I’m running for the Board of Education this year for two reasons – to guarantee that we maintain our investment in our public schools and to ensure that the Board includes at least one person who has experience in education.
When we moved to West Orange, our daughter was entering her sophomore year of high school. That’s a tough age to uproot your life, move across the state, and suddenly find yourself without friends.
But West Orange welcomed her with open arms. She was able to pursue many of the activities she had done before – like choir, band, and track. She was able to make new friends. And she even found the opportunity to make her voice heard – as a founding member of the West Orange Youth Caucus and as one of the student liaisons to the Board of Education.
She was prepared well for college by her teachers, and she excelled on the track thanks to her coaches. By the end of her senior year, she had earned a full scholarship to Louisiana Tech University to run track. This is a product of her skill and dedication, but it’s also a testament to the support system that she was provided by West Orange Public Schools.
Our experience in West Orange has been great, and I’m running for the Board of Education to make sure that every other family feels the same way.
On the one hand this means focusing on issues of inclusion and equity. And on the other, it means continuing to invest in our public schools.
We’ve been lucky to receive increases in state funding for several years, but that additional source of funding will soon dry up. We need to make smart decisions moving forward – but we can’t make the short sighted decision to disinvest in our schools. This is not the answer, and if we go down that road much further it won’t be long before our school system starts to deteriorate.
One reason I’m running is to make sure that we as a Board continue to make the right decisions.
In my first term on the Board, we had the opportunity to select a new Superintendent.
I was surprised to hear that Dr. Cascone was resigning to take a job elsewhere. But it gave us an opportunity.
When we chose Hayden Moore to become the next Superintendent, we chose to put someone in charge who was from West Orange, who was rooted in West Orange, and who will lead West Orange for years to come.
I have faith that he will be leading this district long after I’m gone from the Board, but for now, he’s still new. He needs the help and support of a Board of Education that is his partner and not his enemy.
The second reason I’m running for re-election is to make sure that the Board continues to be partners with Superintendent Moore. After years of turmoil going back through COVID and before, we need stability.
So if you want to see our community maintain its investment in the public school system, and if you to maintain the stability of our district, vote for me on November 5.