Election 2022: Moorestown School Board Candidate Claudine Leone Morano

MOORESTOWN, NJ —In the 2022 general election, residents of South Jersey will be voting for state and local officials. Patch has asked candidates in contested races to answer profiles about their campaigns.

Here is the candidate profile of Claudine Leone Morano, running for the Moorestown Board of Education.

Name: Claudine Leone Morano

Age: 54

Town of residence: Moorestown, NJ

Position sought: Moorestown Board of Education Member: I am seeking a 3-year term on November 8th after filling a vacancy in April 2022.

Family: Resident of Moorestown since 2004. Married to Ralph Morano for 24 years. We have two sons:Alec (21), who attends Penn State University and Eric (15), who is a 10th grader at Moorestown High School. We also have two recue pups, Leo and Maggie.

Education: Graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law (JD) and Northeastern University (BS in Finance and International Business)

Occupation: Founder and principal of Government Affairs Counsel, a boutique advocacy firm
representing non-profits helping them cut through government red tape and navigate the intricacies of state government regulations and Legislative/Executive branch action.

What previous or current elected/appointed offices have you held? Moorestown Board of Education member (April 2022 – Present).

Why are you seeking to run for the school board?
Over the last couple of years, I observed missed opportunities for the Board to proactively advocate for our students, parent, community, and taxpayers. We need Board of Education members who will respectfully challenge the status quo. It is my intent to be that Board member and provide a voice for our community and every student in our district. Moorestown is among our state’s top performing school districts, and we must have a Board that is a proactive participant in setting the district’s policies, goals, and strategic objectives, and ensuring they are implemented and followed. I believe I can have a positive impact on our district. I am naturally a team builder and collaborator. I believe those skills are greatly needed on the Board so that we can provide the necessary unified support for our new superintendent.

What sets you apart from the other candidates?
I am the only professional advocate running for the Board. As an attorney specializing in governmental affairs, I bring a unique skill set to the Board. I am immersed in policymaking, strategic planning, goal setting, and advocacy in my professional life. I work with non-profit clients, including the American Camp Association and various physician specialty societies, to help identify and execute an advocacy plan to achieve their policy goals. I absolutely love the challenge and substance of what I do every day. As an advocate I can encourage the district to be more proactive in identifying any roadblocks put in place by the state that interfere with achieving our goals and we can work to advance change. In my short time on the Board, I have seen firsthand many of the state laws and regulations that impact our budget, complicate the operation of the school district, and require significant amount of time of our administration and our staff that takes the focus away from our primary goal of providing a high quality and safe education. With our new superintendent interested and engaged in advocacy in Trenton, I believe having a board member in Moorestown that understands this process and is capable to engage in advocacy on behalf of the district with the NJ School Boards Association is incredibly important to our success.

What is your stance on the sexual education curriculum that Gov. Murphy put forth earlier this year?

When I joined the Board in Spring 2022 New Jersey was receiving national media attention on Governor Murphy’s revised Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards for K-12 adopted in July 2021. These state standards are mandatory guidance, and the district was required to develop and adopt curriculum based on these standards.

With that said, I agree with the NJ School Boards Association that parents are a district’s most important partners in education and to encourage parental input and communication. Our Board did hear from parents and this past summer our Curriculum Committee approved a clarification on the Health/PE curriculum called, “Big Ideas,” which provide plain language explanations on the topics and themes that will be covered in each grade. The “Big Ideas” demonstrate our district’s commitment to the implementation of a curriculum that is age-appropriate and reflects the values of the community.

Given the concerns expressed in our community, the Administration has an ongoing responsibility to make sure our Health/PE staff is properly trained in this revised curriculum and make sure the “Big Ideas” provided by the superintendent are followed with consistent approved content across classes. In addition, while the district policy provides for opportunities for parents to opt-out, the process needs to be more transparent with advance notice given to parents for grade specific lessons.

What would have been some of your important considerations if you had been on the board during the recent negotiations with the Moorestown Education Association?

I joined the Board in April 2022 after the Board had already established its objectives and begun
negotiations with the MEA. As a member of the Board, I can’t speak to the specifics of the Collective Bargaining Agreement or our objectives, I can say that the process was challenging. While the Board has attorneys and sometimes professional negotiators, there are services available through the NJ School Boards Association we should consider accessing. It’s wise to use this expertise to review our district’s salary guide, provide strategies to identify provisions that are ill-advised, and provisions that are advantageous to the school district. I would recommend the Board use this time until the next negotiations to find opportunity areas in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and regularly revisit our objectives over the next three years.

What is the most important issue in your district and how do you intend to address it?

School security, learning loss, teacher shortages, and budget challenges are just a few of the issues the Board will be facing head on. The superintendent has already made school security a top priority but needs the Board’s partnership and full support, as he proposes improvements to our security plan. The Administration is also evaluating and addressing learning loss as we obtain more data on the impact remote learning had on students. The Board must be an active partner with the Administration’s development of an effective learning loss remediation plan and attentive steward in its implementation.

Our Administration continues to consider new recruitment and retention strategies to address our
district’s staffing needs in light of the teacher shortage. I strongly believe our district needs to take advantage of every opportunity to formally recognize outstanding contributions by our staff and highlight their exceptional skills, commitment, and engagement with their students.
Budget review and approval, as always, will be challenging. We need to identify savings in the budget without sacrificing our quality offerings and find opportunities for new revenue, including revisiting corporate sponsorships. Managing our budget in the coming years will be even more complicated as our enrollment will increase with the anticipation of future residential developments in the district. Our district will need to be heavily engaged this year with Moorestown Town Council deciding how the revenue from the PILOT Agreement (Payment in Lieu of Taxes – paid by developers) will be allocated to the school district. This a very significant budget issue that will impact our students, staff, collective bargaining agreements, facilities, and budget for years to come.

What other issues do you feel must be tackled in your school district that have not been discussed already and how would you tackle these?
Instilling a love of learning and critical thinking skills is a gift we can give our students to carry
throughout their lives. I believe this is something that needs to be front and center in our district’s goals and incorporated into daily lessons. Remote and hybrid classroom dynamics certainly didn’t support the development of these skills in recent years.

I would also like to see the district pursue opportunities to modernize our course offerings and
incorporate computer science in all content areas starting in kindergarten. Computer science and coding isn’t a “special,” it’s a necessity. Early introduction is key to developing a comfort level with these concepts for our youngest students through graduation.

For the community and parents, one of the issues I have been advocating since before I was on the
Board is to have our Board’s public meetings offered in hybrid format with a zoom option for the public to join and participate. Currently the Board meetings are lived streamed on YouTube, however those unable to physically attend are unable to contribute through public comment. I believe the Board should be doing everything possible to encourage greater participation and input from the community during our public meetings.

What else would you like to share about yourself or your campaign?
I have been blessed in my professional life running one of few women-owned government affairs firms in Trenton. Success in my field is measured by my integrity and reputation as a trustworthy voice and effective advocate for my clients. I have been recognized by legislators, Governors, colleagues, and of course, my clients for my respectful and skillful representation. While I have received many professional awards and accolades, the one my husband and two children like the most is my being named each year to the Powerful Women of New Jersey List: Insider NJ’s Senator Weinberg’s Power List.

I’m a committed volunteer not only for our school district, but through organizations that have had a profound impact on our family. I am a member of the Planning and Host Committee for Cooper Foundation’s Pink and Teal event, which celebrates cancer survivorship and raises funds for breast and gynecological cancer research and programs for patient services. I also volunteer with MatchDog Rescue as a foster and a matchmaker. Our family adopted both of our dogs from MatchDog, and we have since fostered many dogs over the years.

I am straightforward, honest, and persistent in everything I do. I will vigorously represent our
community and advocate for our students, displaying the same fervor, credibility, and skill as I do for the non-profit associations who depend on me every day. It is my hope that I have your vote on November 8th .