Patch Talks to BOE Incumbent Lynne Crawford

South Orange resident Lynne Crawford has served on the Board on Education for the past six years and is seeking a third term in the April 20 election, in which four candidates will vie for three open seats.

"I think I bring a lot to it because of my experience, and I get a lot out of it," said Crawford, who's Director of Special Services in the Rutherford school district, the same position held by Pat Barker in South Orange-Maplewood, charged with overseeing special education. She's the lone educator on the current Board. (Richard Laine is the director of education for the Wallace Foundation.) She's also the mother of two district students: an eighth grader at South Orange Middle School and a tenth grader at Columbia High School.

In an interview with Patch, Crawford—who's running with Beth Daugherty, the other incumbent in the race—emphasized the importance of maintaining continuity on the Board, especially in light of the grim fiscal outlook for New Jersey schools and the fact that more painful cuts are likely to be necessary next year.

When she won her seat on the Board six years ago, Crawford ran on a platform of revamping the English/Language Arts curriculum, and she's intent on seeing that project to fruition. As she explains it, the old document didn't guide teachers through phonics instruction for struggling students or address scope or sequencing of lessons and goals to be met, so "new teachers didn't know where to start." Though a K-8 draft version was rolled out this school year, Crawford says significant revision is needed to make the new curriculum a useful tool.

"We don't explicitly teach children to read," she said, observing that it was Superintendent Brian Osborne's administration that proceeded with an English/Language Arts audit in 2008-2009 after years of the problem being ignored. (A math audit is underway this year.)

The BOE is making decisions under difficult circumstances, and the Board of School Estimate last week approved a school tax levy containing a 3.48 percent increase in a budget that called for the district's 76 paraprofessionals to be outsourced, which means they'll have a substantially lower salary and no health benefits if they choose to return to work. Crawford attended the Special Ed PTO meeting on Wednesday, where she spoke with angry parents who seemed to feel that, as a special education professional, she had "sold out." But Crawford stands by Osborne's decision, noting that he learned of the state's decision to cut $5.3 million in aid in the 11th hour of the budgeting process last month, and "we had already cut pretty much everything we could; there's just not a whole lot left."

"It's an awful thing when people lose their jobs and when people lose benefits; unfortunately, it's a fact of this economy," she said, observing that Osborne's goal is to bring back as many of the paraprofessionals as possible, and that the difficult circumstances of districts throughout the state make it more likely, since there are simply fewer places hiring.

"I want assurances that there is a viable candidate pool," she added, noting that the county agency now charged with hiring, the Essex Regional Special Services Commission, could potentially start sending letters to the South Orange-Maplewood paras in May to sort out their placement.

According to Crawford, "this district has put a lot into special education, things above and beyond what was required," and the state has never provided the federal IDEA-mandated 43 percent of funding. "Districts are more and more responsible for providing this service."

Crawford pointed out that the budget situation is likely to only worsen next year, since the district must contend with rising health insurance premiums, and Gov. Christie is looking to impose a hard 2.5 percent cap on property tax increases (up from the existing soft 4 percent.) She forsees further cuts to programs and activities, "unless you have a mass exodus of teachers" at the top step, which she thinks could happen if the governor moves forward with his proposal to change the pension system.

However, though there's plenty of gloom and doom in discussions of New Jersey public schools these days, Crawford also spoke of strides forward under Osborne. She believes the new evaluation process instituted this year will give teachers the tools they need to improve their performance in the classroom and that Osborne has put principals into place who are educational leaders and not merely administrators. She noted that Osborne has trained the principals, and "that doesn't really cost any money."

As for the achievement gap, a perennial hot-button issue in the district, Crawford says it must be addressed through quality instruction, which isn't necessarily impacted by budget cuts. She and her colleagues are still waiting on the report from the Task Force on Equity and Excellence, convened to explore the district's current class leveling policies and to recommend changes.

She noted that the deleveling of the sixth grade has gone fairly smoothly, and she would support looking at extending it to seventh and eighth grades. However, she believes in the need for honors and AP-level classes in the high school.

Crawford observed that current Board members work well together under the leadership of Osborne—who "is exactly what this district needed"—and BOE President Mark Gleason, and that the learning curve to grasp the business of the Board is steep. Personally, she finds the work of the Board interesting and challenging and believes that her background positions her to make a contribution, in the area of curriculum, particularly.

"There's work that I've been involved in that's not completed yet," she said.