Regional School Board Member Backs Incumbents for Re-Election

Dear Editor,

I represent Mendham Borough on the West Morris Regional High School District (WMRHSD) Board of Education (BOE). The views presented below, however, are my personal views, and are not intended to represent those of either the WMRHSD or its BOE. I know this is not a “quick read,” so my thanks to those of you who read and consider the facts and views expressed herein.

Mrs. Asdal and Mr. Button Deserve to be Re-Elected

On November 4th, a little over 6 weeks from now, Marcia Asdal and Jamie Button, representatives from Chester Township and Mendham Township, respectively, to the WMRHSD BOE, both seek re-election. During their years on the board, each have advocated very strongly and courageously for Mendham High School students and for the communities of the Mendhams and Chesters. They have asked for, analyzed and presented relevant information that has helped all communities understand their high school district better. This has enabled objective measurement of student academic performance and clarified how the district spends our money. They have advocated strongly for a reversal of the decade-long decline of Mendham HS and for for spending fairness – objectively measured in dollars and cents -- within our district. These issues, along with improving tax fairness within our district, are the issues their Mendham and Chester Township constituents consider most important.

While spending fairness remains elusive, the district appears to have begun reversing the academic slide at Mendham HS and the district has improved its level of data transparency with all board members and the public. This improvement is important, but there is still much work to be done. We need the continued strong advocacy of Ms. Asdal and Mr. Button in order to spur such continued improvement.

It was not always this way. Before Mr. Button and Ms. Asdal joined the board, there was no voice on the board asking the “right questions.” There was no consistent advocacy for academic excellence, for spending fairness for all district students or for transparency with the public. Mendham HS kept sliding in the rankings while every year more money was spent on Central HS students than on Mendham HS students – and no one said a word about it. Instead, the board took pride in agreeing with each other and with the administration, while significant problems festered and got worse.

After they arrived on the board, and after years of persistent, data-driven advocacy, Mr. Button and Ms. Asdal began having an impact, the positive results of which we are just starting to see. Their courageous advocacy, always while in the minority on the board, has brought greater transparency to the district’s condition and the board’s actions, encouraging real and positive change for the benefit of Mendham HS students and the communities of the Mendhams and Chesters.

There are those, however, who would prefer the way things used to be, before Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal started advocating for Mendham High School and the communities it serves. Their detractors are the people who would prefer that the Mendhams and Chesters “just forget about being consistently ‘financially shortchanged’ by the district.” They talk about “academic excellence,” but see no reason to hold the district accountable for helping our students achieve balanced, independently documented academic excellence. They talk about the need to “support all students,” but say nothing when Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal -- and I -- highlight and question the district’s persistently greater spending on pupils at Central HS than on pupils at Mendham HS (in every year over the past decade, the only period for which the district has collected such detailed data). Some of them even defend this financially discriminatory practice. Before Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal arrived on the scene, “getting along” appeared more important to the BOE than “getting it right.” Those who prefer “the way things used to be” are not those that have Mendham HS’s best interests at heart.

So, while we were away this summer, these forces came up with challengers to Mr. Button and Ms. Asdal. I do not know Mr. Johnston personally, but I do know Mr. Strobel to be a charming, intelligent gentleman. This election, however, is about whether or not these candidates will support Mendham HS and the communities it serves, or not. These challengers speak of “focusing on education,” of “improving board relations” and of “not hurting the kids,” but these are just words, just platitudes. What they have done – or not done -- is a better indicator of how they will behave than what they say. Fortunately for voters, each of these challengers has a track record. These track records demonstrate, in fact, how strongly each challenger has advocated AGAINST the interests of their own constituents.

Chester Township Challenger

For Chester Township, we have Jim Johnston, who has a WMRHSD BOE record to consider. Mr. Johnston decided only one year ago not to run again, after more than a decade presiding, including as board vice president and president, over the decade long decline of Mendham HS and the devolution of board member relations to the lowest point likely ever observed. Why, after deciding just last year to retire, is he now running again? It can only be that he seeks to deny Chester Township the “voice” that Mrs. Asdal has provided its residents over the past 3 years. What a contrast between these two people. Mrs. Asdal has asked the tough, relevant questions on behalf of her constituents, seeking improved funding and academic achievement at Mendham HS, Chester Township’s high school. Mr. Johnston, by contrast, collaborated, for years, with the “Washington Township majority” on the board:

· to consistently spend significantly more, on an absolute and per pupil basis, at Central HS than at Mendham HS,

· to allow the decade-long academic slide at Mendham HS (in which the persistent spending deficiency likely played a role), a slide which has only this year started to reverse itself,

· to prevent any public referendum allowing voters to decide whether or not to change the grossly unfair district taxing formula that charges Mendham and Chester taxpayers, on average, twice as much, per pupil, as Washington Township taxpayers.

Furthermore, Mr. Johnston’s actions, as board president, seemed to obstruct, rather than promote, transparency with other board members and the public. Last October, for example, only weeks before new board members were to be elected, Mr. Johnston led a “secretive” attempt, over the strenuous objection of every Chester Township resident present at the board meeting, to prematurely (at least a year before required) approve a new multi-year employment contract for the superintendent without providing proper advance notice to certain board members or to the public. Power plays, such as this, confirmed Mr. Johnston’s comfort level with leading a “tyranny of the majority” on the board and his indifference to the opinions of his constituents. They also represented affronts to both good “boardsmanship” and good board relations. Finally, in board meetings I attended, Mr. Johnston seemed unengaged and dismissive of the public. He seemed “tired of it all.” I was very surprised to see him file to run again.

In short, Jim Johnston established a track record of failing to support the interests of Chester Township and Mendham HS and, from what I observed, was a major contributor to the poor board relations that existed while he was president.

Mendham Township Challenger

For Mendham Township, we have Rob Strobel, who decided to vacate his Mendham Township Committee seat to challenge Mr. Button. We don’t have a WMRHSD BOE track record to observe for Mr. Strobel -- he has not served on any school board -- but we do have his track record as a Mendham Township Committee member where, on issues related to the high school district, he has repeatedly defended the status quo instead of the interests of his constituents.

For example, Mr. Strobel has maintained that Mendham HS does not need “restoring,“ that everything is fine “as is.” While he may believe this to be a comforting, popular statement, it is neither accurate nor helpful to Mendham High School, which could benefit enormously from continued improvement. (I am delighted that NJ Monthly just ranked Mendham HS #4 in the state. It reflects the story of a high school with students challenging themselves more, an amazing graduation rate and a low student-teacher ratio -- and it can only help our local property values. However, the underlying data show clearly where Mendham HS still needs improvement. These rankings are based, in large part, on the NJ DOE’s NJ Public High School “Report Card,” compiled and presented annually. The most recent “Report Card” has determined that Mendham HS is in the 79th percentile out of roughly 350 NJ public high schools -- that would place it, roughly, 75th in the state -- in the very important “College and Career Readiness” assessment. This is the assessment that aggregates into a single score all of the IB, AP, PSAT, SAT and ACT student participation rate and average performance data. For a high school with 97% of its students going on to college, this is clearly an area deserving of continued improvement.)

In defense of the district’s decade-long practice of spending considerably more, per pupil, at Central HS than at Mendham HS, Mr. Strobel stated that this was somehow justified because “the teachers at Central HS are on a higher salary guide than those at Mendham HS.” This statement is false, both technically and substantively. I could detail why, but the explanation would be lengthy, so I will not do it here. What is noteworthy is that Mr. Strobel is willing to accept and publicly repeat incorrect statements (originally made, and later corrected, at Mr. Button’s behest, by the district) in order to defend the status quo, rather than work to independently establish facts before communicating them to the public. The more important question for Mr. Strobel is, “Why would he defend, for any reason, the longstanding district practice of spending more per pupil at Central HS than at Mendham HS if he purports to represent a community served by Mendham HS?” I would prefer in a school board member someone that determines and communicates facts accurately and advocates for the high school his constituents’ children attend. Mr. Button, the existing representative, does both exceptionally well.

Mr. Strobel is also well known for his steadfast objection -- in contradiction to both overwhelming Mendham Township public support and compelling, well-documented analysis -- to even studying the dissolution of the WMRHSD. For perspective, dissolving the WMRHSD would likely save Mendham Township about $9,500/day by eliminating the “subsidy” currently paid to Washington Township’s Central HS. That’s equivalent to about twice what Mendham Township, the 5th highest taxed municipality in the state of NJ, spends on its single largest municipal budget line item, the police department.

When presented with the choice of investing $15,000 of the Township’s money to support a high school district dissolution effort that could save the Township a present value of $48 million over the next 20 years, Rob Strobel said “No.” In fact, what he famously said back in the Spring of 2013 – and memorialized on Mendham TV -- is “it has zero chance” of even getting placed on the ballot for a vote. Everyone in the room understood that there is no such thing as a “zero chance” in anything, except death, and that spending $15,000 in an effort to save a present value of $48 million was an attractive investment for the Township. Mr. Strobel apparently failed to grasp either concept. In fact, he then spent months fighting the effort to fund a feasibility study.

Then, in what many saw as an effort to move from a strategy of confrontation to cooption, Mr. Strobel said that he had “made a mistake” in his earlier opposition and claimed that he was now supportive of the dissolution investigation effort. However, his subsequent actions belied his words. He insisted on re-drafting the existing Request for Proposal (RFP), which solicits consultants to perform a Feasibility Study of the dissolution. Mr. Strobel added 4 pages of extra conditions to the 7-page RFP already proposed by other towns. This additional drafting process set the effort back months and added so many untenable conditions that the RFP attracted proposals from only two consulting firms, one of which subsequently dropped out. In fact, both consulting firms made a point of noting publicly that many of those conditions inserted by Mr. Strobel were unnecessary, irrelevant and/or untenable. Many, myself included, saw Mr. Strobel’s insistence of adding these extra pages of conditions as a way to delay and, perhaps, impede the process of obtaining a feasibility study on a timely basis. Worse yet, Mr. Strobel insisted on inserting three additional alternative funding formulas (taxation methodologies) to be considered, all three of which were financially less desirable for Mendham Township than the single funding formula – based exclusively upon the number of pupils each town sends to the district – originally proposed. Why would he insist on including alternatives less favorable to his own constituents?

So, what was Mr. Strobel’s real impact? He set the RFP development effort back by at least 6 months, perhaps much longer, at a cost to Mendham Township taxpayers of about $9,500/day. To this day, we have no feasibility study. I am now hearing that it is just getting started and may be finished in February of 2015. Had Mr. Strobel not interfered so consistently (starting in April 2013, when a draft RFP was first presented by citizens, including me) with efforts to move the process forward, this study could have been completed last year. The cost of delay is enormous to Mendham Township.

With only this track record to go on, and no experience serving on a school board, Mr. Strobel now says to Mendham Township residents, “Please let me represent you and your children.” I, for one, don’t think that sounds like a very good idea.

Mendham HS Status Update

As most everyone knows by now, Mendham High School, in this year’s rankings of NJ public high schools, has started reversing the decade-long decline noted above. In fact, in the widely watched NJ Monthly ranking, published bi-annually, Mendham High School shot back up to the 4th spot (Central to the 11th spot). The data clearly suggests that Mendham HS has had some fundamental positive change over the past year or two. This is gratifying to see, as both a parent and a property owner. As noted above, the data also suggest that Mendham HS still requires, and deserves, continued improvement. Some success has been achieved. More is needed.

It is said that, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” I’m sure we’ll have many people taking credit for this improvement. I would submit that Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal deserve some of it. They “stirred the pot,” starting six years ago, when the pot desperately needed stirring. Change was needed and change eventually came. The Superintendent, Mackey Pendergrast, who assumed that role two years ago, was part of that change. Mr. Pendergrast also deserves some of the credit, because he focused on understanding how the rankings were constructed and made curriculum changes that supported improvement in key metrics contributing to the rankings – and, importantly, he advocated for the inclusion of IB data into the NJ Report Card, which justly helped Mendham’s ranking. There are many others, including teachers, administrators, parents and, if we are honest with ourselves, probably some outside tutors, who also deserve credit. Most importantly, our students deserve credit. With the support of all of these other people, they are, after all, the ones who actually did the work and achieved the performance. We have many to thank, and the results are good to see.

Nonetheless, we know from this same NJ Report Card data that we still have much work to do, particularly in the very important area of “College and Career Readiness,” as noted above, so please let’s not become complacent.

Back to Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal

Not only have Mr. Button and Mrs. Asdal advocated very strongly for the interests of those in Mendham Township and Chester Township, respectively, but they are also just the kind of people I want looking out for my children’s education. Both are intimately familiar with Mendham High School, as parents, and personally committed to academic excellence. Clare and Jamie Button have reared six children in Mendham, all of whom graduated from Mendham High School. Their children went on to attend Wisconsin, Harvard, Boston College, Colgate, Duke and, starting just this month, Princeton. Marcia and Bill Asdal have reared five daughters in Chester and all have graduated from Mendham HS. One went on to Duke and, remarkably, the other 4 daughters all went on to attend the US Naval Academy. (It is, to my knowledge, the ONLY time that 4 siblings, let alone 4 sisters, have every attended the US Naval Academy, a highly competitive, predominantly male school.) To put it mildly, Jamie Button and Marcia Asdal know something about “academic excellence,” as parents and as board members. It’s a “safe bet” that they will be able to tell us when Mendham HS has achieved the level of academic excellence that we parents want for our children.

I believe that Chester Township and Mendham Township voters enjoy very clear choices November 4th. Mrs. Asdal and Mr. Button have both “spoken truth to power” and represented YOUR interests – the financial and academic interests of Mendham High School -- on the BOE. It is noteworthy that they are, to my knowledge, the only current BOE representatives (other than myself) that have been elected to the BOE by a majority of the voters in a contested election. In other words, when voters were given a choice, a clear majority said, “We want you, Marcia and Jamie, to represent us.” By contrast, Jim Johnston, while on the BOE, sought and received “high office” from the Washington Township majority, then presided contentedly for years, as both president and vice president of the BOE, over higher per pupil taxes for Chester Township than Washington Township, higher per pupil spending at Central HS than at Mendham HS and ever declining rankings for Mendham High School. Also by contrast, Rob Strobel has made ill-informed public statements, and adopted ill-advised positions, all of which serve to deny Mendham High School students and Mendham Township taxpayers the improved educational quality and financial fairness they deserve. I don’t believe that Mr. Strobel actually intends to hurt Mendham HS or Mendham Township, and I’m sure there are some issues where Mr. Strobel and Mr. Button agree, but I do believe that many of Mr. Strobel’s positions and statements, in support of the “old status quo,” do, in fact, hurt Mendham HS and Mendham Township. Please choose to support Mendham HS, and the communities it serves, by re-electing Mrs. Asdal and Mr. Button.

As we enter the election season, with all of the campaigning, let’s not forget that the job is not yet done.

We need Ms. Asdal and Mr. Button to continue to advocate for academic excellence and fiscal fairness, if Mendham HS – and our entire high school district -- is to achieve its full potential.

Sincerely,

Brian Cavanaugh
Mendham Borough