MONTGOMERY: School board candidates air views

By>Stephanie VaccaroStaff Writer
   MONTGOMERY — Dozens of people showed up at Montgomery High School Wednesday night to listen to four school board candidates respond to an array of questions generated by the audience.
   The candidates running for the three open seats are Annie Michaelson, Richard Cavalli, Christine Abrahams and incumbent Arun Rimal.
   Ms. Abrahams, who worked for Merrill Lynch for 15 years as a vice president in marketing, is now a guidance supervisor for Hopewell Valley schools. She moved to Montgomery in 1991, and her husband is a third generation Montgomerian.
   ”I don’t have a personal agenda,” said Ms. Abrahams, who has no children in the system, “but rather a commitment to bring balance, clear-thinking and rationality to many of the issues we’re facing.”
   ”What I bring to the table is an understanding of what can and cannot be sacrificed,” she said.
   ”The purpose of my candidacy is quite simple,” said Mr. Cavalli. “I am seeking to collaborate with you, our community, in a way that hasn’t been done in recent years.”
   Mr. Cavalli listed three goals he’d like to achieve: continued excellence in education, to maximize the choices for students upon graduation; long- and short-term budgets that reflect the economic realities which constitute the new norm; and in combination with the community, we need a greater sense of Montgomery pride.
   He attributed the defeat of the budget last year to a loss of confidence in the representation and how the budget was presented.
   Ms. Michaelson, a Montgomery resident for nearly six years, described herself as a tireless advocate for the school community. She’s served as PTA president at Village Elementary and at the middle school, as well as the Municipal Alliance, the Montgomery Youth Lacrosse Board and advisory boards. Before becoming a stay-at-home mother and community volunteer, she did public relations for Estee Lauder. Then she got her master’s and worked for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
   ”As a Montgomery school board member, I will work to engage all members of our community – parents, teachers and residents, said Ms. Michaelson. “I pride myself on listening carefully to all sides before making a decision.”
   ”I can honestly tell you that some of these times have been very challenging, and I’m proud to say that we have also made huge progress during this period,” said Mr. Rimal, a member of the board of education for the past six years.
   ”I strongly believe that the district is in a much better place financially today than we were six years ago,” he said. “This was possible because I and the rest of the board members kept our focus on our goals and priorities, and we worked hard to deliver high-achieving programs for our children, sustainable goals for school expenditures, efficient use of resources and increased use of technology while decreasing costs.”
   The topics included the following: transparency, drug and alcohol prevention, merit pay for teachers, outsourcing non-instructional functions, personal and professional integrity, teachers’ union concessions, role of a board member, triple-tier busing, the degree to which students are prepared for college, careers and citizenship, multicultural education, block scheduling and the budget.
   The board of education has come a long way in trying to be transparent, how will each of you strive to improve in that area?
   ”I think where the board has not been transparent is that we don’t have our information easily accessible,” said Ms. Michaelson, who would like to see an ad-hoc group come together to rebuild communication between administrators, teachers, parents and residents.
   ”I believe the board has been very transparent,” said Mr. Rimal, who cited examples such as the referendum budgets, the town hall meetings regarding the budgets and announcements to the community.
   ”We’re in a relationship business,” said Ms. Abrahams. “We need to build relationships face-to-face with community members.”
   She also suggested taking advantage of social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
   Mr. Cavalli posed the question: what is transparency?
   ”Is transparency really true information which we, the community, can make decisions upon?”
   ”I would argue that it’s both the way the information is being communicated, how the communication is coordinated and what that information actually is,” he said.
   Do you think that Montgomery schools are doing everything they can to discourage the use of drugs and alcohol by our students? If not, what would you propose?
   ”We have certain policies in place so that we have control,” said Mr. Rimal, but the control is only over what happens in school.
   ”I know that Montgomery doesn’t have a random drug testing policy,” said Ms. Abrahams. “If you’re serious about stopping drug use, at least in your schools, and having severe consequences, then that’s something to think about.”
   ”We as educators and we as community members have to build strong, resilient children who know how to say no,” said Mr. Cavalli. “And that comes through education, but it comes through building confidence in our children. And in some aspects, we have very confident children in our community and in other places we don’t, so we need to have a plan to get to that individual on the level in which they learn and understand things.”
   ”My concern is that we don’t have a director of guidance at the high school,” said Ms. Michaelson. We’ve become so lean that we’re not providing the proper guidance for our kids, she said.
   Do you agree or disagree with plans to tie teacher evaluations and possible pay increases to test scores?
   Dr. Abrahams said she was a fan of merit pay when she worked for Merrill Lynch, but she doesn’t see how this works in education. By doing so, you also force teachers to keep quiet their best teaching strategies when the idea is to share them and be teacher leaders, she said.
   Mr. Cavalli agreed the structure and processes are not in place to pay teachers on merit at this time.
   ”But what I would say the 800 pound gorilla in the room is how do we keep and incent teachers to be more passionate, more disciplined and more excited about teaching our kids every year?”
   Ms. Michaelson was also the beneficiary of merit pay in the work environment, but does not thinks it’s a good system for teachers, yet she also doesn’t believe teachers should get raises solely on the basis that they’ve worked a number of years. She was happy to see the superintendent be a proponent of peer review for teachers.
   Mr. Rimal wasn’t in favor of merit pay on test scores alone, as he said that there are many other factors that indicate teacher performance.
   The event was hosted by the League of Women Voters for New Jersey and was moderated by Christine Floren.