Seven candidates are vying for three seats on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education in the Nov. 5, 2024 election. Village Green invites voters to submit Letters to the Editors in support of candidates. See guidelines below.
Dear neighbors,
We are supporting Dierdre Brown, Jeff Bennett and Bimal Kapadia because we believe their skills, life experience, and most importantly their integrity, will provide us with the best chance to get SOMSD back on track to success.
Like many recent transplants, we moved to Maplewood during COVID. We wanted to be closer to family and scoured the area for a town that fit our values, had a vibrant Jewish community, and offered diversity both in racial/socio-economic makeup as well as diversity of thought. We have two children – our 3rd grader is part of the first cohort of students who were placed by the III and our 1st grader just transferred into the district this year.
We couldn’t be happier at Marshall Elementary, where both of our kids receive support from Special Services. We believe it is important that all children in the district are able to be met where they are in their academic journey, and that a one-size-fits-all philosophy is not the best way to provide success for everyone. We are encouraged by Brown, Bennett, and Kapadia’s commitment to rebuilding the Special Education program, as well as implementing the recommendations laid out by the Rutgers Report Committee (formerly the Fergus Committee) as it pertains to tailoring the curriculum to ensure both low- and high-achieving students receive the appropriate support.
As two professionals with respective careers in data science and biomedical engineering, we have been drawn to Jeff Bennett’s penchant to use data to support his ideas. We appreciate that he doesn’t just share his thoughts on what can be improved in the district, but more importantly, he shares ideas for how things can be improved. To name a few, he’s shared perspective on how the district can get its fair share of state aid, which is critical in our current budget environment. With Jeff’s knowledge of the long-range facilities plans, he shared ideas on how the district could leverage newly built classrooms that are not in use to support therapy and other inclusive opportunities so that more children with special service needs could be placed in-district. We admire his vast array of knowledge on many issues pertaining to education as well as his commitment to the district and to helping working parents.
Two things stand out to us about Jeff’s character. First, his commitment to honesty is regularly on display when he is often the only person to stay for the second round of public comments at BOE meetings, sometimes just to clarify or set the record straight about something that was discussed during the meeting. Second, Jeff is a champion for productive discourse, when faced with criticism, he responds with respect and kindness. His humility and openness to feedback is something we desperately need on the board.
We’ve met Deirdre a few times and were familiar with her daughter who was one of the student representatives to the BOE last year. As fellow parents of a daughter, we know how important it is to inspire our girls to stand up for their convictions and find their own voices, so it was incredibly moving to hear from Deirdre that it was in fact her daughter’s service that inspired her to run this year. We appreciate Deirdre’s passion to connect and listen to students to understand how they are being impacted and what supports are needed to better serve them.
Throughout the campaign, we’ve seen Deirdre attempt to connect and find common ground with others in the community who might not agree with all of her policy positions. We respect her efforts to build bridges and believe that’s an essential quality that we should all want in a BOE member.
We met Bimal more recently and were struck by his passion for the arts. He shared how important his art education was to him and how it helped shape his career trajectory. We have no doubt he will be a huge asset on the Board to ensure we focus on our kids’ holistic education across academics, social-emotional learning, sports, and the arts.
We also believe Bimal’s experience as an entrepreneur running a small business shows he has the skills required to ensure good communication between the Board and the community along with the need for accountability when things go poorly.
It’s evident that these three candidates have skills that will complement each other and help round out the full Board. We believe Jeff, Deirdre, and Bimal will bring new ideas and energy to the district. They will hold Superintendent Bing, each other, and their fellow Board members accountable. Ultimately, we believe they are all kind, decent people who want to do right by the community and will help get us to a more collaborative, productive Board; that they will each work to listen to and support teachers, students, and parents’ needs. Please join us in voting for Deirdre Brown, Jeff Bennett, and Bimal Kapadia for the Board of Education.
Dan and Samara Caplan
Maplewood, NJ
Letters to the Editors guidelines: Village Green publishes Letters to the Editors in support of candidates. Publishing these letters is at the discretion of the editors. We do not publish letters attacking competing candidates or any person. We aim to publish as many letters as we receive; however, if there is a large volume of letters and they are received late in the race, we cannot guarantee that they will be posted. Letters to the Editors can be submitted to villagegreennj@gmail.com. Please send as a Word or Google document, not as a PDF. Letter writers should provide their name and place of residence (town and state). The deadline for submitting a Letter to the Editor for the Fall 2024 election is Tuesday, October 29, at 5 p.m.
