Meet Jonathan Bonesteel: Dad of Three Just Elected President of Montclair Adult School Board

Jonathan Bonesteel loves being a full-time stay-at-home dad to three busy girls. He's also a moderator on the Montclair Watercooler, and has just been elected President of the Board of the Adult School of Montclair.

HE’S ALL THAT: Jonathan Bonesteel

Read on to find out how this plugged-in dad keeps his busy family on track during the week, and what’s on tap at the Adult School of Montclair.

IN HIS WORDS. . .

WORK/VOLUNTEER: The bulk of my training and work experience is information technology and computer science, but my last paid position was serving as the Pastoral Associate of Stewardship at Immaculate Conception Church. I left there in December 2009, although I’m still active in the church and enjoy the parish.

Last week I was elected President of the Board of the Adult School of Montclair, a truly wonderful organization. I’m also a moderator at Montclair Watercooler, and have been there for six years. That definitely heats up during the political season as moderation of the civility guidelines comes into play. 

I’m also active in the schools and just finished a term as co-chair of The School Action Team at Mt. Hebron. We coordinated monthly meetings and advised the principal on direction and topics related to parents and the school. We worked with the new principal about the new STEM program (Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) which is very exciting. 

MOVED TO MONTCLAIR: 1998 from Weehawken.

KIDS: Three daughters:

Oldest: 9th grade, Montclair High School: On SVPA (School of Visual Performing Arts) tech crew. She loves it; it’s amazing how talented the kids are. She’s played softball but is more interested in art, and also taking visual arts classes. 

Middle: 8th grade, Mt. Hebron: She’s been in school plays in Mt. Hebron, plays softball; may try out for SVPA next year.

Youngest: 5th grade, Watchung: Brilliant in cooking and baking; can bake or cook me under the table, going to Culinary Kids Camp in Vermont for two weeks this summer. 

PETS: Two cats.

ABOUT THE ADULT SCHOOL: The two key things we need to work on are building relationships and working on financing challenges. Our rent at the high school is going up, and we are now responsible for paying benefits for our three employees—the Board of Education was previously responsible. We are trying to grow ourselves out of the issue by offering more talks and classes for the community. It’s a competitive space with the Montclair Art Museum and other private entities also offering great courses, so we need to differentiate ourselves more. 

WHAT’S COMING UP: We’ve moved into more technology areas, and we’re offering a new tech café where we’re going to allow students to sign up for very basic technology classes—there will be five different classes, each having their own theme from digital photography to email, and students can enter questions ahead of time and have them answered.   We’re also entering into a partnership with “Partners in Health” at Mountainside Hospital to co-sponsor a Tedx conference on November 5. It will be a full day live event, also broadcast in real time on the web and catalogued for future viewership. And we’re hoping to increase the frequency of our popular “11th Hour” series. Neil MacFarquhar, United Nations Bureau chief and correspondent for The New York Times, spoke in April, and we’re hoping that more of the amazing, interesting people in Montclair will want to speak.

We’re finalizing our fall catalogue now and that should be out over the summer. People can go to www.adultschool.org for more information, if they’re interested in teaching a class or lecture, or for any other questions. 

EXERCISE ROUTINE: I ride my bike around town a lot and work out at Aspen East. We’re members of The Commonwealth Club and I enjoy bowling in the league there.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: How to forge partnerships around town that will help grow the Adult School. We’re really looking hard for people who understand the value of the Adult School and want to help build it. If anyone is interested, they can email me at bonesteel@me.com.

BIGGEST HELPER: My wife, of course. She’s amazing, I don’t know how she does it all. I’m so thankful for her. Our 20th anniversary is coming up. She works fulltime in finance, but on the weekends she can disconnect and take over some of the things I do during the week. We have a nice balance.  

ON BEING A STAY-AT-HOME DAD: Staying home as a dad has become more accepted these days. When I was working at the church I was still off at three and I would get these odd looks at pick up and at the playground, but it doesn’t seem as bad as it was. The more it happens, the more people get used to it.

WHAT GIVES: I really enjoy making things from a technology standpoint; I’m really into experimenting and building various contraptions and I don’t have time to do that much anymore. I also don’t get to read as much as I’d like.

WHAT YOU’RE READING: The Gary Shteyngart book, Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel.  I hope to get through it eventually.

PET PEEVE: Leaf blowers. I hate leaf blowers on so many different levels. The noise. The smell. The waste of gasoline and disturbance o peace. I wish they would go away. 

HOW YOU GET DINNER ON THE TABLE DURING THE WEEK: I’ll generally cook four nights a week, depending on what leftovers we have from the weekend. I enjoy cooking. Right now we’re mostly grillingsteaks, chicken, pork tenderloin. The girls are not picky at all. I also have a one-skillet penne dish with sausage and spinach that everyone likes.

FAVORITE RESTAURANT FOR TAKE OUT: Ruthie’s. We also enjoy Satish Palace. We don’t get delivery—I prefer to pick it up myself. It’s a good excuse to ride my scooter.

KIDS’ FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Mesob. That’s where we go when we have good report cards to celebrate.

FAVORITE NIGHT OUT WITHOUT KIDS: We love the Peak Performances at Montclair State. It’s only $15 a ticket and the performers are top notch. We’ve seen the Shanghai Quartet there and they’re marvelous.  

BEST VACATION: We went to Vail in the summer once and there’s so much to do and it’s so beautiful. It’s an unexpected joy. We also like to go camping.

FAVORITE SHOP IN TOWN: I was very sad to see that Semplice is going. We used to love it. The owner was so gracious and had wonderful taste—we hope her new iteration is successful. We like anything on Church Street.

FAVORITE MTC ACTIVITY/DESTINATION: The Farmers Market. We like to ride our bikes there, and go to Gina’s for scones beforehand.  It’s a nice Saturday morning.

WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT MONTCLAIR: The richness of activities and the involvement of the residents in those activities. And it’s a pretty town. When you go away and come back you realize how pretty it is compared to other places. I also love our street—we have great neighbors and it’s become known as “The Compound.” People joke about breaking into “The Compound”  but really everyone is always welcome. It’s a very friendly street.

WHAT YOU WISH YOU COULD CHANGE: I would like peace. It’s preposterous that we’re involved in two wars now and public is deadened to that. Regarding Montclair, the politics in town is kind of broken. It seems like we could do better. I know people are working hard, but we’re not there yet. How do we improve it so we can get things done and do it efficiently rather than just increasing debt and taxes?

ADVICE FOR OTHER BUSY PARENTS: Find the balance. For example, my wife takes over cooking responsibilities on the weekends, which gives me a nice break. We’re big into music in the house, and my wife takes two kids to music on the weekends which gives me time to decompress and do other things like work on the yard. It’s all about finding the balance that works for your family.