By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Marlton Telegram
As the race continues for three, 3-year seats opening up on the Evesham Township School District Board of Education, the candidates weighed in on what they think are the strengths and weaknesses of the school district.
(School board candidates Lisa Mansfield, Barry Fitzgerald and Joseph De Julius are running together and submitted a group response.)
The following are their responses:
Barry Fitzgerald, Lisa Mansfield and Joseph De Julius
The strengths of the Evesham Township School District are our:
• Amazing students, who are prepared to compete in an ever-changing global society.
• Caring staff who embrace a whole child approach to learning, teaching, and community engagement.
• Supportive parents, who are actively involved in our school community, PTAs, and PTOs.
• Challenging curriculum that extends the use of critical and creative thinking.
• Community service projects (Toys for Tots, Pennies for Haiti, Jump Rope for Heart, etc.), that allow our students to make decisions based on their individual interests.
• Superb NJQSAC results (state monitoring and evaluation system), which indicate Evesham is a high-performing school district.
• Award-winning communication, including the Evesham Reporter, E-News, Web site and Global Connect.
• Innovative cost-saving measures, including shared services with all of the school districts in the Lenape region (banking, trash collection, supplies, etc.).
Education is a process of continuous improvement. To identify areas in need of improvement, we foster strong partnerships with a variety of stakeholders.
Surveys, parent meetings, professional development programs, and committees are just some of the ways we consider how well the district is meeting the needs of all of our students. Board and district goals are set annually to provide direction for the upcoming year.
The 2010–2011 goals include improving communication, maximizing funding sources, implementing a preschool integrated program, developing a new long-range technology plan (the district met all of its goals from the 2007–2010 long-range technology plan), and exploring new green initiatives (paperless projects, solar energy, environmental education, etc.).
Our greatest challenge will be to balance a quality education with fiscal responsibility so that we can continue to provide outstanding academic and extracurricular programs for our students.
With limited state resources, impacting all public schools next year, we may need to explore alternative sources of revenue. The Evesham Education Foundation, which is already an outstanding resource, and booster clubs can help defray the cost of activities that benefit our students.
We remain committed to ensuring that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
Jay Levenson
Without a doubt, the teaching staff is the strongest element of our school district.
I know several of the teachers in the district personally, and they are fine examples of what comprises our instructional capability.
They are genuinely concerned for the education of our children. From attending many Evesham Town Council meetings and School Board meetings it is clear that the parents of our school children feel that our teachers do a wonderful job.
The district administration is another story.
From the past disaster of the handling of the “It’s a family” educational film, to the financial mess we find ourselves in today, the administration is clearly out of touch with community sentiment and the facts of life in today’s difficult economic environment.
Their insatiable demand for more funds, and thus more taxes, is driving people out of Evesham and will eventually erode the very tax base that supports our district.
The School Board has also failed our community.
They have allowed the administration to continue their tax-and-spend policies without significant opposition.
They allow the administration to cram major decisions down their throats using the excuse that there was inadequate time to prepare the Board in advance of their vote on important issues.
They have failed to operate in a transparent manner by keeping meeting agenda items from the public until the absolute last minute.
They fail to divulge the details about the issues they are voting on, while at the same time asking the public to make comments.
They fail to make the difficult decisions necessary to maintain the quality of education to which our community has become accustomed.
They do not do the job they were elected to do.
