CANDIDATES FORUM, March 8
By:
Patricia Bocarsly
Plainsboro candidate
West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education
I am a candidate for the Plainsboro seat on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education being vacated by Cheryl Larrier-Jemmott, who has served our district well over the past six years. I believe I have the ability and commitment as well as professional and community experience to make a positive, constructive contribution to the board.
My husband, Andy, and I have been residents of the WW-P district for 14 years, and of Plainsboro for nearly three years. Our children have attended six schools in the district, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade. This has afforded me familiarity with most of the buildings and administrators as well as with the entire range of our curriculum.
I have been involved with PTAs over the past 12 years, including being co-president at the Upper Elementary School and have served on a number of school-based and district-wide committees. I am currently vice president of the WW-P Education Foundation, a private foundation that this year awarded 28 mini-grants to teachers representing each of our schools. In addition to my most important role as a parent, I am a professor of pathology at the UMDNJ – New Jersey Medical School with teaching, research and major administrative responsibilities. My experience as a professional educator complements my volunteer activities, which together will translate well to board service.
I am convinced that to be productive, the board must more effectively partner with the central administration, principals, teachers and parents. The board needs to realize that all of us, though differing in opinions, have the fundamental interests of the children as our primary goal. We are a district blessed with enormous talent in each of these arenas, and I believe it is vitally important for the board to listen carefully to each other and to each of these groups of talented individuals. Recently, these sorts of interactions have become increasingly strained, sometimes leading to a board that is perceived as deadlocked and unable to function decisively. These board/administration dynamics must be improved if the district is to move forward.
Although we have an excellent educational system, the district faces formidable challenges we are still growing at 4 percent per year in a time when state aid is frozen and residents are unable to endure large tax increases. Each new residence adds children to the district but insufficient tax revenue to educate these children. We have wonderful facilities, but some of these are older and are in need of crucial repairs or upgrading. The board and the administration are faced with a huge agenda that has backlogged with the current redistricting stalemate. A strategic plan is needed and action is required on a number of curriculum evaluations that are completed or ongoing including language arts, social studies, gifted and talented and science, and these should be accomplished with greater input from the community. With your support, I pledge to help the district move forward in each of these areas and to do so in a manner that is respectful and financially responsible.
Jack Greenberg
Plainsboro candidate
West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education
I support the draft plan that has been recommended by the Elementary Attendance Area Committee of the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District. I also support the use of proximity as the primary factor in developing a redistricting plan. In my eight years living in this district I have not been convinced that there is very much difference between the population of the two townships. My children have interacted with West Windsor children in a number of activities, including soccer and religion school. I would be hard-pressed to know which children were from Plainsboro and which were from West Windsor.
The board placed itself in a difficult position by delaying the redistricting process. The release of a draft plan has taken close to four months. Now, at the 11th hour, a number of people involved in the process are raising concerns about the plan they developed. The chairman of this committee indicated he was not happy with the original charge, but he did nothing to change it. The new school year is only six months away, and kindergarten registration is scheduled to take place in less than three weeks, and the board has no redistricting plan.
A number of critics of this plan oppose it because it does not maintain township balance. In order to maintain township balance between Village School and Upper Elementary School, a large number of West Windsor children will need to be removed from Village in order to make room for the Plainsboro children. It is my feeling that this alternate plan will create many more unhappy people than the current plan.
I believe the board will be making a mistake if it implements a redistricting plan that was created in haste over a two-week period. I also believe it is not fair to mislead the community into thinking that a true feeder system is possible under the current 4-5 configuration and with the current buildings’ sizes. The K-3 schools, even with a new school opening, are close to capacity. If the board attempts to develop more of a feeder system by reducing the population of the UES, this imbalance will become even greater.
It is my opinion that whatever plan the board implements, it may need to redistrict again in the next two, three or four years (sooner if the Toll Brothers development is built). Therefore, since this plan will probably be a short-term plan, and due to time constraints brought about by the board’s previous inaction, I recommend that the board accept the EAAC’s draft redistricting plan. Over the next one or two years, the board with community involvement should develop a more permanent long-term plan that most of the community can accept.