Field of six candidates to vie
for 3 seats on school board
By jeanette m. eng
Staff Writer
MARLBORO — The landscape of the Board of Education, which oversees the town’s K-8 school district, is changing.
Three three-year seats on the board will be up for grabs in the April 15 election. Six residents have thrown their hats in the ring to seek positions on the panel.
The field includes one incumbent and one former member of the board. Two incumbents are not running for re-election.
The field includes Bari Sobel, Raymond Eng, Andrea Tunis Miller, Steven Wolfson, Stacie Stoy and Catherine Wersinger.
Incumbents Dr. Terry Spilken and Martin Karasick are not seeking re-election.
Eng, of Algonquin Drive, is a former two-term school board member who last served in 1996. A teacher in the Monmouth County Vocational School District, Eng said he is hearing a call to serve on the board once again.
"I was shocked when last year’s budget was defeated and when a large number of first-grade teachers were fired," he said, explaining that indicated to him that "things were not well."
Eng has two children who went through the Marlboro school system.
Miller, of Enclosure Drive, has been involved with the school board peripherally and is looking to expand on that.
As chairwoman of the private Marlboro Education Foundation and a member of the 1995-96 Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, Miller was involved with the budget and "became interested in the inner-workings of the board."
Miller has a daughter in the fifth grade.
Wolfson, of Marigold Lane, who has recently become a regular attendee of board meetings, has found himself "concerned with the quality of the system and where budget cuts are coming from." With two small children soon to enter the school system, Wolfson said he wants to be a part of the decision-making process.
Stoy, of Chagall Road, said she is impressed with the performance she has witnessed of the board and wants to "be a part of keeping the quality of education high." She is currently involved with the Project 3000 Committee, an outreach effort of Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Abbott to engage residents during every step of the budget process. She also taught in the district for seven years.
Wersinger, of Paddock Court, currently serves as the Township Council’s liaison to the board. Running for a spot on the board was not her original goal, but after attending meetings of the board Wersinger said she believes that her "service to the community could be enhanced as a member of the board."
Now a lead systems programmer, Wersinger has worked in the business world since 1984 and hopes to bring her business sense, analytical sense and common sense to the board. She has a son in pre-kindergarten.
Sobel, who has served on the board for three years, will be seeking a second term.
"I believe in the school system and want to make sure the quality education continues," she said.
Sobel said she regularly visits Marlboro’s schools to "see what’s going on in each building."
She has a daughter in the fifth grade.
Meanwhile, Spilken and Karasick will end their tenure on the board in April.
Karasick joined the board six years ago in the hope of contributing his business experience. He now has other business commitments to attend to, but said he believes the district already "does an excellent job of managing their expenses and will do a fine job" in the future.
Spilken, who has also served on the board for six years (three as president), also cited personal commitments to attend to as a reason for not seeking re-election.
"I believe the board president’s seat should be filled by someone who can devote 100 percent," he said.
A PTA/PTO candidates night will be held at the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School, Topanemus Road, on March 31 from 8-10 p.m.