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Six vie for three board of ed. seats
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - April 02, 2008)
On Tuesday, April 15, borough residents will be have the opportunity to choose among six candidates to fill three open seats on Montvale’s local Board of Education (BOE).
With elections just two weeks away, incumbents Lisa B. Friedman, John Mark Cortazzo and Francesco F. Campana, and challengers Joan S. Gifas, Stephanie H. Buckley and Donna L. Skoog talked about the issues closest to their hearts.
Each candidate was asked to name the biggest issue or issues facing the board of education today. Three large issues – class size, communication and costs – emerged, but not every candidate named all three.
While all six candidates agreed that the current board has made significant strides, particularly in keeping costs and class sizes down, there were disparities on how to maintain successes and continue progress. Incumbents stressed that experience won over three years on the board was invaluable while challengers stated that new faces and new perspectives would carry the board into the future.
Classes
“I’d like to see class sizes continue to be as small as possible,” said Gifas, a mother of three
Memorial
Elementary School students. “Most of us moved into town for the great educational system and I want to see that continue.”
Skoog agreed, adding that the size of the current third grade – next year’s fourth grade – will make it difficult to maintain small classes. Each grade has six classes, save the current third grade, which has seven, and the current fourth grade, which has four. The four fourth grade classes will graduate to the middle school at the end of this year, and it is expected that the incoming kindergarten class will fill six classes, throwing off the balance.
Additionally, Skoog said that maintaining current class sizes in light of development in the borough will be one of the biggest issues facing the board in coming years.
“Multiple bedrooms means more kids,” said Skoog, a mother of two children currently in kindergarten and third grade, “but the ages and impact are unknown.”
Friedman, currently the BOE president, said that candidates pushing for limitation of class sizes are overlooking one thing: the fact that class sizes have already been reduced.
Friedman is the only current board member who does not have children in the local school system – both of her sons are students at the regional Pascack Hills High School – but said she remembers that when her sons were in the local schools, the average class size was 28.
Currently, class sizes hover around 24 each and the 2008-2009 school budget, also up for a vote on April 15, includes an additional, full-time teaching position to compensate.
“I’m a firm believer that any class under 25 is good,” said Friedman. “I have never advocated classes of 18, and I never will. I'm for appropriate class size.”
Campana, who is currently serving his fourth year on the board, agreed. “We’ve been blessed that we’ve been able to keep class sizes small,” he said. “We’ve kept class sizes small and a good tax rate. We’ve done it.”
Skoog, a member of the Montvale Educational Foundation (MEF), applauded the board and the administration for the provisional position and their past efforts, which will only be filled if a class is filled in excess of 24, but said, “there hasn't been a push to analyze the situation” in the long term. “They would have to come up with some innovative ideas.”
Buckley, a teacher at Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School and a new mother, said that since she has no children in the school system, she was unaware of school issues specific to Montvale, but that in talking to parents in her neighborhood, she learned that “class size is something that is a concern for parents. “I understand the constraints of schools, but it is something I would like to look into.”
Friedman, also a member of the MEF, argued that it is “the quality of the teachers, not the size of the classes” that guarantees a good education.
“Get good teachers,” she says. “I think [smaller class size] is an issue for a select few and those are the ones we’re hearing from.”
Cortazzo, too, said that the board will have to “figure out what is appropriate size-wise” when it comes to the number of students per class, but said that he believes a bigger problem to tackle is classroom space. More specifically, he believes that new development in the borough will increase enrollment and make an already tight space even tighter.
“There’s just barely enough space now,” Cortazzo said. “We’ve been lucky. The fourth grade class now has about 85 students. No other class comes close to being that small. After that class moves on, there’s going to be a problem.”
Cortazzo said that while there are currently no plans to expand the schools, that could be a possibility down the line.
“If what people say is going to happen happens [regarding enrollment increases], space is going to be a problem,” he said. “We’re going to have to do something. Whoever is on the board is going to have to create an ad-hoc committee with parents and people from the school to figure out what we’re going to do in the next two, three, four years.”
Communication
Communication was another sticking point among candidates. Buckley spoke generally, stating that in her seven-year career as a teacher she has witnessed a lack of “interrelatedness. There are divides between teachers, parents, administrators. Relationships need to be built.”
Skoog, too, tried to remain diplomatic in pointing out the “communication situation between the board and parents, between teachers and parents.”
“When I went to school,” said Skoog, “things were taught differently. We have to do a lot more at home [today]. We need the tools as parents to reinforce what they're learning in the classrooms."
Skoog suggested implementing the use of newsletters, monthly study guides and possibly even teacher-created Web sites for parents, and cited a personal incident in which she could have used a supplement.
“Do you know ‘carry-the-one’?” she asks, referring to adding numbers that add up to a number greater than 9. “It’s called ‘regrouping’ now,” she said with disbelief. “You really have to relearn it.”
While other candidates focused on the BOE’s relationships with others, Campana pointed out that in recent years things haven’t been exactly rosy among board members.
“I have been able to work with two completely different boards here,” he said. “Three years ago when I started, we had a unified board. The current board has been very divided on a lot of issues. I'm a minority on the current board in terms of opinion. I’ve been able to be heard.”
Cortazzo also said that he has faced issues as a lone voice before, but adds that that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“For one-and-a-half years before I was elected,” said Cortazzo, “I came to board meetings as a parent. I just saw board members voting yes. You hardly saw a dissent. If I think something is a waste of money or a waste of time, I’ll vote no.”
Similarly, Gifas said that her job as an account manager has prepared her to help board members “get along.”
“My background will allow me to help the board see things from a different perspective,” she said. “I think it’s important that there is a lot of open discussion. I think I’m good at [facilitating] that.”
Costs
While all candidates agreed that the proposed budget for the 2008-2009 school year is free from bloat, only Campana and Gifas said that maintaining a balanced budget going forward tops their lists of issues facing the BOE today.
“We live in a world where no one wants to pay taxes, but taxes are a necessary evil,” said Campana, who runs a hedge fund and currently chairs the BOE’s finance committee.
The BOE presented the local school budget for the 2008-2009 school year on Tuesday, March 25, proposing an increase of $85.10 on the average assessed home of $651,710, averaging $3,459.57 per household.
The budget calls for $14,602,067 in spending, including debt service, with $12,393,008 is to be raised through taxation, an increase of $468,172, or 2.52 percent. Included in the budget are two full-time and one part-time staff members. (See related story, page 6.)
“Our taxes are approximately $1,500 less than surrounding towns,” said Campana, citing a study conducted by Business Administrator Marian Latz in preparing the budget for the 2008-2009 school year. “We have kept costs low while maximizing our return.”
Cortazzo and Friedman pointed out that getting to this year’s budget was a hard won battle; two years ago, both incumbents voted against the budget when it was presented to the board.
At this year’s public presentation, Cortazzo voted in favor of the budget, but expressed concern that the public may vote against it and call for further cuts. Cortazzo named the new Spanish teacher position that was budgeted as a possible cut.
Friedman, who also voted yes on this year’s budget, said she believes that there is no fat left to cut in proposed 2008-2009 budget. She added that if a future budget were to need cuts, one of the first places she would look was the staff development line item where there are expenses for development programs that are not required. She said that cutting extra-curricular activities or the art and music programs would not be a viable option for her.
Gifas, who has a degree in international business, said that her background would help in the budgeting process while being a new face on the board means she can offer new ideas. “I want to be able to help maximize the budget and get the most out of the money that we can,” she said. “Also, to look at the numbers [to find ways] to save money and to spend money differently.”
See next week’s Community Life for profiles of all the candidates.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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