School Board Profiles: John Hayden

Editor's note: Due to the large number of candidates in this year's school board election, we'll run a pair of candidate profiles each day for through Sunday. Each candidate was asked to provide a biography and answer a set of questions.

On Monday, we'll provide a final wrap-up of the school budget and provide links to all candidate profiles.

John Hayden and his wife, Amanda, have been West Deptford residents for 12 years. They have two sons, Adrian, 6, and Ashton, 3, and are expecting their third child this spring. Mr. Hayden earned his B.S. in computer science from the University of Delaware and has spent his professional career as a Unix systems administrator.

As a concerned parent and a concerned taxpayer, I think that we all have a duty to our children and our neighbors to get involved with our schools. A quality education is one of the greatest gifts we can give to our children.

An efficient use of our tax dollars to provide that education is the obligation of the Board of Education to the taxpayers, especially in the current economic climate. I believe that these things are not mutually exclusive; it is possible to provide a quality education while remaining mindful of the financial struggles that all West Deptford residents are facing every day.

Debating ideas is never a bad thing, and I always welcome an energetic discussion of the issues. The people who have run the West Deptford Board of Education in recent history have done an admirable job, but I believe that the time has come to inject some new ideas and new perspective into the board by voting in some new members.

1: What's your main reason for running this year?

For over a year, I have been attending board meetings regularly, and during that time, I can count on one hand the number of “nay” votes that I heard cast by any board member, though abstentions seem to occur with metronomic regularity. I have witnessed the board dismiss issues and concerns brought forth by members of the public, including violations of the board's own policies and regulations, with no questions or interaction of any kind by any board member other than the board president.

Rarely do members of the board question any of the items they are asked for vote on at each meeting. Only when members of the public raise questions about agenda items do the board members seem to feel obligated to ask questions of their own.

Anyone who knows me, or has talked to me, knows that I am always up for a spirited debate. Good debates bring out good ideas and can shed light on bad ones. The current board seems unable, or unwilling, to debate any of the issues they vote on. There are no devil’s advocates serving on the board today, and I would fill that role quite nicely.

2: If elected, what, if any, changes would you look to make?

It would be naive of me to claim that I would be able to make sweeping changes to the board if I am elected. As one vote out of nine, the chances of me being able to change anything single-handed is absurd, but serving as the voice of doubt and/or dissent, I can try to ensure that the board, and the public, understands more of the issues than they do today.

Many members of the public feel disenfranchised when it comes to the school district. Until this year, many of the board members ran unopposed for their seats, and even if the public defeats the budget, the township has the authority to overrule their opposition completely.

Couple this with the way the board seemingly disregards the public’s concerns, the way they did over grade level schools, and this hardly makes people believe that their vote counts for much of anything. The only way this feeling of disenfranchisement will ever change will be if the public starts electing board members who will listen to their concerns and take them into consideration when considering major changes.

3: What do you think you bring to the board, in terms of experience and viewpoint?

First and foremost, I am a parent and a taxpayer. Too many members of the current board, and some of those seeking the position for the first time this election, are connected to teachers or others who have financial dealings with the district. In many conversations I have had with members of the voting public, they have all expressed interest in removing those people who appear to be more beholden to teachers than they are the students or the taxpayers.

I do not carry any of those allegiances; I am not related to anyone with financial ties to the district. This is not to say that I am anti-teacher. Good teachers are the heart and soul of any school, and they deserve to be treated fairly, but any contract that the district enters into with the teachers needs to be mindful of the costs to the taxpayers and the needs of the students. The BOE is elected by the voters to run the school district, and they need to answer to the taxpayers and no one else.

4: What do you think is the most important issue facing the West Deptford school district?

If I have to put a pin in any single issue as the “most important,” it would have to be the ever-increasing budget. The total amount that the district “needs” to operate climbs every year. Yes, there have been a few tax decreases over the years, but every one of those decreases is accompanied by an increase in state aid, not from a reduction in spending.

This year is no different. A 2-percent tax levy increase is being masked by an increase in state aid of over $400,000 and a claimed “2.12-cent decrease for the average home owner” which can be solely attributed to the recent revaluations. At this point, the “average home owner” is actually unable to tell if his taxes are going up or down, but the claim of a 2.12-cent decrease is being used to mislead the voters into believing that this year will see a tax decrease for almost everyone, as opposed to the 12 cent tax increase we all incurred last year.

The fact remains that over the last 12 budgets (1999-2011), where the home assessments have been fairly constant, the average tax increase has been 7.68¢ per year. The district would like the taxpayers to focus on the 2.12-cent tax decrease for the “average home owner,” the largest decrease in the last 10 years, but that is a decrease in the tax rate which is not a valid indicator, since home assessments have changed, not on the overall tax levy, which is going up over $557,000.

5: Why should voters choose you?

Voters should choose me if they want to have a voice of doubt or dissent on the board. They should choose me if they want someone to question, in public, the items the board is asked to vote on at every meeting. Voters should choose me if they want someone on the board who does not have any reason to abstain from any vote due to conflicts of interest. And they should choose me if, like me, they are tired of the way the board conducts their business, and they want to send the board a message that the public is watching and they do not like what they see.