The seven candidates vying for three seats on the nine-person South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education answered questions on the Intentional Integration Initiative, playing fields and artificial turf, school breakfasts, English language arts, cellphones, and more, at a forum sponsored by the Hilton Neighborhood Association at The Woodland in Maplewood on October 23.
While the candidates disagreed on ways to tackle some issues in the district, they all agreed that after years of changing leadership in the top position, the Board of Education should do all it can to support new Superintendent of Schools Jason Bing, who has been in the job just three months.
In their opening and closing remarks, a couple of the candidates alluded to conversations that have been taking place among supporters in online forums on Facebook that have included what they described as personal attacks and misinformation but didn’t get into specifics, with one candidate asking people to take the conversations off Facebook and get back to talking face to face.
Below are the timestamps for each of the questions and where you can find the candidates’ answers on those topics in the video below:
Introductions: [00:10]
Question [15:45] We are several years into the Intentional Integration Initiative (III). Has our current plan met the goals it was intended to achieve? What issues need to be addressed to fully achieve the purpose? What changes or adjustments do you suggest be made? A parent shared their story. Their assigned school had a late start time which would have caused both parents to be late for work. They fought for a hardship transfer and were denied. They have to spend $3,000 a year to cover before-care. What do you consider a hardship to be?
Question [31:44] One area that has not been addressed about III implementation is the elementary school breakfast program. We now have students in all the elementary schools who should be legally receiving free breakfast but that program is only offered at Clinton and Seth Boyden. How do we ensure breakfast is provided to all students? And how will this impact busing as breakfast is served before school?
Question [39:50] All of our schools are understaffed particularly in area of special education. At the same time teacher morale is low and teachers are working without a contract again. While teacher shortage is truly national, teacher morale and retention has been a crisis for more than a decade here in our school district. What programs and policies would you promote to improve teacher morale, teacher retention and teacher recruitment?
Question [54:30] Our School District is out of compliance with regard to meeting the federal mandates for our special ed students. While long-term plans should be developed, an immediate action plan is required. Specifically, what is your plan?
Question [1:08:15] In response to the high percentage of 4th graders who are not reading on a proficient level, the District purchased the i-Ready Magnetic reader program. However the program was purchased piecemeal and excluded necessary student workbooks. Instead, abridged photo-copied workbooks have been distributed for student use. As of yet, not all teachers have been equitably trained. How should this be remedied to provide a scientifically based reading instruction program?
Question [1:23:25] What is your position on artificial turf for South Orange Maplewood School District athletic fields? And, additionally, climate change and proliferation of misinformation are two huge issues that face our children. What role should the School District play in educating our students about these topics, and what tangible strategies should the district implement?
Question [1:38:32]: Cell phone usage and student academic screen time are huge societal issues right now. The school district has no school policy. Do you believe the district should have a policy to deal with these two technological areas, and what are your recommendations?
Closing Remarks [1:51:51]
The forum was moderated by Mary Boehner of the HNA.
Seated from left to right in the video are Bimal Kapadia, Deirdre Brown, Jeff Bennett, Qawi Telesford, Bethany Joseph, Arun Vadlamani, and Paul Stephan.
Watch the forum here:
