Budget Main Concern for Board Candidates

Budget concerns and quality education top the concerns for the six candidates running for the three open Board of Education seats during this year’s school elections.

Though two of the candidates are familiar with the board—one as a past board member and the other as the only incumbent running this year— and one candidate ran for a seat in the past, most of the candidates are new to the school election process.

For Judy Haas, who is running for her third term on the board of education, attitudes toward public schools and boards of education prompted her to file for re election, she said.

“I just feel that public education is under a greater threat than it has ever been right now,” Haas said.  “I think it’s important to have people who are experienced on the board.  We need to keep our business transparent and get as much information to the public as we can.”

Haas served her first term on the board from 2004-2007, lost her first re election bid to Frank Blandino, John Donaddio and Greg Gillette’s 2007 campaign and was then elected in 2008, when she ran again.  She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration, worked for the New York City government and was Hillsborough Township Administrator from 2001 to 2004, she said.

In addition to working in Hillsborough, Haas lived in town for 20 years and has volunteered in the schools as a member of the Home and School Associations and Life Skills Committee, she said.  Her son, Lenny, and two stepsons, Marc and David, graduated from Hillsborough Schools, she said. She was event co-chair for the 2008 Project Graduation celebration and is treasurer of the Hillsborough Public Library Board.  She is also a certified Board of Education member, meaning she’s taken several New Jersey School Boards Association training courses.

“It’s a tough challenge, running for school board,” Haas said.  “It is a lot of work.  We are on multiple committees.  It’s not just coming to a meeting two days out of a month.  You have to take classes and go to seminars.”

Her concerns about the schools include maintaining a quality school system, improving school offerings, keeping class sizes reasonable—and ensuring the school budget is tolerable for taxpayers.

“We have to find a way to get our kids educated,” Haas said.  “At the same time, we have to find a way to do it that is affordable to our residents, because everybody is reeling from the tough economy.”

For Baird Lane resident Frank Herbert, the desire to give back to the town prompted him to file for board candidacy.

“The school board has to be the most difficult volunteer positions in town, bar none,” he said.  “It’s much more complicated, there’s more details and more stakeholders.”

He said his skills as an electrical engineer and a project manager at AT&T should help him if he is elected.

“You develop a lot of skills that are useful as a boar member,” he said.  “How do you manage in a period of limited constraints?  You learn to roll with the punches and somehow pull together to reach a common objective.  In this case, it’s a good education for the kids.   My goal is to get everybody to work together and have a good education for the kids.”

As a 38-year resident, Herbert worked with local cub scout and boy scout troops when his children, now adults, were younger, he said.  Since retiring from AT&T, he’s served as on the township’s Capital Projects Committee and is an alternate on the Township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.  He also ran for the 2006 charter study commission, but noted that he lost the bid for that body.

His primary concern if elected to the board involves the intersection of finances and education, he said.

“How do you deliver the best education with limited resources,” he said.  “The big questions is how to spend what you got.  How do you get the most miles out of your buck.”

It was never a question of “if” but instead a question of “when” for former Board of Education President and Ditmars Circle resident Chris Pulsifer—and this year, the time was right to run for a seat on the board again, he said.

“When I left the Board of Education after 2006, I always intended to run again when the time was better,” he said.   “The time was better.  I always knew I would be coming back.”

Pulsifer initially joined the school board in 2002, as a replacement for a board member who resigned because of a work transfer.  He then ran for the seat in the 2003 election, winning his bid.  He did not file for re election when his term ended in 2006, citing work obligations.

A 20-year township resident, Pulsifer has one son who graduated from Hillsborough schools and a second son who attends Hillsborough High School now.  He’s worked with Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops around town, as a baseball coach and as a Catholic Youth Organization basketball coach, he said.

Like many candidates running for the three open seats, finances are a primary concern for Pulsifer, he said.

“Every year, it’s a net loss,” Pulsifer said.  “It’s harder and harder to make ends meet.  We have to figure out how to still deliver less with more or more creative ways to get money.”

“It’s an ongoing thing,” he added.  “It’s not going to go away next year either.”

Dover Court resident Marissa Sladek said her husband was part of the reason she filed for the board elections.

“My husband said he was tired of hearing me complain about how the district was run,” Sladek said.  “I picked up the information last week and filed.”

But her main concern is a trend she sees in the district, particularly with the changes to the extended school year program and with the proposed privatization of school and lunch aides.

“My main concern is that I feel like the district does not really care about the children,” she said.  “They wanted to cut the extended school year and it’s not because of a reason that makes sense.  When I have three children that are special needs, that affects me.”

Sladek has lived in Hillsborough for eight years and taught Special Education in Bedminster and Hillsborough as a certified Special Education teacher, she said.  She is the mother of two five-year-olds and a three-year-old who are in the district’s Special Needs programs, she said.

“It comes down to budget concerns and the need to balance our budget and what our kids need,” she said.  “It seems as if the policies are to assist the higher-ranking, higher-paid officials and our children are the ones suffering.”

“I feel compelled because I feel as if the district is looking at the bottom line.”

Bywater Court resident David Wald cited an interest in running for the board that’s lasted several years as his reason for filing this year.  His first run for board occurred in 2009, though he did not win that bid.

“The Board of Education is something I’ve wanted to be on quite some time,” Wald said.  “I have school-aged children and living in town, they are going to be in the school system for quite some time.  I think change is needed and I don’t exactly like what I’m seeing in the school district right now.”

Wald cited the possible privatization of the district’s bus drivers, lunch and instructional aides, and janitorial and maintenance personnel and the budget as his main concerns.

“I’m a little concerned about some of the issues such as privatizing and the budget,” Wald said.  “I’m concerned that paying so much in one year, it’s going to hit the average Hillsborough resident really hard.  And we don’t know the town or county portions of it yet.”

“I would like to see it (the services facing privatization) kept within the district as district employees,” he added.  “I’m not big on not having someone at the district level that they directly report to or having them report to a third party through a contract.”

Since moving to Hillsborough in 2002, Wald has been on the Zoning Board of Adjustment from 2008 to 2010 and the Credit Card Advisory Committee and the Cable TV Advisory Committee until 2010.  He has children attending Triangle Elementary School and Hillsborough Middle School, and has been active with the Home and School Association and as a coach with the Hillsborough Baseball League, he said.  He is a full-time sales manager with MarketSource, a part-time travel agent with Epic Travel and Cruises and a part-time Realtor with Century 21 Worden & Green.

Wald intends to use Facebook and Twitter for his campaign, though, unlike his first election bid, he will be running as a single candidate rather than as a member of a three-person team, he said.

Candidate Jennifer Haley, of Mulford Lane, did not return a call for comment by Hillsborough Patch’s deadline.

Elections for the three three-year seats on the Board of Education and the school budget take place April 27.