Debbie Bronfeld: Princeton Board Of Education Candidate Profile

PRINCETON, NJ — There is a contested race for the Princeton Board of Education election this upcoming November election with four candidates vying for the three open seats.

Incumbent Debbie Bronfeld is one of four candidates running for the three, three-year seats in the election being held on Tuesday, Nov. 5. The other three candidates include: Susan Kanter, Gregory Stankiewicz, and Dafna Kendal.

Here is a look at who Bronfeld is and why she is running. Candidates were asked to answer the same questions and each candidate profile will be posted on Patch's site as it gets closer to the election.

Debbie Bronfeld

Describe yourself:

My family and I have lived in Princeton for 21 years. I grew up in Newton Massachusetts, and attended public school K-12. I am 58 years old and have a younger sister and brother, who also attended public school. My dad was a CPA and my mom a special education teacher. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts in Accounting and an MBA from Babson College, with a concentration in operations.

I spent the first half of my career working in corporate America for different manufacturing and consumer product companies. Focusing on finances and inventory management. One really fun job, was at a startup company during the dot.com boom, where we sold videos and DVDs on the internet.

Since 2007 I have worked and volunteered for several local non-profits. I was the founding Executive Director of Dress for Success Mercer County, which helped women get back into the work force. I was an analyst for Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, where I managed a senior food program, weekend food program for school children and assisted families in signing up for food stamps. I was a founding board member of Princeton Children’s Fund. And currently volunteer weekly at a local mobile food pantry in Princeton and with The Housing Initiative of Princeton.

I have two sons who both attended Littlebrook Elementary School, John Witherspoon Middle School and Princeton High School, class of 2015 and 2018. I was involved in Littlebrook PTO when my boys went there.

Why are you running for school board?

I am running for re-election for the school board, because there is still so much work to be done for our students, teachers, parents and community. And, I want to be at the table where decisions are made about Princeton Public Schools. Public education is very important to me, and every time I hear Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, remark about education, I know I have my work cut out for me. I am running again to ensure our students can continue to receive a meaningful and unrestricted public education.

My husband and I are both products of public schools. I want to ensure that every child in Princeton is educated in an environment that is conducive to their individual learning style, while continuing to support our strategic mission. Our district needs to implement a fair and sustainable budget, and this will not happen overnight, and this will not happen unless we have board members around the table with the skill sets, to not only review the budget but in some cases to make hard recommendations to change the budget. Princeton Public Schools offers a great education and I want to be part of the team that continues to support top educational values and learning by offering classes, extracurriculars and programs for ALL students.

Why do you feel you are qualified for this position?

I feel my prior board experience and work experiences give me unique qualifications to be on the school board another three years. I have served on Student Achievement, Finance, Equity and as chair of the Personnel committee (for 2 years). I also served on the last negotiating team with the unions. I am a member of the green team and an alternate on the Facilities committee.

After hearing the data from the first Stanford Survey (done at PHS) and as a member of Student Achievement I supported a later start time at PHS, supported less homework in math (to reduce stress) and supported our guidance department to be more visible to our students (especially 9th graders). Being on the equity committee has pushed me to look and understand our students and schools by looking at everything through an equity lens. I pushed to have all cafeteria and recess aids attend responsive class room training, so lunch and recess would be a pleasant and safe time for our children.

My voting records shows that I have my own opinions and ideas and that I do not always agree with the rest of the board. Recently I voted no on the 2019-2020 budget, and no on several consultant fees (one for communication, one for a consultant to manage town and school shared service meetings). These expenses are not focused on our students, especially our most vulnerable students. I have pushed for general education teachers to read every IEP to support our special education students, I have pushed for parent forms to be in Spanish for our Hispanic students, and I have pushed to ensure our minority students are in an environment where they can excel at school. Caring about ALL our students is why I feel I am qualified for this position.

What are some issues you would like address if elected?

In my next 3 years on the board I plan to focus on the district’s Finances, School Climate and Culture and Facilities. Our finances need to be fair and sustainable to continue to offer an excellent education to all our students. We need to look for cost sharing opportunities with the Town, Charter School, non-profit Institutions and the University. We need to create an Ad-Hoc cost savings committee to avoid tax increase and to restore our reserve accounts.

To support our School climate and culture we need to develop a curiosity for learning in the early grades, so we can support a life time of learning. I want to focus on ensuring that students are engaged and connected to their schools, teachers and classmates. I will continue to support open discussions on health, wellness, equity and safety of all our students. I will continue to support offering top education values and learning by offering classes, extracurriculars and programs with more depth while also acknowledging students diverse learning skills.

For facilities I will support continuous maintenance and care of our current buildings. I will push to ensure we are optimizing our current space, so students can attend the classes they want. And I will push to continue to hold our contract management company completely responsible for all referendum projects, with complete budget transparency.

— (If you are a candidate and would like to participate in the election profile, email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com)

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