HOLMDEL Allowing Board of Education contenders to express their goals for the district, Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU) hosted a candidates forum.
Seven candidates are running for four available seats on the Holmdel Board of Education. Incumbents Eileen Briamonte, John Martinez, and Peter Reddy will face first-time candidates Daniel Bodnar and Jamie Collins for the three-year terms.
Newcomer candidates Jaimie Ochojski and Terence Wall are both running for the one-year term. Election day is on Nov. 7.
More than 20 residents attended the forum where each board candidate delivered a speech introducing themselves to the residents, on Oct. 16, at the township Community Center, located at 4 Crawfords Corner Road.
Bodnar, 42, has been a resident for more than 10 years. Currently he is raising four children in the school system and has been married for more than 17 years.
Bodnar has a master’s degree in Public Administration and currently works in the medical device industry where he works in hospitals throughout New Jersey.
“My platform for the board of education is you heard some of the candidates talk about transparency, that is something I am very big on myself. I think we have done a great job with transparency. We can just take it to the next level in informing all citizens about what is going on not only with the board but how their money is being spent,” Bodnar said. “I know that [someone] was joking around with me and said ‘you are spending my money.’ That is something very near and dear to my heart because you are entrusting that every dollar that is given to us is also spent appropriately and stretching every dollar we possibly can.”
With the newly approved Holmdel Initiative 2020, Bodnar said, “It is a huge initiative [and] a huge undertaking that needs to be directed. I am a fresh voice and I am a fresh concept looking at things differently than everybody else and offering some custom solutions to some of our needs in our town and our community.”
Collins, 49, has been a resident for 17 years and is raising two children who are in the town’s school system. She grew up in the township and graduated from Holmdel High School. Collins previously worked for many years as an attorney and currently co-owns a yacht/boat brokerage business.
“I am passionate about helping people grow, attain success and be resilient in a world where we all face difficult challenges. I take this task seriously and whether or not I am elected to the board I am going to continue to help people improve, grow and overcome obstacles and speak up for them. It is what I do, this is who I am and its satisfying to me at the core,” Collins said.
Due to her and her husband moving to various places around the country because of their careers, Collins said, “I learned to observe and listen in order to adapt and to make social connections which are very valuable tools. In addition, the moving helped expose me to many different schools. My children have been in private, public and one charter school.”
Collins said her vision for the township’s schools can be explained with five principles: achievement, success, innovation/information, appropriate placement/valid assessments, and transparency.
“Objective criteria in the form of standardized tests is indispensable and very valuable, but let us also consider other factors to determine what a child can handle, such as the child’s developmental readiness and stress level. Also of course we need to better educate our parents on standardized assessments being utilized, because to be honest with you it is not very easy to understand the results of the tests,” Collins said.
Ochojski, 41, has been a resident for five years and has two children in the school system. She has 20 years of special education and elementary school experience and has a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching.
Ochojski has taught in many school districts in the state. Recently, she has been in Manalapan and Englishtown for 17 years where she has taught in elementary and special education from kindergarten to fifth grade. She has also been actively involved in writing curriculum, writing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and educating parents.
“Everyone knows and agrees that this world we live in is in desperate need of change and I believe that the change begins in education. Our children in the Holmdel school district are going to be on the frontline of this change and it is our job as parents, educators, and members of this wonderful community to prepare our children to make this world a better place. We are so very lucky to be part of a great community and with your help working together we can make it even better,” Ochojski said.
Due to recovering from a recent surgery, Terrence Wall was not present during the forum. On behalf of her husband, Terrence Wall’s wife, Jeanne Wall, read a prepared statement he wrote.
Wall, 50, has been a lifelong resident and has four children in the school system. For over a decade he has served as a township administrator, registered municipal clerk, qualified purchasing agent, and acting chief financial officer in three different municipalities.
Wall previously served three terms as a township committeeman from 1999 to 2007 and served as an EMT volunteer member for the township’s First Aid Squad for nearly a decade.
“Working daily with multi-million dollar budgets, major capital projects, collective bargaining, personnel and a host of other endeavors, the challenges and opportunities in the schools are familiar territory. I will work for you and all of the children in Holmdel who deserve the best that we can do for them. Working together we can do really great things for all,” Terrence Wall said.
Having went through the township’s school system, Wall said, “I’ve seen the curriculum grow and modify as both the level and related technology expand to meet the demands of today. I’m not stuck in the past and as a manager, I would insure the teachers brought on board are cutting edge.”
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].