EDISON – There are 10 candidates who are vying for the three, three-year seats available on the Edison Board of Education in the November election.
Incumbent Xiaohan “Shannon” Peng is seeking re-election to her second term while former board member Shivi Prasad-Madhukar is seeking a second term.
Carol Bodofsky, Samuel Marshall, Christo Makropoulos, Neville Arestani, Kenneth Nelson, Sparshil Patel, Anthony DeAmorin and Tahira Masood are seeking their first terms.
Board members Richard Brescher and Theresa Ward are not seeking re-election.
Carol Bodofsky, 69, is a 38-year resident of Edison. She is married with two adult daughters.
She is a retired teacher. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Douglas College and a master’s degree from Glassboro State College, which is now Rowan University.
In the community, Bodofsky had been involved in the Girl Scouts in Edison and active in the Parent Teacher associations. She said she has attended Edison school board meetings for more than 25 years, asking questions, making suggestions and sharing information with others in the community.
“I am running because I can accomplish more with my skills as an advocate, problem solver and educator as a BOE member than I can as just an active citizen,” she said. “During the years I have regularly attended BOE meetings. I have often been able to persuade the members of the board to make better decisions for the students, schools and community. I work hard, do my research, then try to make reasonable and logical suggestions on a topic. I believe I would be able to accomplish more for our town, schools and children as an actual board member.”
If elected, Bodofsky said she would like to concentrate on the proposed school construction project.
“Our children need room to learn in order to maintain the high standards that previous students have set – nothing less than excellence,”‘ she said. “Hopefully the bond referendum will have passed by the time I am elected and the really hard work starts then. We will need to simultaneously meet the learning needs of our current students at each level, supervise and support the actual construction in a timely manner, and transition smoothly from old to new [facilities].”
Anthony De Amorin, 37, has been a township resident for 35 years. He is a 1999 graduate of Edison High School.
In the community, De Amorin serves as a selected committeeman and said he tries to attend all council, BOE, zoning, planning and library board meetings. He live streams the meetings he attends through his Facebook LIVE transparency agenda in real time.
“It allows residents who cannot attend to still be engaged,” he said. “The thousands who watch prove there is a demand for better government. I have also organized town cleanups and was a petitioner on our water petition to keep our water [and] sewer in local control. I helped collect nearly 5,000 signatures this past spring to bring it to a vote so the people of Edison could decide its fate through a referendum, which ultimately was massively successful last month.”
De Amorin said his reasoning to run for a school board seat is simple.
“The same problems the board faces the last few years have yet to be resolved, including [there is] still no permanent superintendent,” he said. “And now a $190 million referendum the taxpayer is being asked to pay this December with no understanding of the breakdown and no leadership overseeing it, it’s simply unacceptable and irresponsible.”
De Amorin said if elected he plans on building better relationships with the other branches of township government and the community while being much more transparent.
“As we stand, there is hardly any communication with other township officials,” he said. “To overcome overcrowding, working together with the township and community is key. And we will finally overcome it if I am elected.”
Christo Makropoulos, 31, is a lifelong resident. He is an Edison High School graduate and had been employed as a safety and production manager for a tool manufacturing facility.
In the community, he said he attends Town Hall and BOE meetings to learn about the issues facing the Edison community. He said he is an advocate for children, animals, human rights and women.
Makropoulos said if elected he will work on creating drug prevention programs; advocate for the more than 17,000 students, parents and teachers; advocate for special education programing; work on bringing back full day kindergarten; work on solving school overcrowding; work on improving bus services and maintaining school buildings; and continue to support theater, sports, band and arts programming.
He said he will “put the children first” holding the BOE accountable to the taxpayers and voters they serve by ending “the corruption” and “cut wasteful spending while balancing the budget.”
Sparshil I. Patel, 35, has lived in the township for 19 years. He has a four-month-old daughter.
He is employed in the healthcare business. He earned his bachelor’s degree from New York Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in public health from St. George’s University, a medical degree from Xaviar University School of Medicine, and is certified as an assisted living administrator by Long Tree and Associates.
In the community, Patel said he has organized free flu camps and wellness exams in Edison; organized South Asian Community Health camps; helps with the annual Santa’s Little Helper Toy Drive with Unity SME; helps sponsor trips to Atlantic City; helps the Edison/Piscataway Senior citizens; and helps the Santram Kanyashala, a girls school in Santram Mandir Nadiad, India.
Patel said the election is not about winning, it’s about fixing the problems for the children of Edison.
“We need outsider thinkers like myself who will bring new ideas and implement them,” he said. “Many of these issues have been addressed year after year with no execution or resolution. We need to move Edison to back where it should be and elevate back to its prestigious rankings. It’s about doing the right thing, it’s community service, all internal motives need to be set aside.”
Patel said he is confident he will be a great asset to the board and work together to get things done.
“We must rebuild proper structure and foundation for school board and teachers alike so our next generation of children can prosper,” he said. “I want my daughter to enter a school system where she can flourish. I want all our children to have space to sit on the bus, have enough time for lunch, and reduce all the side effects of overcrowding.
If elected, Patel said one focus he would like to concentrate on is overcrowding
“We need to ask realistic questions and figure out long term solutions,” he said. “We need to find grants and have conversations with administration in Trenton. We need to build infrastructure and facilities in our growing district. This will not be a quick fix, and a blank check will not solve our problems. I want to create a master plan and resolve this issue over the next five years.”
Shivi Prasad-Madhukar, 49, has lived in the township for 15 years. She is married with three children, ages 24, 18 and 14.
She is employed as a policy analyst director of a New Jersey focused policy research group. She earned a degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a master’s degree in public administration with specialization in public policy.
In the community, Prasad-Madhukar has served in volunteer positions as president of a middle school parent teacher organization; member of the BOE’s school safety committee; fundraising volunteer; and newsletter writer for an elementary school program.
She currently is working to raise funds for a high school choir program. Over the past year, she has organized and conducted meetings exploring issues related to drugs and vaping in the schools; organized meetings with parents of special needs children to understand their perspective; and actively participated in various community forums to address issues/questions residents may have about education.
Prasad-Madhukar said she brings varied experiences and qualifications from “budget and policy knowledge to perspectives of students and residents.”
“There are many critical issues affecting our students and I feel not enough attention is being paid to those areas,” she said. “This includes rampant use of drugs and vaping in our schools, increasing influence of special interest groups, [and] deficiencies in our curriculum and special needs program. I want to focus on curbing wasteful expenditure, increasing state funding, stabilizing property taxes, and addressing mental health issues.”
If elected, Prasad-Madhukar said she will work on reducing overcrowding, creating space [in the schools] and reducing parking and traffic congestion.
“There are many students going to schools in Edison who do not live [in the township],” she said. “We must urgently address this because we are spending more than $10,000 [in] taxpayers’ money for every student that does not live here.”
She said she will also work on seeking state construction grants, alumni-giving and shared-services; cutting wasteful spending; setting up a school fund where developers and businesses must contribute; and holding persuasive discussions with township and zoning officials to stop over-building in the township.
Neville Arestani and Kenneth Nelson did not respond by press time.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.