Election Preview: Meet the Board of Education Candidates

Eight residents are running in the school board election April 27 to fill four open seats on the Westwood Regional Board of Education.

Incumbent Lee-Ann Schaadt will run against Donna Firriolo for the open three-year term in Westwood.

Incumbents Barbara Gregory and Darlene Mandeville and challenger Susan Huber are running for two three-year terms in Washington Township.

For the one-year unexpired term in Westwood, Susan Swietkowski, who was appointed to the position Feb. 17; Chris Montana; and Russell Miller are in the running.

Patch asked each candidate to answer four questions about the campaign. Their answers are below.

Polls will be open from 2 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 27.

School Board Candidate Questions:

1. Why are you running for a seat on the Westwood Regional Board of Education?
   Donna Firriolo: I have always had a passion for education and believe that all children deserve a safe place to be inspired to learn. My background began in education, however, teaching jobs were scarce at the time. I have been fortunate to have had a career in consumer product sales for my entire working life and this has provided me with another perspective of what is necessary for our children to be successful. I believe that my strong work ethic and commitment to our district, as well as my desire to improve the opportunities for our children, will ensure that our students and community are receiving the best value for our tax dollars.
   
   Barbara Gregory: We have a lot of exciting initiatives taking place in our district. The new middle school has opened and is a resounding success -- this has always been a dream of mine. Ground has been broken for our new athletic field complex, I am excited to have our fields on the high school grounds. As curriculum chair of the board we have been working hard to realign the curriculum with the new National Core Standards and have recently opened our new science lab wing at the high school. Since I have been directly involved in working with the board to make these projects a reality I would now like to have the opportunity as a board member to see the students enjoy these improvements. I do not have a personal agenda. My goal is to provide a safe and quality education for all the students within our district.
   
   Susan Huber: My decision to run for the board is based upon my belief that all children deserve a quality education. As a community, we are investing a great deal of money into educating our children and I believe we need to recognize a significant return on that investment. I feel that the interrelationship between the school district, the parents and the rest of the community needs some improvement. The current standing as "a school in need of improvement" is a major issue and the current administration's decision to not post those areas that are in need of improvement is an example of this. As taxpayers, and parents of children in the school system, we should be kept more informed of issues this district faces.
   
   Darlene Mandeville: I am running for the Westwood Regional Board of Education because I believe deeply in the value a quality education affords to our children and our community as a whole. I believe my personal and professional experience, my strong work ethic as well as my ability to work cooperatively and collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal provide unique abilities that will serve the children and our community well.
   
   Rusty Miller: My main concern is overall district achievement. This challenge to raise the bar for the students is exciting and necessary to improve our community. I am confident with my business and personal experience that I can be part of a group that can make this challenge a reality.
   
   Chris Montana: Our children are not fully realizing our commitment to the promise of “Excellence in Education” and for too long I participated from the sideline with little impact. I believe that my involvement on the board with my style of strict goal setting and accountability will benefit our children, district and return on our educational investments. My personal and professional experience uniquely positions me to represent the Borough of Westwood on the board as we confront the issues facing our regional school district. As a parent and business executive I have learned how to cut through the “noise” and identify core issues and in conjunction with a team set goals, develop strategies and implement measurable solutions that get our kids to a finish line we can be proud of as parents and a community.
   
   Lee-Ann Schaadt: As a parent of a Westwood High School graduate and a long active member of the community, I have contributed my time and talents to many different organizations benefiting our children. I would be honored and privileged to continue this invaluable work by seeking election to another term as a Westwood Regional School District Board of Education Trustee, representing the Borough of Westwood.
   
   Susan Swietkowski: I feel that I am uniquely qualified to continue to serve on the Board of Education. My personal and community experience brings a fresh perspective to our board. When my youngest child begins kindergarten, I will have a child at each level of our schools -- elementary, middle and the Junior/Senior High School. I believe that this affords me a broader view of our educational system. As president of the Middle School PSO, I have shown the capability to work with both school administration and parents to address and solve problems and concerns. I feel that I can continue to work with all levels of our community to create a better school system for all our students.
   
   
2. If elected, what do you plan to do as a school board member?
   Donna Firriolo: Having served one three-year term already, I would continue to keep an open line of communication between the community and administration to ensure that we are moving in the right direction. Improvement in student achievement, increased fiscal responsibility and transparency in communication are key elements to a successful district.
   
   Barbara Gregory: My goal is to work with the board and administration to see that the Westwood Regional School District continues to move forward in the areas of curriculum, standardized test results and accountability. There is always room to strive for improvement, however having served 21 years on the board I can say without a doubt that we have made significant progress since I first joined.
   
   Susan Huber: My goal as a board member would be to facilitate cooperative interactions between the teachers, administration and community, to help develop strategies to address these areas of weakness, to enact a system of accountability to monitor our progress toward our goals and provide timely updates to the community regarding that progress.
   
   Darlene Mandeville: As a board member I would continue to represent and communicate with the public, work cooperatively with fellow board members and staff to make collaborative decisions that focus on the district goals we develop, as well as provide appropriate review and oversight that supports our programming goals.
   
   Rusty Miller: It will be my intention to improve the overall operation of the district. Whether financial or academic, cost effective procedures eluding to a gain in achievement should be the main goal of the Board of Education.
   
   Chris Montana: Jump in feet first to ensure the goals and objectives set by the board and administration are in line with what I have head from hundreds of parents and community members. These objectives include:
   - Improving the rigor and quality of our core curriculum allowing us to improve our test scores and school rankings as a natural result of what our schools produce, rather then prepping for the NJASK and HESPA tests.
   - Reviewing the curriculum and deliverables within:
        - The Special Services department with the goal of improving the education and services we provide our children with special needs.
        - The General Education program to ensure a challenging environment that allows our children to explore and exceed expectations.
   As a board member I would expect and promote leadership that inspires our children to achieve great things on an individual and community level. Only with this can we rally the support of parents and community.
   
   Lee-Ann Schaadt: I firmly believe that it is in the district’s best interest to maintain the board’s stability and continuity in order to solidify the administration’s goals and action plans. We have worked successfully together to achieve positive results throughout the district. Continuing this positive momentum in moving our school district forward is critical. With my experience, I can hit the ground running and waste no time working toward our ultimate goal – excellence in education.
   
   Susan Swietkowski: If elected to continue on the board I plan on ensuring that initiatives taken to help increase our test scores are effective. I plan on monitoring the progress of our upcoming curriculum changes to ensure that our students receive the comprehensive education they deserve.  I hope to work within the budget to maximize our tax dollars and advance achievement of all students in our district.
   
   
3. What do you think is the biggest issue facing the Westwood Regional School District right now? How would you address it?
   Donna Firriolo: Our biggest issue in our district right now is improving student achievement during tough economic times. We need to do more with less without sacrificing programs and services. This is becoming increasingly more difficult since we are all trying to manage our own personal resources -- often with little benefit. I believe that the best way to address this concern is to narrow our focus to specific key areas and establish measurable goals so that each child can achieve their own level of achievement and success.
   
   Barbara Gregory: Similar to many other school districts, we face the uncertainty of receiving adequate funding from the state. The state expects us to do more with less. However, there are fixed costs that are outside of our control such as insurance and utility costs among others. As part of the board we are being fiscally responsible by joining cooperatives and proactively seeking to reduce our costs. As a senior citizen I am always striving to be prudent with the taxpayers' dollars as I know what it is like to be on a fixed income.
   
   Susan Huber: The biggest issue facing the Westwood Regional School District is improving student achievement. Our 2010 academic ranking in NJ Monthly is 92. This is significantly below many of the surrounding districts. Pascack Hills in Montvale is ranked 7; Park Ridge is ranked 18; Ridgewood is ranked 20; Pascack Valley in Hillsdale is ranked 23; Northern Valley in Old Tappan is 30; and Emerson is 34. We need to find out why we’re so low relative to these other districts. We need to identify those areas and then identify solutions to help those students. If we haven’t already done so, we should reach out to these other districts and see if we can learn best practices from them.
   
   Darlene Mandeville: The biggest issue facing any school district is improving student achievement with appropriate fiscal responsibility. As a singular board member you have no ability to address any issue; all decisions have to be made by the board as a whole. However I do believe that if we as a board narrow our focus, set measurable goals and require consistent accountability, our students and community will reap the rewards of our hard work by witnessing increased student achievement.
   
   Rusty Miller: Our district, like the balance of districts through the state, are facing budgetary constraints. Taxing verses expenditures is becoming an epidemic problem. Our cost per student is escalating, with a decrease in the state wide ratings. I decisive review of our district’s operation and compare it to other school districts that have shown best practices. As an example: shared services including other districts and our local municipalities.
   
   Chris Montana: I believe we need to get our house in order. Declining test scores and school rankings are not a reflection of our children’s ability, rather a curriculum in need of attention and measurable long- and short-term goals and oversight to ensure we are meeting expectations. We rival our neighboring districts when compared to the overall budget and amount spent per student, yet we do not see the same positive results. I believe it is a matter of common sense, by laying out achievable expectations of our kids and staff that is supported by a strong core curriculum we can put our district on the right track.
   
   Lee-Ann Schaadt: The current challenges that the district is currently facing is maintaining a budget that will be able to not negatively impact the amazing programs that we currently have in place for all of the students in the district. Test scores are another challenge that we are currently addressing. Some of the different ways that we have been addressing it this year has been to develop
   - NJASK action plans for each building
   - Administrators created the NJASK Primer, which is a guidebook for teachers to ensure consistency amongst our schools in preparation for the test, as well as the NJASK Parent Primer for parents.
   - Teachers received 13 hours of staff development from district administration, as well as nationally renowned testing expert Casey Blau. Additionally, for the first time ever, this staff development occurred for teachers in grades 2-5 (even though second is not a tested subject), for general education, special education, BSI and ESL teachers.
   
   Susan Swietkowski: One of the biggest challenges facing our school board is the pressure to increase test scores. This academic year the district has already recognized this need. We have adopted a preparation program that is district wide, instead of building based. The training has included all general education, special education, ESL and BSL teachers. Since September our staff has participated in 13 hours of training regarding our test scores. I believe that moving forward this strategy will help to not only increase our rate of proficient students, but will ultimately increase the number of students that are advanced proficient. Another challenge facing our district is maintaining comprehensive programs while practicing financial restraint. In the current economic conditions it has become harder to balance the needs of our students with the need to keep our budget in check. We have to continue to explore opportunities for cost savings.
   
   
4. If you could change one thing about the school district what would it be and why?
   Donna Firriolo: First, I would like to say that I believe that we have a wonderful school district here. I CHOOSE to live here because I have always loved the town of Westwood and I knew that my children would receive a good education. My children are in high school now, and I have to say that the majority of teachers that have inspired my daughters, were terrific! I am pleased to see an overall commitment from supporting staff positions, our principals, parents and -- of course -- our students. I believe all these components have to work together in order for us to be truly successful. However, if I had to change one thing about our district now, though, it would be to improve the academic achievement of ALL our students. I believe that we have a good foundation in place but need to do a better job of identifying areas of weakness. So often, it is far simpler to ride the success of the past and maintain the status quo because that’s the way things were always done. That eventually catches up to us. It takes an unwaivering commitment to transparency between the school district and our community to uncover and evaluate the reasons why something isn’t working as well as it should. We have seen a decline in test scores in recent years despite an increase in school work and homework from our children. We put our children through the increased rigors of preparing for tests and projects -- often with less than stellar results. So often our children are stressed because we may be trying to cover too much versus focusing in on specific methodologies that have been proven in other districts. We have an obligation to look and think outside the box for more efficient and effective ways to provide our children with the best tools for success.
   
   Barbara Gregory: I can't honestly think of one particular thing I would like to see changed. My hope and desire is to see Westwood Regional School District continue to strive for excellence, quality and to provide all the children with the skills they need to become successful future leaders.
   
   Susan Huber: I believe that the Westwood Regional School District is a good district, but one that can certainly improve. As I mentioned earlier, we are significantly lower than many of our other neighboring districts. We need to work for improvement in our yearly state test scores. We must take the areas where are students are not doing well on the state tests and work even harder in the classroom on those areas. The children should be tested on these areas several times during the year and have the teachers report back to the principals and the parents as to the progress the children are making on such area. Therefore, when it comes time for the state testing, the students are well prepared. We need to ensure the administration is listening to the concerns of the parents and taking these concerns seriously, and making sure we’re all working towards a common goal that all students are being well educated.
   
   Darlene Mandeville: Overall, I believe we have the components for great success; motivated students, engaged parents, caring teachers, dedicated principals and attentive staff. No school district is perfect, but if I could only change one thing, I would put in place a policy that clearly defines and narrows our goal for student achievement and our methodology for measuring progress. As current research shows, the most effective changes are those that are measurable and data driven. To facilitate analysis and collection of that data, I would encourage the district to create or purchase a computer-based program that would more easily enable teachers, administrators and parents to monitor and analyze student performance. This database would easily combine all facets of a student’s performance (NJ ASK scores broken down by subgroups, grades, as well as the results of a variety of other district created assessments) and would enable the district to identify trends in our educational system (strengths and weaknesses). Maintaining such a system would mean that the district would no longer have to wait for yearly test results to gauge student achievement, and would allow the district to readjust our time and resources to effect the changes we find necessary. Such a system would provide timely feedback, free up our administrators who currently dedicate a massive amount of time to this endeavor and promote accountability by allowing the Board of Education to dedicate taxpayer dollars to clearly identified, data-driven programs that are proven effective or meet identified areas of need.
   
   Rusty Miller: I would like to promote better communications between the staff, administration and parents. At any time a parent should be able to contact the district for any concern of their child. The Board of Education needs to work collaboratively with the faculty and parents to improve the communications with the intent of improving the quality of education.
   
   Chris Montana: I would like to review (not necessarily change) how we as a school district are structured. I feel we are extremely “top heavy” as a district and are committing significant budget resources to “non-teaching” roles. I am not advocating change, rather a review to determine if this is the most effective use of budget resources or a preferred management style. Without regard to the economic environment, it is the board’s responsibility to make sure we as a district are utilizing every dollar in the most effective way.
   
   Lee-Ann Schaadt: It would be to have the ability to influence Trenton to change the tax laws so that there would be other ways to fund education and the burden would not be not be so heavy on the property owners.
   
   Susan Swietkowski: If there were something I would change about our district, I would create a true middle school, by bringing down the eighth-graders to the current WRMS. Middle school aged students have different needs than lower elementary and high school aged students. We made a wonderful step this past year by reconfiguring the district to create the middle school. The next step is to finish the transition and have the eighth-graders moved. Unfortunately, due to space and financial constraints this cannot happen at the present time. I have hope that sometime in the future this goal can be achieved.