3 Takeaways From Bernards Township's School Board Candidate Debate

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Candidates for four vacant seats on the Bernards Township Board of Education faced off at Ridge High School on Oct. 12 night for a candidate forum hosted by The League of Women Voters together with members of the Ridge High School Empowerment for Political Participation (REPP).

Bernards Township Board of Education has nine candidates running for four open seats. Those candidates include:

Vying for three open 3-year seats

• Incumbent Guddia “Herpreet” Singh
• Nimish Amin
• Csilla Csipak
• Keith Molinari
• Erica Blackman
• Janice Corrado

Vying for one unexpired one-year term

• Incumbent Suzanne Schafer-Skalski
• Deborah E. Penner Smith
• Lawrence Rascio

League member Ann Armstrong, who is not a resident of Bernards Township, was the moderator.

Here are three main takeaways from the candidate forum:

What would you be your first priority if elected?

• Corrado - noted that there is a severe teacher retention situation. "I think that we need to take a look at our entire community. We need to take a look at how we are valuing our teachers, respecting them. I think that our teachers in our community give a lot to our children."
• Schafer-Skalski - said she would like to continue to address health and wellness concerns, and social and emotional learning. "We have heard a lot from our students the need for mental health services has risen since COVID and I actually believe we need to support our guidance staff. I would consider us raising the number of guidance counselors at all levels."
• Molinari - said he would like to establish a collaborative working relationship with other members of the board of education and address some of the problems or issues facing the district. "The HVAC system conditions, the athletic fields and teacher retention as well. I think these issues have been sitting out there for a bit and we need to start working together and take input from the community to address those issues."
• Rascio - said he would first need to learn the district's operations. "Go tick for tick through all the issues we heard at the BT Connect meeting. And work on ways to tackle those problems. To be honest with you there has been a lot of neglect so when neglect and indecision meet things don't get done."
• Amin - said he wants to have goals set up. "It's easy for everyone to say we are doing great. Everyone likes to cheer but let's set up goals. Let's all agree on goals at beginning of the year. Let's start measuring them. That should include teacher retention, student satisfaction, school testing scores, sports field being fixed."
• Csipak - wants to work on increasing transparency. "Improve communication. I would be open to listening and learning. It is necessary to identify all the problems."
• Singh - pointed to the BOE's website that says education is its first priority. "My first priority is making sure our rating stays high, ensure teachers have everything they need - professional development wise and mental awarness of how they are feeling… keeping teachers on board is a big priority for me."
• Penner Smith - "Our country faces significant teacher shortages, significant drops in math and reading scores, and adolescent mental health crisis. While non of these particular issues affect all districts equally. It seems to me we in Bernards Township should make every attempt to understand national trends in these areas as we are members of a greater whole."
• Blackman - said she wants to increase communication with parents and strengthen liaison groups so more parents feel included. "We need to be a team and no one group can do this alone. I would love to be the one to bridge these gaps."

What does a broad-based unbiased transparent curriculum look like? And what projects and programs do you feel do not promote or improve academic success and well-being?

• Molinari - said an unbiased curriculum comes with input "first and foremost from our professionals our teachers."And then it should be overseen by the Board of Education with input from the community.
• Amin - "The way I look at this is that if something isn’t broken it doesn't need to be fixed. We have a lot of problems, a lot of issues. If the current curriculum is working why are we wasting so much time and energy on that?"
• Blackman - "I believe our students should learn all about our nation's history. The good and the bad. They should be able to choose any book they want and learn empathy from other people’s experiences. Our transparent curriculum is already online and ready to view."
• Corrado - not that the district was focused on the health and wellness curriculum the past two years and it is "important that schools feel safe and secure."
• Schafer-Skalski - noted that the district's curriculum were available online for anyone to read.
• Penner Smith - reminded parents that if they are not sure about what transpires in the classroom then "their first contact should be with the classroom teacher with the issue at hand."
• Csipak - Pointed to the district's curriculum available online. "What an ideal and balanced curriculum looks like? For myself, I have the feeling our school district already knows."
• Singh - "I think kids have to learn everything. I am all about the basics but we are a progressive society and it's going to keep moving forward so we need to think about how our education can also be more progressive to meet the demands and the needs. Kids will find out most of the stuff that some parents don’t want them to find out. You can't keep your children in a bubble - social media and the internet will prevent that."
• Rascio - noted that Ridge does provide a broad-based curriculum already. "What I fear is we are losing focus on educating our kids on the skills they will need to be successful going forward. … STEM, computer science, mandarin. This is the way the world is going whether we like it or not. Focusing on those aspects of education are vital to our success."

How will you support LGBTQ+ students?

• Amin - "I'm a big proponent of supporting all students whether they are LGBTQ, whether they are not, whether they are short, tall, glasses not glasses. I think everybody should be respected." He added that in situations where there is not respect for all students he would expect the school to take disciplinary action against students.
• Rascio - "That's a label I don’t know because all students are the same. I don't treat anyone differently based on anything."
• Molinari - "We keep putting labels and dividing students into different groups and at the end of the day, they are all students of Bernards Township they are all Americans… I don't think it's useful to do that."
• Penner Smith - said she supports all differences. I think it is important that the teachers and administrators and students also need to be educated about LGBTQ+ issues and we need to encourage robust and educated counseling staff."
• Blackman - "I also want my children to go to a high school where they are allowed to have a gay-straight alliance where they can explore who they are without judgment... It's not about dividing or labeling. It's about celebrating and respecting differences."
• Singh - said the district is teaching students to be global citizens and to respect others. "I don't have an affinity toward a label one way or the other. But I don't think we should put extra pressure on somebody to explore or call themself something if they dont want to. I feel like every family makes their own decisions. We are teaching in a public school system so they are going to learn about everything but every family is entitled to make their own decision as a family."
• Schaffer - "What my fellow candidates up here have not acknowledged is that during the discussions of the health and wellness curriculum there were many citizens of this town who expressed opinions that we should not have inclusion of LGBTQ representation in our curriculum which we solidly and vocally voiced our defense of in the curriculum."
• Corrado - said schools should be places of safety and security for all students. "Not every teacher has experience helping a family member or a friend through issues related to LGBTQ and I believe it's our job as a district to provide training if they need that and to provide them resources to understand what it is like for children who are experiencing confusion and questioning their identity."
• Csipak - "This is a supportive loving community. All of our children are equal. We love them equally. We support all of our students regardless of their race, religion, identity. We have wonderful counseling services we just have to be sure the students know about them."

Watch the full candidate debate below:

You can also read full profiles for Amin, Schafer-Skalski, Blackman, Csipak, Molinari, Penner Smith, and Corrado on Patch. Any candidate without a profile did not respond to Patch's request to fill one out.

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