Time for Change in Florham Park

Dear FP Parents and Friends:

I was inspired to write the following letter after our local paper, the Eagle endorsed two incumbent candidates for BOE. I was quite disturbed that the newspaper chose to seek quotes to endorse candidates from our former Superintendent, and the former principal (and k-8 curriculum supervisor) of the middle school. The move to eliminate math every day at the middle school as well as numerous other ineffective “action plans” were at hands of these two quoted administrators. Dr. Ronzitti has just submitted a full page editorial endorsing candidates. He lives in Nutley! Why is he STILL involved in our town leadership?? His work here has resulted in an academic mess. Is he campaigning for the next Interim Super position??

I have always been vocal about my concerns about the school system, its steady lack of student growth and how often our students are under-performing students from comparable districts. I have attended BOE meetings, shared my concerns with admin and even organized for FP teachers to receive much needed professional development. Our students do not have well developed leveled reading libraries in the elementary classrooms, we still do not have legitimate world language at the elem schools and still lack full time library media specialists in all three buildings. I am asking you to consider my concerns, and review my editorial. Please remember to vote on November 4. Feel free to share my concerns with other voting members of the community. Even if homeowners no longer have children in the schools, our property values are always dependent on the quality of our schools. We hope our children achieve not in spite of the schools and the programs, but because of them. I am not critical of the incumbents, but, but at the Meet the Candidates night, Mrs. Tobias was raving about our “above average” test scores. I am not impressed by figures just above 75%, are you? Their promotional flyer quotes “Academic Excellence”. The data does not suggest that at all. If you were unaware of our current achievement data, you can review it on the NJ School Report Card, and see it all for yourself. http://education.state.nj.us/pr/nav.php?c=27;d=1530 Right now 2013 data is available to the public. 2014 data will not be released prior to the elections. But the district has 2014 data in its hands. If you have any concerns about interpreting some of the confusing reports, I am happy to answer any questions.

Our incumbent BOE members have served us, and I appreciate their service. But we need a CHANGE to ensure that we secure the BEST leader for our school district, not the return of Dr. Ronzitti. And we need to move forward by promoting a 21st century learning environment, with rich, research-based programs that promote and sustain academic excellence!

EDITOR: I am endorsing Heinold & Thomas for Florham Park BOE in the Nov. 4 Election. My endorsement comes from years of experience as a public school English teacher, Supervisor, and Director of Curriculum and Instruction. 11 years ago, when I moved to town, I recognized trouble with math scores. Since then, I have had many conversations with school and district admin about continued lack of student achievement. I was met with promises for “action plans” - promises to “look into” things - and even the awful response of “we can agree to disagree” when I complained that middle school students did NOT have math every day of the week, for years on end. I find it ironic that you would ALLOW Dr. Majeski’s and Dr. Ronzitti’s ringing endorsements of the incumbent candidates to appear in your newspaper, when they DO NOT WORK nor LIVE in this community! They were responsible for some poor academic decisions and failed to address much needed changes to program and implementation for many years here. I pay taxes here. My children attend school here. Theirs do not, and never have. Is this some grand master plan to get Ronzitti back as the next interim leader of this school district? That is the talk on the street. It cannot happen. The test scores in the town are in the toilet for a district like ours. We have 80% of schools in comparable (DFG “I”) districts in Morris, Union and Essex Counties outperforming our schools in math and ELA. This data comes from the 2013 NJ School Report Card. Dr. Rubano, Mr. Christ and Mr. Silkenson have made more necessary changes in the past 5 months than either of their predecessors made in all of their time here. They came in with FRESH EYES! I respect and appreciate the service of the current BOE members, but we need FRESH EYES. We need parents of children in the school system who are vested in long term commitment to increasing student achievement. We need Heinold & Thomas!

This my own endorsement. It is not representative of any parent organization within the community.

Danielle Shanley