Chester Board Candidates Resolute in First Forum

Voters in Chester borough and township will have no easy task ahead of them come Nov. 5 when deciding upon which three candidates to serve on the Chester School Board of Education.

Four of the five candidates vying for contested seats – all women – sat before an audience of some 30 spectators Wednesday night and answered questions posed by residents, previously selected by forum organizer Charlene Arrington.

Heather Ronco, current board vice president; Judy Irwin; Carey Curry; and Amy Collins answered 11 pre-selected queries about the district and how she would govern specific situations if elected.

Current board president Kerri Wright was absent due to business travel. Incumbent Nathan Treff is also running for a one-year term, but is unopposed and did not attend the forum.

The first question for the four women asked what they saw as top challenges in the district or initiatives that could be improved.

Collins went directly at curriculum, saying she’d like to focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and foreign language in the lower levels of the district.

“I think we should really get the ball rolling on STEM,” Collins, a Chester resident of three years and mother of two said. “In the global market, fluency in a second language is invaluable.”

Carey Curry, a part-time college professor, and Judy Irwin, a resident of Chester Township for 15 years, had similar concerns about the state of writing.

“We’re losing sight of the writing curriculum,” Curry said, explaining misspellings and grammatical errors she sees with her college students. “Writing skills need to be improved.”

Irwin held contention with the seemingly lost practice of cursive handwriting, taking umbrage with how late the instruction is implemented.

“Common Core doesn’t mandate cursive,” Irwin said. “Cursive (writing) doesn’t start until the third grade in our district. Students are losing that valuable skill.”

Tech Talk

Residents submitting questions dug into the world of technology – specifically about students bringing their own devices – and how it could or should be used in the classroom, if at all.

“We can’t ignore (technology) is a big part of our world,” said Ronco, who has two children in the district and another in high school and was elected to the board in 2010. “It certainly has a place in the classroom, but we’re not ready for it. Students can bring in their own technology now, on a case-by-case basis, but in general I don’t think we’re ready.”

Curry said, as of now, students should only bring their own devices if there is a documented need and worried having the technology could be a distraction to students and their peers.

Collins supported the idea, but only if all students were on a level playing field and had access to a device. “We need to embrace the ability to learn with technology,” she said.

The candidates were then faced with a question about the district’s technology curriculum and how it should be addressed.

Irwin said it starts with the basics, and that students need proficiency in keyboarding. “It’s a different skill than just tapping on an iPad or phone,” she said.

Curry addressed the ever-growing capabilities of technology, saying it’s moving faster than society has a chance to use it, and any curriculum created would need to be changed with the times.

To Vote or Not to Vote

One of the biggest decisions made by school boards in New Jersey came in 2012, when Governor Chris Christie gave school district the opportunity to move a vote on the annual budget from April to run simultaneously with the general election in November.

If a budget tax levy increase remained below Christie’s mandated 2-percent cap and a board did move its election to November, the public would not have the ability to approve or deny the budget. The move is good for four years, and will be up for board reevaluation in 2016 – the final year of the next term for the forum’s candidates.

Ronco, who voted to move the vote, cited voter turnout and cost savings for her decision.

“On average, voter turnout is about 10-to-15-percent of all registered voters,” she said. “Our last three budgets have had increases of 1.6, 0, and 1.6-percent increases, all under the cap, so I think we’ve done a good job with that. But it’s certainly worth reevaluating every four years.”

Curry was quick to express her thoughts on the move, stating, “the public has the right to vote on a budget regardless of its increase, and that’s how I would approach the reevaluation when it comes up.”

Collins went the other way, saying she supported leaving the vote in November because of the trust in elected officials.

“I definitely support leaving the vote in November,” she said. “The board of education is the public’s advocates. We’re electing them to make the right decisions on our behalf.”

A second forum will be held Wednesday, Oct. 23 at the Chester Library for three candidates looking to fill one seat on the West Morris Regional Board of Education. Pre-selected questions can be sent to cmarring@comcast.net.