Takeaways From The Brick School Board Candidates Forum

BRICK, NJ — The candidates seeking the two seats on the Brick Township Board of Education participated in a candidates forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Southern Monmouth County.

The forum was sponsored by the Veterans Memorial Elementary and Middle School PTAs.

You can watch the forum online. All four candidates — Michael Blandina, Gregory Cohen, Alison Kennedy, and Michael Mesmer — participated in the forum. Blandina and Kennedy are current board members; Mesmer and Cohen are challenging for the seats.

Here are takeaways from the forum:

1. Parental involvement. There were two questions that dealt with curriculum and books, and what the role of the board is regarding materials that people may find objectionable. Kennedy and Blandina said textbooks and books are vetted during board committee meetings. Cohen said the parents should have more involvement and say in curriculum, and specified the sex education curriculum. All supported the district professionals and their expertise.

2. Improving learning gaps from COVID and test scores. Blandina said it needs to be a joint effort of teachers and parents. Teachers see the students in class, parents should be speaking up. Cohen said class sizes need to be addressed. Mesmer said funding needs to be reallocated to address the class sizes. Kennedy said the district provides a lot of professional development to address those issues.

3. Sports and the arts. All of the candidates agree that sports and the arts are critical to the development of students. Cohen said the busing shortage needs to be addressed.

4. Most important issues:

Cohen: He said parental rights need to be protected and says the board is not transparent enough.

Mesmer: He said parental rights and transparency need to be addressed and is concerned about addressing S2 funding losses.

Kennedy: The S2 funding losses are critical. She said information is available on the district's website about the curriculum and there are misconceptions about transparency.

Blandina: S2 is the most critical issue. He said concerns about parental notification are missing how the board has addressed some of the controversial policies.