Brick School Board Candidate: Daisy Haffner

BRICK, NJ — There are six candidates vying for two seats on the Brick Township Board of Education — seats being vacated by incumbents Karyn Cusanelli and George White.

We are profiling each of the six candidates. Responses are in their own words, with edits for grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Daisy Haffner, 41, moved to Brick Township with her family nearly 40 years ago. She attended Herbertsville Elementary School, Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Veterans Memorial Middle School and Brick Memorial High School. She and her husband of 13 years, Ken, have two children in the district, one at Veterans Memorial Middle School and one at Midstreams Elementary School.

She is employed at a local moving company and an active member of the Midstreams PTO and VMMS PTA. She was was the PTO president for the last three years. "I've been extremely involved with the PTO for 5 years and organized countless events for our Midstreams community," she said. She was an accounting supervisor and an auditor at Wilkin & Guttenplan, CPAs; co-president of the Moms Club of Brick and was the supplement coordinator for The Mothers Center for several years.

What do you feel is the most important quality you would bring to the Board of Education?

My most important quality is my accounting background along with my dedication to ensuring we do what is best for our students. I will work with the other board members as well as education professionals to make sure we set priorities that are logical and economical. I have worked as an auditor so I am detailed oriented and can work within budgets. I have supervised people and have overseen events, so I can work with everyone to see that we complete projects and achieve goals in a timely manner.

If you are elected to the Brick Township Board of Education, will you have any conflicts that will force you to abstain from voting? If so, what are they?

I do not have any conflicts.

Property taxes are a huge concern, but there is also significant concern about the state of the facilities, which have been neglected or shortchanged for decades. How would you balance the need to address critical issues with the concern over property taxes?

I think we need to evaluate the facilities and prioritize the areas that need improvements. We need to confer with industry professionals to gain their insight and hear their suggestions on how to proceed with each project. Safety is something we cannot neglect, however, we can research ways to keep costs down.We should look into rebates or incentives for major projects. We may also actually save money on monthly energy bills and cut down on maintenance costs if we make repairs or upgrades to energy-related systems. The board should also research available grants that would be applicable to the projects.

There has been much discussion about teacher salaries at recent board meetings. What do you propose to balance the need to manage costs while maintaining experience?

Brick needs a school district that our residents can be proud of. To do that, we need to hire the best teachers and staff that our budget allows. A teacher's knowledge and experience is priceless to our district. Hiring teachers at a lower salary may indicate that they are not completely qualified for the job they are applying for and we would ultimately spend additional funds to train them. Also, we need to maintain current teachers' salaries at a competitive rate so that we do no not lose our staff to surrounding towns. We need to take a close look at administrative costs and make sure money goes to educators in the classroom.

What in your view is the most important thing that can be done to improve student achievement, and how would you prefer to see that measured?

I think we should poll the students and teachers and ask them this exact question. I'd love to see what the answers would be. If I had to answer as a parent, I think that we need to improve our special education department, EXCEL program and STEM. We need to prepare and educate each student properly. I don't think we can rely solely on the scores of standardized tests to rate our students and staff. Achievements and/or weaknesses can't be based on one test that only captures one moment in time especially in high school with block scheduling. For example, some students do not have math or language arts classes for more than 6 months when the PARCC test is administered, but they are expected to score high on these tests. I think we should have tests with open-ended questions so students can truly think, express and explain their answers. Or maybe, in lieu of more tests and the undue stress they cause, projects or reports will cultivate students' creativity while using technology and available resources.

Patch graphic; photo provided by Daisy Haffner