001thank you good evening please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all hi everyone and welcome to this year's Board of Education candidates night my name is Valentina Paez and I am the President of the ridge exploration for political participation club we are a non-partisan club that helps to organize events like these and we also focus on making sure we and other students are politically active and informed today candidates will receive 60 seconds for responses to questions and 30 seconds for rebuttals after everyone has already initially responded they will also get 90 seconds for their opening and closing statements we are joined here tonight by incumbents
002Lawrence rashio and Jennifer white along with Deborah Marcus Aaron Weber Janice Corrado and David Shaw I would like to thank the candidates for being here tonight and additionally the league of women's voters who are always an amazing partner with us for these events finally I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for being a part of this event we are handing out white index cards that you can write down your questions on and you can raise up your index card and somebody will come around and collect them thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Carol Harvey and I hear from the League of Women Voters of Somerset and Hunterdon counties to moderate this event the League of Women Voters is very pleased that bridge empowerment for political participation has asked us
003to be here and and moderate we are a non-partisan political non-profit organization and we work to empower voters and to defend democracy the league never ever supports or opposes political parties or specific candidates for office and you should know that I do not now nor have I ever lived or worked in Bernard's Township I have absolutely no connections here uh I have no skin in this game in in short so this forum is being recorded we want to let you know that any use of the league name or logo on any video footage campaign materials literature or advertising of any kind including but not limited to internet cable social media radio or television has not been authorized by the League of Women Voters okay you don't you don't use our name we use our name
004now we've we've already introduced the candidates and we've gone through the Forum format and we are asking the question candidates questions that you submit uh you've uh been submitting them and you can continue to submit them if you have more questions as as the evening goes along I think you just raise your hand and someone will bring you a an index card so we are reviewing the questions that are submitted in order to avoid redundancy and ensure that a range of topics is covered and that the questions meet our criteria for use which is they must be issue oriented direct no personal attacks no no hint of of bias in any way now after every candidate has issued has answered a question each candidate May request a 30-second rebuttal and we've covered that with the
005the candidates now we're going to ask you at this time please silence your electronic devices okay photographs or audio or video recordings by the audience members are not permitted no taking pictures and posting to social media in the uh course of the uh event we're here to listen to the candidates and the candidates are here to communicate to you so we want to make the best use of this time so we're going to ask you to hold your applause until the end of the Forum you'll have plenty of opportunity at that time and to refrain from any other interruptions during the Forum so now we're going to begin with an opening statement from candidate rashio good evening my name is Larry rashio I've lived in Burns Township since 2007 with my wife Susan and my
006two children Jared a junior at Ridge and Samantha a freshman in college I'm happy to see so many familiar faces in the audience whose children I coached in girls softball boys baseball and CYO basketball a biochemistry major at Syracuse University I spent my entire career in finance starting out as an assistant at an unknown French bank and after five years there became a senior managing director at one of the largest Wall Street firms the reason I have chosen to run for reelection is simple there's still far too much that needs to be done and I want to make sure that I finish what I started when I joined the board our facilities and finances were neglected this responsibility Falls squarely on the shoulders of the prior business administrator and prior board members for not providing
007proper oversight millions of dollars in cash reserves left unattended in non-interest bearing accounts which cost us an enormous amount of lost Revenue despite pushback I saw no reason to raise taxes all it took was some sound money management and Real World experience I'm running on a platform that includes Debbie Marcus an engineer with an Ivy League PhD in school administration and Aaron Weber a logistics and project management expert I appreciate all the support I've received so far and look forward to a healthy and productive discussion thank you we will now hear from candidate Marcus good evening I'm Debbie Marcus and grateful for the opportunity to share my background and perspective on our community school district we moved here in 2005 and have three kids high school and Beyond at this point including a recent graduate
008of Ridge as my kids grew along with the kids of many people in this room I was involved in planning mini Liberty Corner PTO activities Grand Girl Scout Troop combined with Mount Prospect through seventh grade and most importantly to some was a Service Unit cookie manager I also coached boys rest back Rec basketball and other teams additionally I was on the board of multiple non-profits and am currently doing grant writing my personal background as Larry mentioned is in mechanical engineering with a degree from Yale University as an engineer I take a focused and logical approach to dealing with any issue I later pursued a PhD in higher education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on scientific Literacy for non-science Majors I've taught at the college level and also volunteered at a preschool
009letting me enjoy a wide range of learning experiences I'm running for the Board of Ed because I see areas of our wonderful District that are starting to get off track on the curricular side we need to put the focus back on academics our teachers are burdened with more and more non-academic content taking time away from core subjects that students need to learn in order to succeed in challenging careers on the budgeting side we need to review whether we have the best balance of students to administrators or whether some salaries could be repurposed in general I look forward to using my engineering and educational background to provide logical and relevant insight for the multitude of issues facing our district thank you thank you so we will now hear from candidate Weber good evening everyone I'd like
010to thank the League of Women Voters for hosting this event tonight I'm Erin Weber I'm running with running mates Larry rashio Debbie Marcus my family Victoria and Madison and I have lived in Basking Ridge since 2010. we moved here because of the outstanding school system my daughter started her school Journey at Cedar Hill Elementary and as a recent graduate of Ridge High School my background is in engineering construction and operations I've also managed large budgets as well as Logistics I've been coming to the Boe meetings for many years I'm running for the Board of Ed because I see opportunities with the lack of results the administration and the Legacy board have made over the years from dropping school rankings to deteriorating facilities and a lack of transparency in regard to the school budget I had
011the skill set that can help correct many of the problems our schools face I genuinely want to help the schools run more efficiently and within budget I'm passionate about making a difference and as a recent empty nester I have the luxury of time to make a difference in our school systems thank you okay all right now we will hear from candidate White thank you to the League of Women Voters and rep for hosting this evening it is so important to have an opportunity to meet with our community for those of you who don't know me I am a current member of the Board of Education a position I've held for the past six years my husband and I moved to Basking Ridge 25 years ago where we've raised our four sons and I'm a current
012Rich parent I believe in and support public education which is why we chose to send all of our children to school in this excellent District my boys have been presented with numerous academic and extracurricular opportunities and have been well prepared to handle all that their Futures may offer after chairing numerous committees and being class parent for each of my sons at Cedar Hill school I was PTO president for three years before I moved into the role of Board of Ed member a job I do not take lightly I would like to see a return to board discussions among all members related to the needs of all students and staff to ensure our District's Excellence is maintained while continuing to be fiscally responsible success may look different for every student but our job must always be
013to provide possibilities and Pathways to support all and this can only happen when we work collaboratively and openly among ourselves and listen to all voices in The partnership between home and school education should not be politicized or feared education is power and education is our children's future thank you now we will hear from candidate corado thanks everyone for being here this evening thanks also to Ridge rep and the League of Women Voters for the opportunity to speak tonight my husband Dave and I have lived in Bernard's Township for 25 years our two daughters Catherine and Kristen received an amazing education in our schools and I want all Bernards Township students to receive that same first-rate education that's why I'm running for the school board I've long demonstrated my commitment to parents School partnership I've been
014a principal advisory committee representative at Cedar Hill and William Ann in schools I serve on the board of Bernard's pack a PTO Organization for families with exceptional children I'm also president of the Bernard special education parent advisory committee CPAC illustrates what's possible when parents teachers administrators business owners and the township work together to benefit our students I'm a former teacher as well as a special needs parent I can bring my extensive experience on both sides of that coin to enable a reset of our school board we can once again have a board that engages in healthy collaboration with each other with teachers and administrators and with the community as you listen this evening consider what each of us would bring to help reset our school board for the next three years make an informed decision
015on November 7th thank you and our last candidate or last opening statement will be come from a candidate Shaw I want to thank everyone for being here tonight my wife and I moved here nine years ago like so many others we moved here for the grade schools we have two daughters who are now in kindergarten and third grade at Cedar Hill I am doing this because my kids are my world I'm in this for the Long Haul I've been a CPA for the last 20 years at Lincoln Tech which owns 22 vocational schools throughout the country thanks to my background not only do I understand budgets I understand them in a school setting I assist in the negotiation of vendor contracts including maintenance busing food and insurance I work with unions the department of Ed
016and I meet with our education I.T and HR departments to make sure we're meeting the needs of all of our students Educators and stakeholders because I work directly with Lincoln Tech's board and have been to countless board meetings over my career I know how boards should function so when I witness board members ignoring policies and the ethical oath of office that they swore to when I see the majority blindsiding the minority with decisions and surprise motions I know this board is putting their personal ideology before the good of the school system before the future of our kids and before the taxpayers that elected them our schools have been some of the best in the state for many reasons but that distinction is at risk due to the actions of the current board let's change that
017and return this board to a well-functioning body that puts our students first thank you all right thank you all and we will now move on to the question and answer part so question one our first question is what factors do you believe contribute to teacher retention and how do you intend to work on those factors and uh our first question uh the first will be direct is directed toward candidate White that's actually quite a simple answer the first way to retain teachers is to treat them with value and respect and to trust that they know what they're doing we have the best of the best in this district and the way to get to to make them to stay is to treat them as such we've we've teachers that travel from very far because they're
018so committed to being here and so when they come to us and they tell us that they feel that there needs to be something addressed with the curriculum and they have the data and the facts and the research we need to listen and we need to believe them we also need to compensate them and so when it comes time to I've sat on the negotiations you have to take into consideration what you can what you can do to make them believe that they are valued and it's not just monetary there are other things that we take into consideration personal days stick there's new sick day leave that they can also add for their families but the number one thing value and trust them thank you we will now hear from candidate Shaw I agree 100
019with what Jennifer white just said my wife is also a teacher she's a special ed teacher and what's most important is respect treating our teachers with respect is so key other things that are important to teachers is money but really number one to our teachers is respect so we really have to treat them with respect so when we're looking at books and not listening to the teachers that's a huge Factor thank you all right now we will hear from date rashio our teachers only paid a thousand dollars above the state median they're significantly underpaid compared to other schools in our category and for what we're asking them to do we're ranked 90th in the best places to teach we have topic heavy Administration costs so how do you retain the good teachers you pay them
020more but supporting teachers is far more important than just paying them teachers in the past couldn't get supplies they had to make individual trips to Costco right they had 1100 open work orders that's work orders there's repairs that they requested that they weren't getting done how do you retain teachers you provide them with a good safe working environment to work some place where they want to come but most importantly the negotiations are coming up this year we need to pay them more which means we need to streamline our budget in order to have that money all right thank you and now we will turn to uh candidate Weber teachers are our biggest asset on average our schools are ranked number one in the county but when it comes to teacher pay they're only ranked ninth
021out of 18. Simply isn't fair everyone wants to reward teachers for a job well done we have a teaching contract that's coming up this year so it's very important to make sure that we reward their hard work and all of their effort I've been coming to Board of Ed meetings for many years when I hear about some of the facility problems that they've had and they've struggled with no teachers should have to worry about rodents in their classrooms and bathrooms that don't work you want to make sure that we get these kinds of things fixed so teachers can do what they do best which is teaching thank you and now uh candidate Corrado I follow a lot of teacher pages on Facebook and and other social media there's a Peanuts cartoon that I particularly love
022Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty are sitting under a tree and they're talking about what they want to be when they grow up and Charlie Brown says well what do teachers make and Peppermint Patty says they make a difference Charlie Brown they make a difference and no one becomes a teacher to become rich the success of their students is what motivates them to go into that profession um you know it's interesting to me to hear someone on the stage say you know how important it is teachers get the salary that they deserve when in August 2020 this candidate had a headline and a letter to the editor saying teachers and their unions have lost the moral High Ground you know which is it we either value our teachers or we don't and I I value teachers
023thank you and uh finally uh we'll ask for candidate Marcus to respond as my peers Larry Russia and Aaron Webber stated in addition to the obvious of salary the environment that one works in really helps make or break a person's decision to remain in a position I remember back when my kids were in elementary school our PTO was raising money for air conditioners as like stop Gap window units as they were fixing the system and it's I mean we're still dealing with HVAC systems although it has improved a lot teachers can't teach they're not comfortable students can't learn if our classrooms are not comfortable environments to just be in it also can be helpful as a teacher to be able to teach your subject and not be thrown a lot of additional burdens that to
024take account for within the classroom and we should allow the teachers to focus on their subjects if we want to change salaries we do need to look at cutting other areas that's how a budget works so I would commit to doing that because I do think teachers are a value part of that the last thing I want to say is the teachers union does limit and cap the amount that we can pay people and I met a teacher who said she'd rather keep teaching but she's it makes sense for her to quit and go teach somewhere else because of the Union cap all right okay that closes at one round one except for rebuttals is there anyone here who would like to uh offer a further comment okay that's a candidate White you have 30
025seconds uh yes the first thing I'd like to do is correct a mistake of information provided we are not negotiating with the teachers you contract this year and I know that because I was on the btea negotiation team when we negotiated their contract and therefore I know firsthand exactly what the teachers want and what they need and I stand by that I say the first thing that they want need is to be listened to and respected and that they will take that over having an extra box of Kleenex in their room any day is there any okay candidate rashio 30 seconds again supporting teachers is much more than just listening to them and saying that you respect them it's actually taking action for things if they're complaining there's rodents in their rooms or their bathrooms
026aren't working we need to listen provide them a safe working environment and oh by the way they're leaving for as little as five to seven thousand dollars a year as they should we got to do better with our teachers and any uh candidate Corrado I just would like to encourage everyone up here to really have a conversation and a discussion with actual teachers in our teaching District before you make assumptions about what it is that's so important to them not one teacher I've spoken with complains about our conditioning so I don't know that's you know maybe we're talking to different teachers okay last call all right we'll move on to the next question and since somebody happened to mention money we're going to move to the budget so let's each of you think about your
027budget budget priorities what types of budget cuts if any would you support if you are elected to the school board but also on the other hand what would you specifically want to protect and our first candidate is candidate Corrado to field this question I think we need to be honest when we talk about the budget um we know that costs have gone up and they'll continue to go up the question is how do we go about doing reducing spending and making those tough decisions in a way that least affects the needs of our students our board should be more concerned with student outcomes I've enjoyed very much hearing from The District's new business administrator Mr Rollo I think he's doing an excellent job of looking at things through fresh eyes he's come up with some
028Creative Solutions that take into account the complexities of school Finance while increasing efficiency I'd like to see more of that I also think we really need to do a reset and really pay attention to what the student outcomes are for all students not just the students at the top of the percentage scale all right thank you and now we will hear from candidate rashio streamlining technology is a major focus in order to bring down costs we've implemented a new asset management software and a new accounting software that will take much of the manual work out of out of the budgeting but there's more important things you know when I started on the board the finances were not being managed properly right worse we had 28 million dollars sitting in nine interest bearing accounts we had
029money sitting at Wells Fargo earning zero not only that we're paying eight thousand dollars a month in banking fees just for the privilege of holding our money anybody who knows anything about Finance knows that if you have the money you control the terms right that's about ninety six thousand dollars a year in banking fees alone that's a a special ed Aid and a half so think about that if we're not focused on our finances and making efficient decisions everybody's gonna fail all right now uh we're going to turn it over to uh candidate Weber I love this question because for years myself and others have requested line item budgeting so we could see exactly where the tax money is going we also asked for receipts you can't do a budget off of the previous year's
030budget you need to know where the money was spent that tells you where you need to allocate resources without access to this information it's impossible to make any meaningful suggestions to the budget okay now a candidate White please let's be honest about the interest rate all interest rates were were zero if we're flat and so as soon as the interest rates went up our ba took care of making sure that he took advantage to so that we could have the additional Revenue so that being said um I don't want to see anything cut I think all of our programs our services are what make our district so wonderful and so you you can't just say what you want to cut you have to first determine what the needs are so I would like this to
031be able to increase our guidance counselors I would like us to look at class size I would like us to look at the electives that we offer I would like us to see if there are other APS that we can give I would like to see what we could do to have more to the Arts programs but you have to do that with thoughtful discussion and research and then and only after you've done then can you determine where if you must make a cut how to do it so that the kids do not suffer in any way shape or form thank you and now it is candidate Shaw's turn I have studied the budget because I'm a budget guy we may need to reduce expenses that's definitely something we might have to do the budget
032actually went up six percent this last year even though they talk about that they're being fiscally responsible we need to analyze and reduce with the least impact on our students since I know budgets I understand how we could do this without hurting our students we could look at things like insurance medical pharmacy property and auto insurance we can negotiate contracts with creative ideas like rebates credits tier discounts we could review our maintenance busing and food contracts what we can do is just cut assistant principles without thinking about it without understanding what they do we need to put our students first our students are not products they're not widgets thank you all right now do we have anyone who would care for rebuttal okay that is uh oh sorry to answer the question oh I'm sorry
033oh I didn't mean to skip you okay oh all righty uh okay uh then uh it's candidate Marcus I'm sorry we have a thousand fewer students than we did 10 years ago and yet we have the same administrative level now there is a chance we do need to maintain that because we do have some more needs but we definitely should look more deeply at whether we could move some of those salaries towards counselors or higher pay for Value teachers or perhaps even consider tax cuts however I would definitely want to protect the special needs program for the kids with special needs as many people move here for that area and we have been getting less and less reimbursement from the state when I worked at a university we I was a liaison with Coopers and
034librarian to review our whole administrative structure and flow chart and we were able to streamline a lot of administrative aspects that helped keep things cost effective I will note that we already have a CPA on our board so although I do appreciate additional Insight always it's not as critical at this point thank you okay now we can talk about rebuttals who would like to uh okay candidate rashio okay first of all with the interest rates the FED started raising interest rates in March 2022. we had money sitting in an account between the time that started and we started on the board the daily average fed funds rate was about four and a half percent that's about 645 000 left on the table by doing nothing the budget is higher this year because we didn't move
035fund balance to reserves and instead budgeted for the varsity field as part of the operating budget so that's why it's raised by almost four million dollars all righty yeah okay candidate Shaw so with Excuse me with interest rates the FED did start raising earlier on but they raised very little at the beginning they really only raised this year so there was no chance to get higher interest rates till this year and the big reason why Banks started giving out more higher interest is when the regional Banks had issues like Silicon Valley that's really the only reason they started cutting their fees and raising interest rates thank you okay who else okay candidate Corrado I think one of the um one of the things we need to keep in mind is you know we talk about
036numbers and budgets and student enrollment nobody is really discussing the the story behind the numbers yes there might be a thousand fewer students than there were 10 years ago but the needs of those students and the requirements of teachers have at least tripled so you know let's look at what this real story is behind what the numbers tell us okay now uh candidate Marcus other school jurisdicts have fewer administrators than peer districts significantly more like half as much so again I did say that we might need the ones we have depending on our students need but it's always easy to add people as the student population grows somebody does need to look at things when the population goes back down it's harder to do but sometimes it needs to be done even if the conclusion
037is to keep it the same okay uh candidate White I think it's really hard to compare apples to oranges and that's what you do when you just randomly compare districts because you don't know do they have the same number of special ed students do they have the same number of students in their High School in their elementary school so there's more to it than just saying this school doesn't have this many administrators and this school does and I think we all can agree that yes we may need to look at the administrative structure and say are there any changes that we need to make does it work the same way as it did 10 15 years ago but you again you have to do the homework to figure out what book that's fit the students
038needs thank you okay anybody else all right now let's talk about textbook adoptions okay what role what are the roles of uh Board of Education uh members uh versus the roles of administration and staff in this process of of textbook selection now we will go first to candidate rashio the role of the board in textbook selection selection is pretty clear in New Jersey Law all textbooks need to be reviewed and approved by the board the administration suggests textbooks through committees but at the end of the day it's the board of Ed's job to review and approve or reject every single textbook that's not my opinion that's the law all right now we'll hear from a candidate Corrado I strongly support listening to the recommendations of our expert Educators regarding curriculum and books that's not to
039say I wouldn't ask questions if I had concerns about a particular book for a particular grade level or a group of students the board's role is to ask questions and get answers from educators if a member doesn't understand teachers are happy to provide an explanation for a reason or a reason for a recommendation the education of our students should be based on facts rather than balance cherry picking isolated sentences to proven ideological Point shows a lack of objectivity and an unwillingness to learn from our expert educators all right now we will hear from candidate Marcus it is indeed the board the responsibility for final approval of any book so as much as I value the teachers recommendations and they are a vital part of the process they are not the end of the process because
040they are not on the hook if there's some issue with any book for the local people in the know obviously there's been a book in the news lately and regardless of my personal opinion of it which I did read from page to page the process was flawed and that's what could be fixed but once there is a vote taken it needs to be accepted so that we can focus on choosing another book choosing any book by definition rejects other books that's not a book band that's the process of choosing a good book for our students going forward I would hope that the liaison from the board would do a better job of making sure that the teachers know what's expected so that people's time isn't wasted in a vote that requires going back and getting
041another book thank you now we'll turn to candidate Shaw so far we all agree that the books are supposed to be reviewed and approved by the board that's not a question we all agree with that but we don't agree is that we should listen to our experts we should listen to the teachers when they recommend a book and it's not some our expertise we should listen we should ask questions and when we ask questions and they come back with answers we should read those answers and not just reject them because it doesn't agree with our ideologies and that's what I've seen with this board thank you now we'll hear from candidate White as someone who has sat on the curriculum committee for many years I know the process very well of approving textbooks and it
042is not a flawed one it is a very detailed one what is flawed is when a group of uneducated people think that they know more than the very people who have committed their careers to to research and we don't respect what they say the teachers spend an exorbitant amount of time researching looking through textbooks determining what would best fit curriculum and when they come to us and tell us this is their best choice for our students our job is a hundred percent ask questions send them back get more questions answered but it is not our place to say to the experts sorry we know better than you because we don't we're not AP teachers we're not physic teachers we're not calculus teachers we're not the experts thank you who will uh now we've can turn
043to rebuttals who would uh oh I'm sorry I'm doing this all the time here I okay my apologies uh uh candidate Weber so respected the teachers don't or the experts don't respect the uneducated people got it uh so let's see here I mean it's cute to play politics with the word book bands and things like that it really doesn't do anything for our school system though uh we said we we all agreed that there's the process and then at the meetings we actually had a board of ed candidate that admitted to not reading the book which is what you would have to do to review it it's just simply trust the teachers was all we ever heard we spent multiple board meetings explaining the inaccuracies of the books why it was insulting to minorities and
044I didn't hear a lot of people argue against those facts that were presented all we ever heard was trust the teachers the Board of Ed did their job and they did it well all right well thank you and now we can go to rebuttals of candidate Shaw I didn't see the board or hear the board say anything about physics books math books any other books besides the one that was had personal ideologies that they disagreed with and also our teachers used the book as a tool they Supple supplement it they don't just use a book if there are things in it that some that we may not agree with they'll use something else to support it thank you alrighty okay uh candidate Corrado the book at issue was the sociology textbook that um looked at
045different sociological problems and current issues through four different perspectives the perspective that everyone got up and talked about and complained about was designed it was called a controversy feminist perspective so the book did its job it got you to think and it got you to react and that if you understood what the book was about you would understand that as well okay all right uh candidate White with the exception of the few of us who are actually Educators the rest of us have different careers and that's fine but you can slice it any way you want you can call it anything you want when you don't allow a book to be in the hands of students you've prohibited it you haven't approved it you've banned it and that's what happened with this textbook and that's
046what would happen when we would override a book that was told to us repeatedly and repeatedly would be the best book for students to have and yes um I I I do stand by that I always will candidate Weber oh like Mr Shaw said physics books weren't banned math books weren't banned probably because those books weren't filled with inaccuracies you were at the same Board of Ed meetings that I was people multiple people came up and explained why the book should be rejected why it was inaccurate why it was insulting to minorities okay candidate Marcus you talk about expertise when the teachers involved were not sociology Majors the board happened to have a president who is a sociology major and by that definition anyone with a PhD technically could be more qualified I'm not saying
047they are this book was main problem was it had a lot of opinions presented as fact it was also problems I presented but weren't responded to anti-semitic written by teachers who had culture as her specialty my daughter took the class there was no supplementing of the material so there was no fleshing out and that's not how you write a curriculum anyways you can't just assume the teacher might discuss it thank you all right uh are we moving on now okay to our fourth question okay something uh a little different uh what do you think about the school district's efforts to ensure the safety of students and staff what would you do to improve security and we're going to put that first to candidate Marcus first I'm glad to report as everyone knows that we have
048added police officers to the elementary schools which helps both the students and the staff you see if there's always a first level of security safety is also measured in this as we mentioned the environment for their health safety as well if you go on the bigger picture with there's things well for the students and staff I was helpful in making the pedestrian bridge on Lafayette Lane took five years to get it rebuilt so that kids can walk to school again on the more local scale I would want to make sure we have policies in place that keep teachers and students safe such as making sure that any electronic communication to a kid has an adult involved who's texting directly to their phone so you don't have another incident like we did with the fencing team
049all right thank you and now candidate Weber the police officers editions at the school was a step in the right direction I'm glad that finally we have police officers at every single school and I want to commend the previous board for doing that it's something that I'm going to continue to support in the future so that our teachers and our children are safe now we'll hear from candidate White over the years our district has added a lot to make sure that all of our buildings are kept safe from adding a second layer of glass and doorways at each of the schools um we've also added in the IDS for the the students with the lanyards to come in from and yes yes there is I would support collecting the lanyards at the end of the
050school year um but but just like anybody who goes to college and has to wear a lanyard and anybody who works at a company you wear a lanyard I do support that but I think safety is not just about the security in the police officers and the doors locked I think safety also means that the school itself is safe for kids there are safe zones for them to go to there are teachers that they know that they can go to for help there are guidance counselors that they can seek out they know that if they have a problem if they need support there are safe places for them to go and I think that that is a huge huge part of every single building now we'll hear from candidate rashio I think putting armed officers
051in the school this year was the best thing we could have done it is such a deterrent when I drive by Liberty Corner School to see a marked police officer I would not have been able to live with myself if God forbid something happened and I knew that I was in a position to have done something about it 2018 this is recommended chief of police recommended it we pushed it off um a safe space I don't understand the safe space things in school because by saying one place is a safe space you're implying that the place next to it is not a safe place we need to make the entire School safe which it is by keeping up the facilities by keeping our financials strong all that stuff so being keeping the kids safe there's
052twofold it's making sure everything's working properly and be making sure we are armed if God forbid something happens okay now we'll hear from candidate Shaw I agree that safety is one of the keys it is maybe the most important thing is is to keep our students safe and I pray that we never have to use our officers in our schools now what I think we need to do is continue to listen to The Experts we should continue to talk to the police department and see if they have any more ideas but I also agree with one of the other candidates who spoke that social and emotional learning is so important to keep our kids safe if they have issues they have to know where to go where to turn for help thank you and finally
053uh candidate Corrado to be honest I was reluctant to see armed security officers stationed in our elementary schools and I said so publicly the fact is there are experts who know much more about this than I do and so when police chief burger and Mr markarian and security director Werner felt strongly that our students should be you know have an extra level of security I value their expertise and they are the experts as president of CPAC I do want to raise one concern some of our neurodiverse students May communicate or respond differently than other students in certain situations and I would like to ensure that our sleos receive additional training in working with these students but I trust our school professionals and I have great faith that this is likely already in the works and
054our sleos are probably being welcomed as valued members of their school community all right okay I got through that without missing someone let's turn to rebuttals now okay uh candidate Marcus followed by candidate Weber I neglected to mention that when I talked to some parents I was also happy to hear that some may have also been a little reluctant to have the police at the elementary level but the officers have been being well integrated into the school Community with assemblies and Q a sessions and kind of Get to Know You activities it's great that we have a first responder on site who can help with more common issues like also conflict resolution or occasionally a student squirmish okay candidate Weber the lanyards are a nice step in the right direction but they're probably creating more
055issues than they're solving no one collects them when they're done for the end of the year they don't activate the door to open anybody could get one if they really tried to and is this a prevalent problem that we're trying to solve here or are we just trying to create a false sense of security here if you want to do lanyards with an ID let it actually buzz you in on something um you know the special education kids should I'd like to see them interact more with the with the police officers get to know the police officers but there's another population that we missed is is the Ada right making sure that our our elevators work and our ramps are safe for the kids we're putting in a new ramp that goes from Ridge down
056to the uh football field to make sure that our um handicapped children can access safely so there's a lot a lot to it anybody else okay candidate Shaw for the for the kindergarten kids they use lanyards as well and for them it makes sense for the kids in the high school I agree as of now based on how they have it set up it doesn't seem to be working so unless they come up with a better solution I agree the lanyards aren't the right solution anybody else all right now let's turn to another area and this is regarding a school a school district survey conducted recently regarding diversity equity and inclusion and the results from this survey this study were shared with the public it indicated that there were a number of concerns were raised
057that uh [Music] and the question is what should the schools should the district do what actions should they take to respond to these concerns so we're going to ask a candidate white to respond first this is actually something that has been very sad to me which was that we did get the results from the audit back last winter and since then really we have not moved on any of the initiatives because there has not been the support of the full board to do so there was a great deal of information that came out about students that felt marginalized and felt like they are being treated less than and didn't see themselves represented in textbooks and in books that were being read in the classroom they didn't feel that they were being treated the same way
058they didn't feel they had the same opportunities we heard similar situations from teachers as well saying that they felt that there were issues and so I would like us to take some of those recommendations and look at the material in the classroom and make sure that we see that all the students are represented in them and that we we have some more of the BT connects and break into small groups and start working together to address some of these issues so that the kids do feel that they all belong because not talking about it doesn't make it go away thank you now we'll hear from candidate Shaw I also agree we need to support the Dei survey some said that the survey divides the community I disagree with that we met with a number of
059Voters with from different backgrounds and they said that their students felt badly about their religion and about their their ethnic groups how they were depicted in books and by some teachers and students that made me really really sad it was it was disheartening we need to hear from everyone and we need to listen and when we find these things we need to go back as a board and talk to the teachers maybe include more training maybe look at those books make them understand how we need to treat our kids and everyone should be respected thank you now we'll hear from candidate Corrado like Miss White I've also been extremely disappointed that the current board has not made the Dei report recommendations a priority our community is growing more diverse all the time we need to
060learn from and about one another through factual information Guided by Educators uh David and I have spoken with many parents whose children are experienced experiencing discrimination for a variety of reasons all of which are referenced in the Dei report it's not the first time we're hearing it and still nothing's being done about it and I think this is another reason why we need a board reset if I was elected to the board I would recommend that we revisit that report right away and we evaluate the options get some more input from the community and implement the best options to address these critical issues they affect students mental health and safety now we'll hear from candidate Marcus as I recall that survey may have been well-intentioned but it was not accessible it was used terminology that
061non that some kids with special needs couldn't really understand to answer the questions were very leading and or you couldn't opt out of ones that weren't relevant for yourself one of them I remember was you know other teachers who are like you in with various characteristics at the school when it was checking if the student had you know someone to confide in perhaps and what's important there is that the teacher is a good kind person it doesn't matter if they have the exact same background as a student for the qualitative aspects of the survey which I did read through it does seem like the we're ignoring aspects of it that were mentioned many times which as chop mentioned their other religious kids or people with non-liberal views um know to keep quiet so um certainly
062we have a lot of social emotional support in our schools and no one wants to take that away but how much we need to add I don't know can it can be decided by this particular survey right now candidate Weber will respond I wasn't a fan of the Dei survey I felt it was long and burdensome to both parents and kids it also left out kids with special needs and I don't see why they were left out of this survey we did learn some things from it though we found out that the kids that felt most disenfranchised were Jewish Catholic Conservative Republican uh I'd love to know what we're going to do with the information what new policies we're going to put in place and if we haven't done anything with the information then why
063did we spend the money to do the survey and finally we'll hear from candidate rashio my biggest problem with the Dei survey was that it was a solution looking for a problem special education kids special needs kids were completely left out of that as were kids with disabilities you can laugh but it's a fact that the groups in the Dei survey that felt most alienated or Christians Jews and conservatives that's not my opinion that's a fact read the paper all right uh how about some rebuttals anybody okay candidate Corrado as president of the special education parent advisory committee the accusation that special needs students were left out of this survey is absolutely untrue there were teachers who worked tirelessly to redesign the survey so that special education students could participate we also had parent representatives
064from our group work together with the teachers to Pilot those so that's just not true okay who else candidate White it's extremely disheartening to hear you say solution looking for a problem there are problems we heard firsthand from the kids that there's a problem and in fact when I met with the student student panel last spring at the end of the year the students all said each one the issues that they felt needed to be addressed and the disappointment that their needs were not being met so I don't want to hear that we're looking for solutions to a problem that doesn't exist the problem exists we need to take the blinders off all right and candidate Shaw had indicated I agree with that it's a huge problem I see it all over the place we
065see it in with the vandalism in the bathrooms we hear from the parents there's a huge problem with this I'm not sure how it's a solution looking for a problem that just doesn't make sense to anyone all right and candidate rashio I'm not really sure what the bathroom problem has to do with the Dei survey but I mean Ms White you were on the wellness committee for how many years and the problem is just getting worse so maybe we need to re-look at our our programs there all right candidate Marcus a lot of the stress that students report in terms of their emotional health is pressure from their parents and For Better or Worse we can't change what parents do with their kids so the school should be supportive but we also have to accept
066that some things have to be taken care of at home all right okay let's move on to our next question we're getting close to uh you know the the end so let me see um well let me ask you this what ideas do you have to bring the board and the community together and we're going to ask a candidate Corrado to respond first I think that it's so important that our community learned to come to consensus um you know I think that we do some things well the BT connect opportunities where teachers and administrators and board members and all parents and members of the community are invited to discuss certain topics I think that that's a great thing but honestly it disheartens me to come to board meetings and I come to every single one
067to see the lack of communication the lack of discussion the lack of respect among board members and until that changes until we start using more words like compromise and negotiation and pilot program I really think that we're you know we need to change the discussion of how we're we're working together all right now we will hear from uh candidate rashio how can we make it more accessible to parents the board well first it starts with open dialogue it means creating an environment that makes parents feel like they can approach a board member they can discuss things openly without fear of Retribution it means that the Board needs to take their input more seriously let me be clear parental rights and their ability to approach and discuss things with the board is Paramount parents have a
068right to opine on anything the school does that affects their children and the Administration has a duty to make sure that they're responding to parents in a timely manner on every topic right parents have the right to choose whether or not a student participates in activities or anything that might run counter to their their beliefs and parents should expect the administration to respond to them in a timely manner I've tried to do that on the board I try to reach out and speak to as many community members as possible that's how I've learned the most all right now we'll hear from candidate Shaw one of the biggest reasons I decided to run is when I started going to the board meetings and I saw the dysfunction I saw the board putting our ideologies before our
069students it's not just about the students that and the parents that agree with them it's about all of our students so when we talk about dysfunction and chaos and when board members are voting in lockstep whether they agree or disagree when they're doing surprise motions and not all board members are speaking to each other it's a problem so a quick story is I work at a company and I have a boss who is a little difficult and every and every one of those meetings they bring me into it because they call me the Brian Whisperer because I'm able to listen and bring everyone together so that thank you all right now uh candidate Weber Boe members should be empowered to respond to emails and questions from the public in a timely manner they are individually
070elected officials and as long as the Boe president the superintendent is copied on the email shouldn't be a problem if a Boe member can't answer a question the superintendent should answer in a timely manner and now we'll hear from candidate Marcus on the very straightforward scale in terms of written communication I would like to consider if we switched to what's often called a consent agenda agenda where all their minutes are reported beforehand so the public can read through them and can deal with any questions and and before the meeting so because there's not an ability to discuss them thoroughly at the meeting with the public I have also talked to parents who requested that there was some way to have an anonymous form for feedback obviously they wouldn't get a reply if it's Anonymous but
071it there are some parents who would feel more comfortable doing things that way and that seems very doable I do want to note that there's a mention of floating in blocks I mean if a vote is five to four and it's the same four that's a block as well and until more recently the vote is usually 9-0 on a lot of things I like that there's been discussion and debate and actually I applaud all the current board members because often they have come to good conclusions we're working together I would also help the community as a board member unite to push back when there's uh together with against any state mandates that aren't appropriate for our town thank you okay and finally we'll hear from candidate White first and foremost I believe that there needs
072to be collaboration and a partnership between parents and school and teachers and administrators and I do agree parents have rights and parents have always had rights and parents have voices and parents have choices and it's important to know that my voice shouldn't impact your voice so if there's something I'm not comfortable with for my child I can make a decision to speak to a teacher and say hey my child can't dissect a frog we have a pet frog I'd like the alternate assignment but that doesn't mean that nobody's child should get to do the project so in that sense I do think that we all have to use our voices to do what's best for our kids in terms of the board we've heard about this Legacy let me just be clear we're one board
073with old members new members there'll always be older members and there'll always be newer members despite that we have to work together and that's what has not been happening this year we have not been collaborative or cooperative with one another and that needs to change all right do we have any uh one who would like to comment further uh candidate Weber you say you were pro-parent explain to me how you were pro-parent when you approved hiring an outside consulting company called high top who got caught on hidden camera a couple weeks ago where they explained how to push their agenda in schools and how to get around the opt-out process and circumvent parents rights you are on the wellness committee you approved them okay I hope we weren't making a personal attack there because we
074don't allow that in the questions and it is not appropriate from the candidates either just saying all right now anybody else yes candidate Corrado I'm reading a great book called great on their behalf written by AJ crabill and it talks about school boards and what it says is when one of the quotes it has is we must listen for the sound of the band rather than the sound of the solo and I think that's exactly right we as board members have a job to listen to everyone in the community to evaluate and synthesize do the actual work and then make recommendations on behalf of our students all right is there anybody else who would like to uh rebut all right you know we're getting close to the finish time but um are you up to
075one more question the audience all righty okay well this is a little off the beaten path here a little something a little different okay it has to do with the cultural and religious holidays uh so everybody's the students ears are perking up a holiday um but what is your you know how do you uh view or how do you treat the question of adding uh more cultural or religious holidays that's a board decision and what what should be considered in you know processing these types of requests and making these types of decisions okay so we will start this one with the candidate Shaw yeah so I believe in giving out religious holidays I think you got to look at your student population and understand that I think you have to look at your calendar and
076come to a consensus I I understand that some students may have to miss school on days when we don't have off for that so I definitely agree that we should give off for as many of those as possible thank you okay now let's hear from candidate Marcus I remember about 10 or 15 years ago we took a survey of what holidays people wanted off and we actually ended up removing some holidays because we didn't get um you know a large number of certain ones and also because at the time people didn't want to give up their February break so the problem with serving that sort of thing you have to keep on top of your numbers but a minority is never going to you know get win in terms of which holiday gets taken off
077we if we have a policy that doesn't have any um that may be acceptable to me at a certain point but once one culture's holiday is let in we don't have a basis or standing to reject other ones and we should include any holiday that at least as some critical mass we can Define what the policy requests since those it's very important for those families all right now we'll hear from candidate Corrado I think it's very important to include cultural and and religious Traditions uh you know where we partner with families after all but you know the state mandates that students have 180 school days each year um and you know within that we have to allow for vacations and breaks and whatnot um I'm in favor of more of an optional rolling holiday where
078students are allotted you know two days that they can use for whatever religious holiday that they they would choose so I you know I think that we need to recognize we have a multicultural community and we need to Value all the all the people who are a part of it now uh candidate rashio I think if it's a holiday that entails you know a student being out the entire day Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Eid then we should accommodate them each religious group should have at least one holiday how do we fit that into 380 days that's up for discussion maybe get rid of a wellness day here and there we've got one of those a month I think like you know we've got to make some sacrifices all right uh now candidate White and I've
079said on the policy commission committee where we've discussed the issue of calendar quite often and there's a lot more to it than just saying we need to be able to add another holiday I do 100 support the fact that we want to recognize as many holidays as possible but there are constraints such as the contract of when you can start the school year and how late you can go into to June that you have to factor into it's it's not that easy to just say oh you know we can add on a holiday doesn't mean we all don't want to but you have to also look at things like how does that impact vacations when we do surveys we found out some families want the February breaks and families want the spring break when you
080start adding in all the other days it makes it much more difficult to to make sure that you can get all the days into school that you're supposed to get and acknowledge all the holidays that we we wish we could acknowledge and now we'll hear from candidate Weber I loved that we are adding Eid to the calendar I like the idea of floating holidays as long as we make it easy for the students to make up any work when they are out so other than I'd I'd love the idea okay any rebuttals oh yes candidate Marcus so a rolling holiday works like an unemployment where you can do your work on a later day but in a school classroom that's just an additional burden on a teacher to make sure that those students and to
081make up work and things like that it's basically just renaming the date a student is out for any other reason I just want a slight clarification it was Diwali that we've included and I've written a letter supporting the edition of Eid and also Rosh Hashanah other New York City has like many more holidays off than we do and they seem to survive and get all their days in there's a way to do it if we decide it's a priority and like I said since we let some holidays in we don't have a standing to have a reason to reject others all right uh yes uh candidate White I mean I'm sure that there are a lot of creative things that we could do looking at the calendar but I will say the thing that's a
082little horrifying to me is the first answer to come up with is to eliminate a wellness day I would not be in favor of eliminating any program that we have specifically because we're trying to help our kids in school be mentally physically emotionally and socially healthy and I support so much the programs that the teachers have worked on over the years specifically for wellness so that would be the very last thing I would ever want to see go away okay any other comments before we go to closing closing all right well we've reached almost the end okay and we're going to ask each candidate to give a set of closing remarks and we're going to begin with the candidate Shaw my qualifications speak for themselves I don't just have a finance background I am a
083CPA I work at a company that runs schools so budgets are part of my everyday life I manage 22 business administrators not just one because I have these skills I know better than to blindly make Cuts like getting rid of assistant principles without understanding the overall impact on the students because what's best best for the student is the most important thing so when making decisions I will analyze review and solicit input from others and when I say I will listen to everyone I mean everyone I will listen to the teachers administrators kids parents and all the taxpayers that are in town not just the ones that share my opinions I will work in a collaborative way with the other board members it doesn't matter if we agree on everything we should not agree on everything
084what matters is that we listen to each other I believe that hearing from people who have different views for mine is valuable and while finances my strong suit that's not my only focus I will advocate for every student including those who are struggling academically socially and emotionally so all of our students can Excel and Thrive make no mistake I along with my running mate Janice I'm here for our town for our kids and for the Long Haul thank you thank you and now we'll hear from candidate Corrado it's been a great experience running for the school board this election and as David said he and I have met so many community members who care deeply about our schools and our children time and again they told us we moved to this town for the schools
085they chose Bernard's Township understanding that our Public Schools were worth their investment if we all agree that public education is vital isn't a school board that values it also important most of us sitting up here tonight have children who have benefited from our excellent schools shouldn't our current and future students receive that same first-rate education in January each incoming board member took an oath on this very stage to serve the best interests of all students in our district yet these same members made decisions about our schools this year that put students last rather than first behind maintenance facilities and the curriculum demands of a small minority of residents in each case this was done without analyzing the consequences to students without consulting the School's staff affected and without the input of more experienced board members
086our students deserve better decisions and our community deserves a school board whose decisions we can trust this November let's have a reset and elect that board thank you we're only now hear from candidate White I believe all of the candidates are here tonight because they care about our schools however it is clear our visions and priorities are not all the same as a board of ed member and a current District parent I firmly believe nothing is more important than providing the best education to every student in Bernard's Township so they are able to thrive and this is why I am so concerned when I hear other candidates say issues related to respect belonging feeling valued and included should be left at home we're a partnership the school and parents Pathways and possibilities must be a
087priority students need to be physically and emotionally healthy to be available for learning while I agree fiscal responsibility is essential decisions need to be made thoughtfully with the input of our educational experts when we invest in our children we invest in our future and the future of our town the board of education is a team no singular person is responsible for any successes or failures but are the result of decisions made by a nine-member board I hope I'm given the opportunity to serve another term as it's been an honor to do so these past six years but there is still much work to be done all right we'll hear from candidate Weber now I'd like to thank everyone for coming out tonight for several years I've attended the Board of Education meetings and I've been
088disappointed in the missed opportunities the Boe faces many upcoming challenges our teachers are underpaid compared to the surrounding districts and overburdened with State mandates the Boe should be good stewards of our tax dollars and ensure that they are not spent frivolously we need strong leaders on the board of education people who will fight for our kids and not rubber stamp budgets without even knowing what's in them we should have the courage to push back on Trenton when they push their political activism on our students we saw this during coveted lockdowns when Trenton's policies caused undue stress mental health issues and declining proficiency scores and core subjects my background is unique there is no other candidate in this forum that offers the same skill set as mine I have a background in managing large Financial programs
089Logistics construction and Engineering all areas where I see a large number of deficiencies in our schools issues in our schools have deteriorated to the point where everything has become a crisis I grew up on a small dairy farm in southern Indiana when our community faced a crisis like a tornado or a fire we always came together and helped each other out for the common good I had the honor to serve in the Marine Corps where Mission accomplishment was priority number one in my current role of building wireless networks it's my responsibility to keep cell service available for emergency services and First Responders I humbly ask for your support and vote November 7th along with my running mates Larry rashio Debbie Marcus thank you now we'll hear from candidate Marcus I'm on track to have knocked
090on almost one thousand doors throughout this town I've had the privilege to speak with so many residents and gained much Insight from Young professionals to first-time parents to teachers in town to empty nesters the Board of Education must rent must represent them all we care we all care about our communities kids and Society we want to live in we support and work with our great teachers and administrators but the board of Ed's role is to serve as a Communications link between the school system and the community and to represent parents and all taxpayers my Approach is about balance and process will we have non-academic non-vocational subjects in schools of course but where is the balance point when does it become too much and take away from the main purpose of schools that is a discussion
091our community needs to continue having what is the process for making decisions on items like textbook approval if it's a vote the results should be accepted or we should change the process overall I'm committed to valuing parental input as having the highest priority and also respecting that all taxpayers have a say in what they think is appropriate for kids to learn in our society my engineering logic and PhD in education Administration provide a solid perspective for dealing with issues and helping our children succeed please vote column A for education so we can secure a solid future for our communities kids thank you and now we will hear from candidate rashio thank you to the League of Women Voters the student government helpers my fellow candidates and those in the public I'm a straight shooter I
092know that makes some people nervous but I wear that as a badger of Honor in my experience if you're not striving for success and Improvement or pushing for better results for our children you're just standing in the way prior boards were not on top of our finances showed no regard for degrading infrastructure and showed no aptitude for making difficult decisions in difficult times like covet results are what matters and given the challenges that our district faces right now there is no team better equipped to tackle them than a financial professional an infrastructure and Logistics expert Aaron Weber and an Ivy League PhD in school administration Debbie Marcus I'm proud of the accomplishments I helped Shepard through this year it's a girl softball team has a playable field after years of being ignored armed officers in
093every school without having to increase the budget or raise taxes better management of our cash Reserves there is no tax increase that can bend the cost curve that we're facing right now I took the students and teachers complaints about facilities seriously identified almost 1100 open work orders and cut that down significantly we got the road paid behind Ridge to alleviate traffic all board members took a supportive role in these accomplishments I'd like to think I took the lead in many of them I don't question the sincerity of my opponents I've worked closely with one of my opponents on special ed initiatives I text one of my opponents on a friendship level about musical theater and her son trying to break into the business this is not personal at all thank you okay all right now
094I'd like to thank our candidates for taking the time to participate in this forum and thank our timekeepers for keeping us on track also thank you to the rep students advice and their advisors and other Verner Township Technical and and other staff who Together made this forum possible and finally thank you to the Bernards Township voters for attack for attending and providing some excellent questions I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of them you submitted some great questions through all of your efforts it all came together tonight and tonight you made democracy work and the league thanks you for that so please give your candidates our students our staff and yourselves around [Applause] okay all right now we encouraged the league encourages all voters to go to vote 4-1-1 which is our One-Stop site for
095information on all aspects of voting in New Jersey at as of now you would be able to go into the system pull up your ballot for this election and view how the candidates responded to questions that we asked them about specific school or Township issues in the case of the township committee uh so you and you also should look to the League of Women Voters New Jersey League of Women Voters web website lwvnj.org for answers to election questions that you and concerns that you might have there's a little more information on how to access vote 4-1-1 uh on a table in the rear now I would like to introduce uh our uh rep president uh Valentina Paez for closing remarks [Applause] I would like to thank the candidates once again for joining us tonight an
096additional big thanks to the league of women's voters and to the audience as well the recording of tonight's debate can be viewed on the league of women's voters website and the ridge exploration for political participation website as well just a reminder that there are three ways to vote in the upcoming election the first is to vote by mail if you have a vote by a mail ballot the ballot must be postmarked placed in a secure Dropbox in one of Somerset County's secured drop boxes or delivered to your County Board of Elections office all of which are due by 8 pm on November 7th the second way is in-person early voting which takes place at any early voting polling location in Bernard's Township early voting in New Jersey is from October 28th through November 5th which
097you can do from 10 a.m to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m to 6 p.m on Sunday you can obtain the list of early voting polling locations in your county at Somerset County's Board of Elections website the Third Way is at your polling place on Election Day on Tuesday November 7th from 6 a.m to 8pm thank you all so much for coming tonight [Applause]