By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — When West Windsor Township voters go to the polls on Nov. 8 to elect two school board members, they will have an abundance of choices from among the six candidates vying for the two open seats.
Incumbent school board members Louisa Ho and Scott Powell are seeking re-election to a three-year term on the school board. They are being challenged by Carol Herts, former school board member Richard Kaye, Deborah Marinsky and Mirna White.
Ms. Ho, 56, has lived in West Windsor since 1986. Her two children are West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South graduates. The self-described “community volunteer” formerly worked for NJTransit bus operations.
Mr. Powell, 44, moved to West Windsor in 2006. He has two children who are enrolled at Grover Middle School and Village School. He works in the pension department for Prudential Financial in Newark.
Ms. Herts, 58, has lived in West Windsor since 1983. Her three children are graduates of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South. She previously worked in publishing.
Mr. Kaye, 77, moved to West Windsor in 1999. He served on the school board from 2005 to 2014, including a stint as school board vice president. He was the principal of South Brunswick High School for 20 years, and retired in 1999.
Ms. Marinsky, 67, has lived in West Windsor since 1987. Her three children are all graduates of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District. She retired in 2015 after 16 years as a media specialist librarian at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South.
Ms. White, 48, moved to West Windsor in 2015. Her son attends the Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart in Princeton. She is an attorney in solo practice, specializing in foreclosure defense.
While there are many issues facing the school district, one that has provoked intense interest is the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). It is a standardized test that is required for high school graduation, beginning with this year’s crop of 8th-graders — members of the high school Class of 2021.
The school board candidates are mostly resigned to the state-mandated PARCC test, but they are also critical of it — at least, based on responses to a question posed to them by the League of Women Voters of New Jersey. The question asks the candidates for their recommendations for how the district should address the test.
Ms. Herts made it clear that her recommendation is for teachers not to spend classroom time “teach(ing) to the test.” She said parents and students should be aware that it is not required for the Class of 2017, and that perhaps when a new governor takes office in 2018, PARCC will be changed. “Our curriculum should not be dumbed down to align to Common Core. New Jersey has always had state standards and WW-P standards were always high above the state standards. Common Core is meant to bring up failing schools. It was never meant to turn excellent schools into mediocre schools. This is the first time in the history of our district that our standards were lowered to meet the state standards,” she said.
Ms. Ho said the PARCC test is required by law, but the district should “speak out where the law or rules aren’t in the best interests of the district and our students, and raise those issues with the state.” Reducing testing time to three days at the high school could minimize the disruption caused by administering the test. The test results could be used to improve teaching and programs, she said.
Mr. Kaye said students cannot opt-out of the PARCC test. School districts must follow the law and rules set by the state, he said. The state did not consider the impact of the tests — students’ comfort with using keyboards and the availability of tablet computers in the district, as well as the impact on instructional programs. “(But) as an elected board member, I will advocate the district be more outspoken about mandates that do not well serve our students,” he said.
Ms. Marinsky, however, was unequivocal. She called for the PARCC test to be scrapped because it takes too much time away from educating the students. If standardized tests are to be administered, they should not be given every year and at an early age for students, she said. “Don’t spend valuable teaching time preparing for them. There are many ways to evaluate learning, and PARCC is not the right one,” she said.
Mr. Powell agreed that while standardized tests serve a purpose, “PARCC is not the correct test.” The district has few options and must administer the test, he said, but it has already lodged an official complaint with the state over its use of PARCC. “The district needs to continue to lobby for responsible use of the test,” he said.
Ms. White did not respond to the League of Women Voters questionnaire.
For more information on the school board candidates and the League of Women Voters of New Jersey’s questionnaires, visit www.vote411.org.
