Meet Write-In Candidate For Chester Board of Ed

The election is coming on Tuesday and the Chester Consolidated School board has a vacancy. Chester resident Mike Tomasco would like your write-in vote. Get to know Tomasco as he answers 10 invasive questions about himself.

Q: How did you find out about the board of education vacancy?

A: I first found out about the Chester Board of Education vacancy by the article written in the Mendham-Chester Patch on Oct. 23.

Q: What made you want to throw your hat into the ring?

A: I look for opportunities to work with our youth as I believe that it is important to help shape the lives of our children. I have been involved with coaching in the West Morris Soccer league for the past four years and I have recently become a co-Den Leader for a Cub Scout Den in Chester’s Pack 316. These activities have enabled me to help shape children’s athletic and character building development but one area where I feel like I can contribute further is with Education. My father is an educator. He taught in the Philadelphia public school system and eventually became a principal of several high schools in Philadelphia. My father instilled the importance of an education into me and he made sure that I took advantage of all of the educational opportunities that were available when I was a child. I have three children currently in the Chester school system and I would like to serve them and my community through service on Chester’s Board of Education.

Q: What would you like to accomplish as a member of the board of education?

A: I would like to contribute to the building of and execution of a long term strategy that will drive the Chester school district into a leadership position where our children will be prepared to be global citizens and compete on a global scale academically.

Q: Do you live in Chester Borough or Township? For how long? I live in

A: Chester Township with my wife, Eva, and three children Gavin, Andrew and Harry. We have lived in Chester for the past 11 years.

Q: What made you move to Chester?

A: We decided to move to Chester primarily because of the reputation of the Chester Public School system. When Eva and I moved to Chester, we did not yet have children but planning for their future weighed heavily on our decision.

Q: What do you do for a living? 

A: I currently work for Pfizer and work out our of our Peapack campus. I am a Director within our Information Technology department. I have a team of 20 colleagues located all over the world. We are responsible for supporting Pfizer’s Global Engineering and Environment, Health & Safety business units. In total, we support 500 applications that aid in the manufacture of Pfizer’s products. 

Q: How do you feel the K-8 schools are in Chester?

A: I think that the Chester schools have many strong programs. I think that our teachers are what make our schools great. As with any organization there can always be room for improvement and I hope to aid the Board on their mission to achieve greatness in our schools.

Q: What would you do to improve the current school district?

A: I think that the district could use a stronger focus on Technology in the classroom. There are many ways to leverage technology and we should be putting a stronger emphasis on the use of technical tools (software/applications and hardware: laptops / tablets, etc). In my experience, we should create a balanced focus on these tools by enabling our teachers to be the conduit to our students by making sure that they have enough training to be comfortable with the technology themselves. From a global competitiveness standpoint, we should continue to push the boundaries of what we can teach our children in terms of science and math and include a focus on world languages to help build a solid foundation upon which our children can expand as they move on to High School and College.

Q: What do you bring to the board of education?

A: I have a background in Management Consulting and Information Technology. I have had the opportunity to work in multiple industries (Communications, Industrial Equipment, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals) with a focus on business process redesign and the implementation of technical solutions to help those organizations reach their goals. At Pfizer I was responsible for forming my team and hand picking talent from countries all over the world. I have firsthand experience in understanding how those cultures view education as I could gain this experience through my interactions with my global team members. I can leverage my work experience and background to bring a fresh perspective to the current board’s strategy. The board recently released a strategic vision that had two elements where I could see my experience being of great benefit: global benchmarking and better use of technology.

Q: Share something people might find surprising about you. 

A: I am an avid movie fan. The Back to the Future trilogy sits on the top of my list of favorite movies of all time. I recently convinced my children to watch these classic movies. One of my hobbies is to imitate voices of famous movie characters. It’s not uncommon for a dinner time conversation to occur between Doc Brown, George McFly and Biff from Back to the Future. What’s great now is to see my children work on their own versions of the same characters. Harry does a great Marty McFly, a voice that has eluded my skills for the past 25 plus years.