The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education election takes place on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. Three of nine seats are up for election. Three candidates filed to run by the July deadline and appear on the ballot: Shayna Sackett-Gable, Liz Callahan and Will Meyer. Two candidates, Jeff Bennett and Anthony Mazzocchi, announced a write-in campaign on October 7. Village Green is posting letters of support for all candidates: Deadline for submission is October 31 at 5 p.m. Read our guidelines here. Read all our election coverage here.
My name is Abigail Murtagh, a resident of Maplewood with children at MMS and Delia Bolden and a parent who has been involved in advocacy within our district. As a former public school teacher and educator for over 20 years, I am very excited to support Shayna Sackett-Gable, Liz Callahan and Will Meyer for the Board of Education.
Our district needs calm, focused leaders who are dedicated to serving all students in our schools. We need leaders with deep experience and a comprehensive view of how public education works, leaders who not only understand the challenges facing students and families, but also the intricacies of how boards of education and administrators work together to address these challenges.
Sackett-Gable, Callahan and Meyer are these leaders. They have each dedicated themselves to serving students and families. They have worked to advocate for the neediest students and sought to innovate and improve educational experiences and outcomes for all students. Shayna Sackett-Gable specifically brings our district her experience as a teacher, teacher trainer, PTA and HSA leader and curriculum designer. Liz Callahan brings her experience working intensely with special education students and using what she learned in that work to design school systems to serve those students’ academic and social-emotional development, which we know is so important today. Will Meyer’s work as an attorney for special needs students allows him to understand not only the challenges of effectively serving a diverse range of special needs students, but also the solutions that have enabled districts to better do this work. The breadth of these three candidates’ experience, and the generosity of these three people, who have already given so much to students and districts, to further serve as members of the Board of Education is astounding.
Most importantly, though, Sackett-Gable, Callahan and Meyer have the temperaments our district and Board of Education so desperately need right now. Over the past few years, I have watched as conflict and lack of respect have often distracted from the important work of the board. I have seen how a refusal to work collaboratively has robbed our district of the focus it deserves and robbed our community of the respect and trust it should have in our board. I think everyone can agree that with all the urgent issues facing our district, from implementing the integration plan, to addressing the financial challenges facing our facilities plan, our community and our schools have no time for board in-fighting. Anyone who has seen Shayna, Liz and Will speak knows that their tenure on the board will reverse this trend, that their work will be guided by collaboration, respect, and a focus on the work of the board, the work to improve our district. These three are calm, invested, brilliant education experts, and our district will benefit greatly from their leadership.
Please join me on election day and vote for Shayna, Liz, and Will for the Board of Education.
Thank you,
Abigail Murtagh
