By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
School spending, standardized tests and the state of the public school system emerged as some of the issues that the four Princeton school board candidates confronted Wednesday in a face-to-face encounter less a month before Election Day.
Incumbent Patrick Sullivan and challengers Robert Dodge, Dafna Kendal and Elizabeth Kalber Baglio agreed more than they disagreed during the roughly hour-long forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. They responded to a series of questions ranging from whether they would increase the school budget beyond the state cap limit to what should be done with the old Valley Road School building.
With Mayor Liz Lempert and school board President Andrea Spalla watching in the audience, the candidates appealed to voters by presenting themselves as parents with children in the school system and interested in making things better. Three seats on the board are up this year, which means at least two newcomers are assured of being elected to a board that has been in transition with veteran members leaving and first-time office holders replacing them.
Ms. Kendal and Mr. Dodge appear to be the equivalent of political outsiders trying to shake things up. She was a regular at board meetings speaking out during the contract impasse between the school board and the teachers union.
In her remarks, she stressed the need to bring “new ideas” to a school board that “must be more transparent in its activities, more open to public comment and concerns and more willing to think outside the box.” The district needs to create a long-term financial “forecast” that will anticipate the infrastructure, athletics and other needs of the schools, she said.
Later, she said she would support a school budget that exceeded the 2 percent tax cap, and felt that parents should have the right to opt their children out of state standardized tests known as PARCC testing.
Mr. Dodge expressed concern about rising enrollment in the public schools, and believes children struggling academically won’t get the attention they need when they are in classes with lots of other students. The candidates generally spoke favorably of standardized testing but cautioned against using test results the wrong way.
Mr. Sullivan said that tests should not be used to evaluate teachers or school districts; he called that an “unfair and inappropriate use of that data.”
Ms. Kalber Baglio also touched on how test data is used.
“If we’re making data-driven decisions based on the fact that X percent of fourth-graders did not know one component of math, then maybe we need to look at our curriculum in math or the way we’re teaching students,” she said.
On the exceeding state budget cap, she replied: “You have to have a good reason to go to taxpayers to ask for more. However, if the good reason exists, I’m open to consideration, but that wouldn’t be the first place that I would go.”
Ms. Kendal said her children have benefited from being in the public schools, but she believes the district as a whole is “not meeting the needs of all children.” She cited a study that found 31 percent of juniors and seniors at the high school are chronically absent.
“We’re not addressing their needs if that’s happening,” she said.
Second-year Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane has made student wellness a critical element of making sure students are physically and emotionally doing well. Along those lines, Mr. Dodge said he favored moving back the start of high school to 8:30 a.m. “at a minimum.” On the Valley Road school, Mr. Sullivan said the property should remain in public ownership.
“It looks like we’re going to have a demographic increase over the years, and we may be able to use that space for other things in the future,” he said. “It’s going to come with a cost if we do that.”
Ms. Kalber Baglio suggested the idea of a teacher-parent resource center there “if that is needed” to have a place that all schools could use.
Mr. Dodge cited the high cost of rehabilitating the building to make it useable.
