High School PTC President Moved to Montville for the Schools

• Name: Kathy Lindert, 49
• Children: She has two sons. Sean is a freshman at Rutgers and Kevin is a junior at MTHS.
• How Long in Montville: Lindert moved from Nutley to Montville in 1997. Her reason for coming to town was the schools. According to Lindert, at the time, Nutley had started an initiative where math was taught on calculators. “I truly believe that your brain is the best computer… So we just said, ‘I don’t think this is what we want for our children.’” Within two weeks they moved to Montville.
• Current Activities: Lindert has served as the Montville Township High School Parent Teacher Council (PTC) president for the past four years. She gives between four and ten hours weekly to the PTC. She is also a member of the Presidents’ Council, and has been since she served as the Lazar PTC president. The Presidents’ Council is where all seven public school parents’ association presidents gather to share resources, plan mutually beneficial initiatives, and address concerns. “With President’s Council,” said Lindert. “We all work together to help each other out, because, we’re a community.” This is her last year for both councils.
• Additional Activities: Lindert has served as a CCD teacher for seven years. She is also a member of the Republican Club and Kiwanis.  From 2000 to 2003 she was on the Montville Board of Education. Lindert ran for the board because she did not think the special education initiatives were going in the right direction. Nor did she feel the board was taking into account the needs of parents. I was “not looking for a lot of services, but looking for understanding and why certain things happen with special needs children, and why it’s important to keep them in the school district” Lindert said. “I didn’t think it was necessary to send a child out of school district because their home base is where they’re going to get the most services, the most support, and the most love.”
• Career: Lindert is self employed. Seven years ago she became a certified hypnotist, and opened Advanced Hypnosis Counseling in Caldwell. “I got into it,” explained Lindert, “to help a family member get over, OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and it worked so well.” Originally a mortgage banker, Lindert explored hypnosis because she was desperate to help her family member. “I didn’t know what to expect…I was the only one in suit,” she said of her first session. “The guy told me how to do a quick little trick, went home, worked with the person. Boom. Done. So, that was it. I liked it so much I ended up going for 200 hours of training. Every year I go for 30 hours of certification and I have helped hundreds of people, whether to stop smoking, weight loss, fears, phobias, pain, sleep, stress and sports.” She explained hypnosis helps a person to relax and let things go. “Then you start learning how to live again,” she said.
• Why Volunteer in the Schools: “Kids are fun. I enjoy seeing them explore. I enjoy seeing them learn,” said Lindert. “What I also enjoy is seeing a community work together. Like, it’s so much fun when all of a sudden you pick up the phone, or send out the e-mails, and you say, ‘We need help…’ And then, all of a sudden, you start getting, ‘I’ll be there.’ ‘What do you need?’  ‘How much?’ ‘OK.’ ‘I can give you an hour….’ And then you become a community, and that’s what I really like.”
• Most Memorable Moment: “There’s a couple, it’s usually when you are helping other people.”
• Favorite Thing about Montville: “I have to pick one?” asked Lindert. “I have to tell you I absolutely love the way our community is, in, I’m going to say more than one way. Because I love living in a place where I can see deer, and turkeys, and foxes, and just being outside, and really having great, you know, nature. But also having so many conveniences. I have a great neighborhood.” She usually organizes a block party because it is a great way for people to get to know each other. “We look out for each other. I’m big on community…and watching out for each other, and I see that in Montville…Everyone is looking out for the best things, for not only the community, but, the kids.”
• Something she would like to see Changed: “I see, just from all the kids, that, and I do it myself, we give too much to our children. And now with the times, with the cut backs…I think that we have to be more resilient in learning, and trying to see different ways that we can get things to be done…without always having to reach into a pocket and taking money out. To come up with different ways.” She made her son buy his own car “He takes good care of that car,” she said. “Because it is something that he had to earn. He had to work.”
• Hobbies: “I love to read… I also like gardening. Love gardening. I cannot wait to get my hands into the dirt. But, I also like volunteering. I know, I am sick that way,” Lindert said.
• Philosophy: “I always look for the good things. I do.  No matter what happens I always say, ‘OK, what’s the lesson? And what do I get out of it?’ …I don’t believe in the word fail. I believe in that you learn something. And that you learn what you did right, what you did wrong, and how you can change it.”
• Advice: “Don’t always look at the bad, look at the good.”

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