The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education election takes place on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. Three of nine seats come up for election each year. 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 profiles for each candidate. The following profile was submitted by Jeff Bennett. Read our 2023 election guidelines here.
Jeff Bennett
Biography
Jeff Bennett is a New Jersey native and K-12 public school graduate. Jeff served on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education from 2012-2015. During his time on the Board, Jeff served as a Committee Chair for the Excellence & Equity Committee. Jeff was also instrumental in the development and adoption of the Access & Equity Policy, the Gifted & Talented Strategy, more reading help in special education, protocols for TEACH NJ, and adopting the Common Core. Jeff supported efforts to hire more Black teachers and foster culturally competent teaching. Jeff worked tirelessly to support inclusion across dimensions. Although a minority Board viewpoint at the time, Jeff remains proud of his early recognition and vocalization of the problems related to the Readers & Writers Workshop and was a Board advocate for embracing phonics in the curriculum.
After serving on the BOE, Jeff was the Research Director for the Fair Funding Action Committee, a grassroots group of parents from underaided districts that supported state aid reform. The group’s work culminated in a landmark state aid reform bill in 2018 that has provided almost $2 million more for the SOMSD than we originally would have received. If elected, Jeff will continue state aid advocacy to fix additional ways NJ’s state aid law is biased against South Orange-Maplewood.
As a community activist for adequate transportation in SOMSD, Jeff has done a huge amount of analysis of III placement patterns on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood dimension that the Administration has not done. He also shared early that the tax cap could be exceeded for transportation and that the BOE had passed an unconditional prohibition on transfers, no matter someone’s hardship. Jeff continues to present this information to the District and Community as he fights for children to get to school safely and on time.
Jeff’s wife Megan is a public school principal in New York City. Together they have three children enrolled in the SOMSD; a fifth grader at Bolden, a second grader at Marshall, and preschooler at a public preschool in South Orange. In Jeff’s spare time he enjoys visiting historic sites and botanical gardens and getting to know all parts of New Jersey. Jeffrey enjoys hiking and in the mid-2000s, Jeffrey co-founded NJ’s first “peakbagging” hiking club. If elected to the SOMSD Board of Education, Jeff shared, “I would continue to prioritize closing the opportunity gap and working for marginalized populations, the need to listen to parents and teachers, and that we should avoid one-size-fits-all, top down policies.”
Platform (with Anthony Mazzocchi)
A Strong Operational Leader for the District
As former BOE members, Tony and Jeff have firsthand knowledge of how running a large and complex district like SOMSD is not an easy task. However, they have observed ongoing instability and missteps with critical initiatives like re-opening safely during COVID, implementation of the III, management of the Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP), and how our back-to-school process has suffered from deep operational missteps. One of the critical responsibilities of the BOE is to hire and manage their one employee, the Superintendent. Tony and Jeff want all community members to be aware that the Superintendent’s contract is up for renewal in 2024, and the incoming BOE will be responsible for making the decision to renew or non-renew. Tony and Jeff both served with multiple SOMSD Superintendents (Tony also as an employee). Before hiring Dr. Taylor, the BOE that Tony served on, arranged something unprecedented — they “cleared the deck” so that interims occupied virtually every leadership position in the central office. This allowed the next Superintendent to “pick their own team” in their own image — few professionals get a chance like that in their professional lives. Since Dr. Taylor took on the role, we have experienced unprecedented turnover of other senior leadership administrators and the most lawsuit exposure — many upper admin positions have turned over twice. They will do their due diligence to evaluate the Superintendent’s performance, making thoughtful and researched decisions.
Student and Community Centric Policies, with a Focus on Successful III Implementation
Tony and Jeff will not support Board policies that are driven by adult-centric agendas that lack empathy, proper planning, and without a clear vision and desired outcomes clearly defined. Tony and Jeff’s agenda is solely to promote student-centric, K-12 education policies that drive impact without creating instability or hardships. In the near term, their focus will be on ensuring transportation policies are effectively implemented for the III. They are committed to the Intentional Integration Initiative (III) and they will make it a priority to hold the Superintendent accountable for restoring adequate and fair bussing, without putting massive stress on taxpayers, and ensuring that our kids are getting to school safely and on time. They will responsibly explore policy enhancements, using the Berkeley model and yet unfulfilled recommendations from our consultant (The Alves Group), including transfers, which will continue to improve outcomes and increase advocacy for the III.
Student Outcomes
Our students are this district’s greatest assets and strength. Tony and Jeff believe the BOE must drive accountability around student outcomes and will seek to do that in two ways. First, through effective use of data. With Jeff’s acumen in data analysis, he will re-frame the data committee into an impactful arm of the BOE, positioned to hold the district accountable for data collection, analysis, and transparent reporting with a higher degree of excellence. Second, they will ensure the district delivers on its commitments, as dictated by law, toward the Black Parents Workshop settlement agreement, which (along with NJQSAC) offers a key framework for accountability. They will work to ensure the district finally fulfills Dr. Fergus’s recommendations – strengthening our curriculum, ensuring our broken interventions and support systems (I&RS) are consistent and stable, and that they are promoting a culture/climate where both students and teachers feel they can thrive. Tony & Jeff believe these recommendations will not only improve outcomes for students of color but also our often-overlooked Special Education students, and all students generally. Tony & Jeff support a broad, rich curriculum steeped in the arts and creative subjects, and believe in its power to transform lives and help close the achievement gap if expanded, especially at the K-5 level.
Fiscal Responsibility and Oversight
Tony and Jeff believe there should be more rigor in the budget development process and that ongoing budget management is key to addressing pressing issues like teacher attrition, as well as support our key district priorities. They believe the District should seek out additional revenue sources beyond having taxpayers shoulder the burden for the district’s missteps around bussing and the LRFP. Jeff is a state aid expert and successful activist in state funding and other avenues of revenue generation while Tony has had firsthand experience on the Financial, Facilities & Technology (FFT) Committee, having collaborated with the District’s former Superintendent (Dr. Ficarra) to bring the school budget from being ‘on a fiscal cliff’ to being able to fund key SOMSD initiatives while increasing SOMSD reserve balances.
Improved Board and Community Relations
Tony and Jeff have both been successful in driving impact through collaboration with BOE colleagues offering differing points of view. They will bring their skills and experiences to a BOE that sorely needs to work better together. Tony and Jeff believe that empathy led, collaborative, transparent, and frequent communication is a vehicle by which both board relations and the district’s relations with the community can be improved. They will make this a priority in their collective work.
