Talks center on overcrowding, the potential need for a high school, and retaining teachers.
By: Scott Morgan
MILLSTONE The future of the township school system and its place in the community define this year’s school board race, which centers around the issues of overcrowding, growth, the sending-receiving relationship with the Upper Freehold Regional School District and the quality, retaining good teachers and the possible need for a new high school.
Five women are vying for three open seats this year. The three incumbents include Mary Pinney, who was appointed last June to finish the term of Philip Mancuso, Mary Ann Friedman and school board President Patricia Coffey. A pair of first-time candidates, Dawn Maltz and Lynn Mele, also will seek seats on the board.
This year’s school board election will take place Tuesday, April 16. Also under consideration will be the district’s proposed $20.2 million budget, which carries with it a 13.5 percent tax increase. Voters have rejected school budgets three of the last four years.
Growth issues were a concern of all candidates. Millstone has its own elementary and middle schools, and sends its high school students to Allentown High School in the Upper Freehold regional district. The township has seen a 17 percent increase in its K-8 student population since 1998.
Last week, the quintet spoke about their directions, goals and qualifications for the coming election.
Patricia Coffey
Ms. Coffey has served as the school board’s president or vice president continuously for the past 10 years. In that time, which she said has been extremely fulfilling, she has seen the effects of the rapid growth in the township.
In 1990, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, approximately a third of the township’s residents were below the age of 19. The 2000 census showed the same proportion of minors to the general population, but the overall number of residents grew from 5,096 to 8,970.
With that sort of growth, Ms. Coffey said she is aware of the importance of space. Simply put, the township needs to find places to put the growing number of school-age children.
Ms. Coffey said the board and the township both have been fortunate to keep costs down, but she anticipates a need for more school space in the near future.
A looming consideration is constructing a high school. Ms. Coffey said she believes the township soon will have enough students to warrant a high school, and speculated construction could become an issue within another eight to 10 years.
However, she warned of the effect it would have on the Upper Freehold Regional School District. The majority of students in attendance at AHS are Millstone residents, Ms. Coffey said. To pull out would decimate financially the Upper Freehold district by cutting the number of students by at least half.
Though she said she does not foresee any immediate need for a high school, Ms. Coffey said if elected to another term she will work with legislators and state officials on school funding issues, study the district’s needs and work to maintain a high quality of education for every child, regardless of how many there are.
Mary Ann Friedman
Ms. Friedman is ending her first term in office, a term she said has cemented her notion that kids and education go hand-in-hand. Ms. Friedman said she has made it a priority to educate herself about how the school system works.
Through a series of courses and seminars sponsored by the New Jersey School Board Association, Ms. Friedman said she has learned a great deal about the school system.
Ms. Friedman, a former secretary of the Millstone Township Foundation for Educational Excellence and former president of the Millstone PTO, does not see only one issue as the board’s core concern. She agrees the growth rate needs to be addressed, but said the key to providing good education lies in the quality of the teachers. Not only is it paramount to attract good teachers, she said, it is just as important to retain them.
Ms. Friedman said her time on the board has reinforced her belief that the value of a house in any community is directly related to the value of the school district. She said she hopes to continue her time on the board, which she said works together very harmoniously.
"A working board is no accident," she said. "We’re all focused on children first."
Ms. Friedman said if elected she will continue to work with legislators on funding issues and work on staff development. She said she will also focus on maintaining what she considers a very good educational system.
In regards to the high school question, Ms. Friedman also acknowledged the financial destruction a sudden pull-out from Upper Freehold would cause. She said, however, that she does not feel comfortable speculating on the prospect of a new high school without first reviewing the demographics study being finalized by the Western Monmouth Panhandle Alliance. Results should be in by the end of this school year, she said.
Dawn Maltz
A newcomer to the school board scene, Ms. Maltz said she is running because she sees several concerns that need to be addressed. She said budget control, a new high school, space planning and teacher retention all are areas that need to be dealt with.
A financial analyst with AIJ Insurance, member of the county Republican organization and black belt karate teacher, Ms. Maltz calls herself a "go-getter." She said, in no uncertain terms, that if elected she would go after the high school issue (she thinks the township needs one), get the budget under control, make sure the district is getting the best value for its dollar and open the lines of communication between the township’s residents, its government and its school.
Ms. Maltz is the wife of the township’s mayor, Evan Maltz, but she insists that her husband had no bearing on her candidacy. In fact, she is running despite his advice.
"He tells me I’m crazy, and maybe I am," she said. But she maintains that her race is for the betterment of the school system and not for the glory.
"I’m doing this for the kids," she said. "Not for the aggravation."
Lynn Mele
Another first-timer, Ms. Mele said she has been considering a school board run for about a year. Propelled by the need to address the critical issue of teacher retention, Ms. Mele said she decided to run because she felt "a new perspective, some new ideas would add value to the school district."
Ms. Mele said that with all the challenges facing the school system, it is time for a change. A human resources manager, she said personnel is a "pet peeve" of hers. She said the first step toward ensuring a high-caliber education system is attaining, retaining and maintaining the best possible teachers. She said such an investment in teaching is the best investment in the community.
Ms. Mele also said she, as a "Millstoner," feels it is important to open communications with the community at large.
"We have to be realistic. Not everyone can make it to school board meetings," she said. "We need to think of different ways to get the information out to residents."
Ms. Mele said the township and the school board need to plan for growth because, like it or not, it is happening. She said she sees the overcrowding in the middle school and wonders where the planning for that went wrong. She said she doesn’t want to see that kind of mistake happen again.
Ms. Mele said if elected she will bring value to the hiring and retention of teachers ("I do this for a living") and find ways to disseminate budget information to the public. One possible suggestion, she said, is the creation of a newsletter solely devoted to budget issues.
Mary Pinney
Ms. Pinney said her short term on the school board already has been a learning experience. A former associate dean at Rider University, Ms. Pinney last July assumed the closing months of the term of Philip Mancuso, who resigned his office due to increased professional responsibilities. Now retired, Ms. Pinney said she is, as she always has been, committed to education.
Like Ms. Coffey, Ms. Pinney said the critical issue facing the school board is space. She said the middle school has outgrown its facility and now the students face classroom life in trailers because there is not enough space inside.
She said that the affluent community tends to not support the schools, but the fact remains that there are kids here and they need to go to school. The lack of support, she said, comes largely from the fact that most people do not come out to vote on school board budgets and that those who either have no children or children who are now beyond school age typically do not feel they should have to pay for the school system.
Ms. Pinney said it is critical to see the long-term needs of the district. In terms of actual room, she said the school board will need to build more space by either adding or building another school. With regard to grousingtaxpayers, she it is important to see education as an investment in the future, not as a strictly financial inconvenience.
She said that if she is elected, she would focus on getting people informed about the school system.
"The township is affected by what we do in schools," she said.
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