Take Five: Madison School Board Candidate Stephen Tindall

MADISON, NJ — There are seats opening up on the Madison Board of Education and Patch caught up with the candidates ahead of the general election this November.

Questionnaires were sent out out to all candidates registered with the County Clerk's Office in the 2019 general election using the email addresses they went on file with. The responses will be posted on the site by those who submitted in the order in which they were received. They will also be included in an election preview wrap.

This Take Five features Stephen Tindall. His responses to the questions are below and unedited.

1. Why are you running for BOE?

There are many reasons I am interested in this office, which include the educational experience provided for students and the need for specific expenditures, but fiscal considerations bubble to the top out of necessity. I want to help direct the path the school takes to navigate its fiscal issue and I think my business background gives me a good footing to help address the problem.

As a Board member, I will be able to continue impacting the Board beyond my already implemented suggestions which are: 1) Input from the public (public comments) added at the beginning of the meeting, 2) Details of expenditures, including the bills list, as attachments to the agenda.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing schools in your town, and how will you address it?

I have been attending Madison BoE meetings for the past 3 years and it has become obvious that the school is headed toward a fiscal crisis, as are all New Jersey schools. Costs such as employee benefits are rising faster than the 2% property tax cap placed on revenue for the schools. The options for short-term revenue boosts are limited primarily to state aid with few options to significantly reduce expenditures without adversely impacting the students’ educational experience. For example, in the current budget, maintenance spending was reduced to the minimum allowed by the New Jersey Department of Education. The current budget had a $1M shortfall that was closed by using rainy day funds (capital reserve and maintenance reserve) to balance the budget. That resulted in a very lean budget. The rainy day / reserve funds are not inexhaustible. We are likely to have a greater than $1M shortfall again this year.

Given that I would only have served on the board for 4 months by the time next budget is voted upon by the board, there are very real limits to what I can do about these issues in the upcoming budget cycle. Short term, the major option is expenditure reduction and since the budget is driven by payroll and employment benefit costs, the traditional approach would be staffing reduction. I hope we can avoid that. The outcome of the current teachers’ contract negotiation may impact the next budget significantly.

I look to the long-term impact my presence on the board might have in this area. Near-term revenue generation options include grants and increasing the number of tuition-paying students. A long-term option is implementing solar power, which would both reduce the more than $300,000 electrical costs each year and has the potential to generate revenue for years into the future. Moreover, solar power would be environmentally friendly.

3. What three words would you use to describe yourself to someone who has never met you?

Big and Tall (I stand out in a crowd!)

4. What experience in your background has prepared you to be an effective leader?

Interesting question, but it implies that the Board of Education leads or runs the schools, which it does not. Very few people understand that point. The Board does not oversee day-to-day or even week-to-week operational issues, but instead implements its long-term goals through creating policies and regulations. Most existing policies are in place to satisfy regulatory requirements set forth in state statutes. Additionally, the Board provides oversight of budgeting, spending and hiring, to name a few things. The leader of the school district’s day-to-day operations is the Superintendent.

So, what would I bring to this position? Being retired, I have had many life experiences and have time to participate in Board activities. I have a strong background in science, having earned a BA in Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry. Professionally, I worked in the BioPharmaceutical industry as both a researcher and a manager. My business skills were honed from running my own business for 17 years. I have an extensive STEM and IT background. I am also a good listener. Being a Madison resident for the past 27 years, I think I have a good insight into how people view our local educational institutions.

5. Tell me something about you, like hobbies or interests, that have nothing to do with the campaign.

Two current activities come to mind. My wife of 36 years and I enjoy both vegetable and flower gardening. You may have seen one of our flower projects at the Madison Civic Center this summer. The orange cosmos are still in bloom at the front of the building on Walnut street next to the Central Avenue School.

For something completely different, I am one of four founding members of a volunteer Linux support group called The ELRepo Project (elrepo.org) that helps make Enterprise Linux (a.k.a. Red Hat Linux) run both modern and older computer hardware by providing packaged software drivers to make the hardware functional. I have been providing hands-on support to this group for over 10 years.

Historically, I enjoyed casual sailing and racing sailboats for many years – at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (Hoofer Sailing Club) and here in New Jersey, especially my two Star
sailboats (2-person, 7-meter racing keelboat).

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