Lacey Residents Deserve Better Than Current School Board, Candidates Say

A Letter to the Editor from Lacey Board of Education candidates James Le Tellier and Gary Vaccaro:

What does $70 million dollars buy?

Unfortunately, for the Lacey taxpayers they have purchased an under-performing school district managed by a school board that engages in reckless spending and poor fiscal management.

The NJ Department of Education’s 2013-2014 School Performance Report states that Lacey High School “lags in comparison” in college and career readiness to its peers. The Middle School “lags in comparison” to its peers in academic and student performance, and “significantly lags” in college and career readiness.

The $19.8 million dollar solar fiasco has not only resulted in unnecessarily increasing our debt, but the Board’s fiscal mismanagement of the project has been openly criticized by the NJ State Comptroller and has now become a lesson learned for other school districts on poor fiscal decision making.

You deserve better! You deserve a competent, tenacious, and responsible School Board working for you and the students. We need to empower our teachers with the tools necessary to help our students achieve greatness.
We need to refocus the district’s priorities.

Rather than giving the superintendent merit bonuses (in excess of $25,000), we need to redirect your tax dollars to support our teachers and students. We will focus on saving the district money by competitively bidding public contracts, such as health insurance and increasing shared services with the township and Lacey MUA.

We need to engage our students in programs that will prepare them for future success, both academic and personal. We need to partner with you, the parents and taxpayers, by the creation of a parent advocacy committee to work with the School Board. Our parents are a tremendous resource of knowledge on the issues facing our students and community. We will foster a better relationship between the public and the School Board, because we serve you!

We are committed to responsibly managing our schools and giving the taxpayers a return on their investment. With your vote, we can return humility and responsibility to the School Board.
We humbly ask for your vote on November 3.

Sincerely,
Jim Le Tellier & Gary Vaccaro
Candidates for Lacey School Board
https://www.facebook.com/letelliervaccaroforlacey