The Board of Education election is less then four weeks away and what do we really know about the candidates that will be controlling the bulk of the taxpayers dollars. There are two incumbents and three new comers. The incumbent are Dr. Henry Pruit who is finishing his first term and Barbara Ostroth a veteran, who has been on for several years. Then there is Sabastian Rodrigez who is running for the third time (both prior times unsuccessful), Margot Fischer a name closely associated with the losing New Beginnings ticket and Dr. Kate Zatz a relatively unknown. What are their issues, what are their big plans. How do they plan to bridge the gap, fix the test scores. Will they be interested in the NJ Transit student population (that wink, wink, doesn't exist). These are some of the questions that have to be answered.
Probably the biggest question that comes to mind is Who will be the next President of the Board of Ed???????
31 comments:
You need to go back to school. See corrections below:
The Board of Education election is less than four weeks away. What do we really know about the candidates who, if they win, will control the bulk of the taxpayers' dollars? There are five candidates: two incumbents and three newcomers. The incumbents are Dr. Henry Pruit, who is finishing his first term, and Barbara Ostroth, a veteran who has been on the board for several years. Then there are Sebastian Rodrigez, who is running for the third time (he ran unsuccessfully previously), Margot Fisher, a name closely associated with the losing New Beginnings ticket, and Dr. Kate Zatz, a relative unknown. What are their issues, what are their big plans? How do they plan to bridge the gap, fix the test scores? Will they be interested in the NJ Transit student population (that "wink, wink" doesn't exist)? These are some of the questions that have to be answered.
Probably the biggest question that comes to mind is who will be the next president of the Board of Ed?
What a ridiculous post. You will have the answers to all of your questions, if you go to the candidates fora on the 19th and the 26th and ASK your questions. Nice to see that slimy accusations are still the preferred method on this blog.
Teanecktalk,
Based on your post, I find it difficult to believe that you are a public school parent, as you have posted in the past. Which schools do your children attend?
If you would really like to know more about me my accomplishments and qualificaitons to for the Teaneck Board of Education you may want to "Google" my name: Katherine Zatz or see Drkatezatz.com
Its a shame about Zatz. She seems to have the educational background, but little knowledge about the Teaneck Public Schools. If she was a parent or had attended meetings she would come off alot better. Once she started getting involved she could be a good candidate down the road.
If you want to know more about what you refer to as the NJ Transit population, and other registration issues, tune into Channel 77 for an interview with the man in charge, Al Shulz, our full-time retired police officer in charge of this area.
Do you know that Dr. Zatz is "not a parent?" I do know from web searches that she has a daughter. I had heard that her daughter attends the Charter School (which is, of course, part of the public schools). Before we engage in any more speculation, shouldn't we hear from the candidate herself? I plan on attending one of the candidates' forums to find out the truth and make an informed decision.
This is an important election. It behooves us all to gather as much information as possible prior to election day. A great way to accomplish this would be to attend a forum. Althought there are several scheduled, I'm sure there are many eligible voters who will not have the opportunity to attend. I like the questions posed by TeaneckTalk as a way to get the dialogue started. Hopefully, those who consider themselves knowledgeable on the subject will contribute here, on Teaneck Progress and Teaneckblog. I've really had enough of the anonymous cowards and their foolish comments.
I would like to here from joe public about candidates pro and cons.
I support barbara and henry and am leaning toward sebastian.
But i would like to learn more about the other folks.
I also support Barbara Ostroth & Dr. Pruit. There is no way I could ever vote for a candidate connected to the failed TNB, so Margot Fischer is out of the question. I'm fundamentally opposed to charter schools, which means Dr. Zatz is not a favorite either. Is there a good reason for the 3rd time to be the charm for Mr. Rodrigez?
Is there a reason to dismiss Zatz, who is the most qualified candidate, with lots of experience in education and running schools, just because, being a parent, she hasn't had time to be active in Teaneck government before? Isn't part of the problem that so many people ARE part of Teaneck's regular "system" and inbreeding?
As for the NJT population, that IS an issue, and I have to wonder why the school board has dismissed it since hiring a detective and doing a one-time culling of the ranks.
Because if there are lots of freeloaders who get booted out they would need to cut staff and they don't want to do that.
Why would the biggest question be about who will become President of the Board of Ed.? It seems to me that there are a lot bigger fish to fry than that (how to improve the schools, for example).
In viewing the posts already made, it appears that many people already have dismissed candidates based on nothing at all -- shouldn't we at least wait to know who they are and what they stand for before making a decision? It's disturbing that on this blog there have been condemnations of Zatz and Fisher based on innuendo alone.
A real question would be why the dead language Latin is being introduced? It certainly won't help to get through to the students not succeeding and it has no appeal to any striving students either. Are they just churning for ideas without thinking them through or does anyone over at the school system or school board know what they're doing?
While "dead," Latin is exceedingly useful, especially by those in the sciences and medical professions. If you know Latin, you can "guess" at the derivations of most words and better understand what they might mean. Perhaps the school has studied the issue and concluded that it would be useful?
Back to the issue at hand: get out and listen to what the candidates have to say, read their literature, and make an informed decision.
VOTE NO NO NO ON THE BUDGET
It is not responsible to vote no on a budget that is coming in under 3% higher.
Anonymous 5:40PM, you need to tune into Channel 77 to hear the interview with the schools' truant officer who oversees registration. Rather than do an expensive re-registration like other towns (which would be invalid the day after it was completed), Teaneck's schools have a better system in place that works 12 months of the year.
Is Margot Fisher connected to New Beginnings or not??? Does anyone know for sure or is this just 'the word on the street'?
Can someone please give me the approx. cost per student for the Charter School vs. cost per studentfor the traditional public school pupil in Teaneck.
It may well be available elsewhere, but the state has this information on their annual report cards: http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc06/index.html
Make sure when you compare these costs that you remember that the Charter School doesn't have to provide transportation or special education costs.
The state report card lists a cost to compare, as well as the actual cost per pupil -- it's broken out on two different lines.
Henry Frisch said...
It is not responsible to vote no on a budget that is coming in under 3% higher.
The Board's press release makes it clear that they did not cut a single program or a single staffer. Is this fiscally responsible? Every program and employee is necessary? Yep, lot's of touch choices being made.
Looks like the Board's politically savy "Under 3%" pr campaign is working or at least working on Henry. For the rest of us, the question is what is going on "under the hood" to keep it at 3%.
When is the next forum?
Good Question, I want see what Zatz and that TNB person are about.
No on the budget
Cut the fat
Next forum is Monday, March 26th at Teaneck High in the Student Center, 7:30PM, sponsored by League of Women Voters.
Is this true? I heard that the school budget is very high(even with the very low increase) because there are lots of academic supervisors without classroom responsibility. It would be great to have comments from the current BoE and BoE contenders.
It's always amazing to me that so many people base their votes and their personal conclusions on the oft-used phrase "I heard..."
The number of administrators has been reduced each year.
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