said she is concerned about the district’s per-pupil spending, which she estimated to be about $12,000 per student. She said she suspects much of that isn’t going to the students and their needs.
”It’s not trickling down to the students at the rate that it should. It gets caught up in administrative costs,” she said.
The school district faced another challenge this school year, when five of the district’s six schools received failing marks on the state Department of Education’s Adequate Yearly Progress — or AYP — report in November. Grace N. Rogers Elementary School received the only passing grade in the 2009-2010 report.
Ms. Weisman said schools can receive failing marks if a single demographic scores below certain benchmarks in either the state language arts or math assessment.
”Like many other quality districts, our special-needs population as well as our immigrant population have difficulty meeting the target benchmark. The district does implement numerous interventions to help each individual child reach his/her highest potential,” Ms. Weisman said.
Ms. Abel said she would aim to improve those marks, but at the same time, she questioned whether the AYP accurately reflected the quality of the schools and the education they provided for the students. She argued that they’re based on tests that catch the mood of the student the day that he or she is taking it.
”The tests that test our children don’t take into account cultural differences,” she said. “I find that inadequate. There are things happening in classrooms in schools that are called ‘failing schools’ that are amazing.”
Ms. Lloyd and Ms. Fallon both stated that they want to overhaul the curriculums for all the schools. Ms. Fallon said the new course offerings have benefited students so far, while Ms. Lloyd said she wants the school board to decrease the number of study halls and increase the number of classes and electives over the next school year. The study halls became a concern for all the candidates last year when the budget forced the school board to create a large study hall informally called “the puddle” at the high school instead of hiring additional substitute teachers.
Ms. Lloyd also said she wants to secure more state aid for the district, expressing frustration at 2010’s budget slashing from the state level. A portion of that cut was restored this year.
”The governor’s approach to education to me is very disconcerting,” Ms. Lloyd said.
Ms. Fallon said the budget situation has been tough for the district.
”I’m hoping that people would really appreciate how hard we’ve been working to cope with these cuts, (and) not affect the important programs and staff,” she said.
Ms. Fallon said she had mixed feelings on not having an opponent this election. She said her children all have graduated from the district since she began serving on the board, and though she wanted to continue serving, she thought it was time for new parents to step up and join her or even replace her if need be.
”I think that I’ve been trying to get the word out that we’re going to need good school board representatives … involved in schools, program, having an impact,” she said. “(They) should seriously consider running for the school board.”
The school district’s proposed $75.4 million budget, which calls for a tax rate increase of 2.07 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for East Windsor and a decrease of 0.6 cents per $100 for Hightstown, also is up for a vote by the public on April 27.

