Our Vision

We are troubled by the transportation problems that have accompanied the start of yet another school year. Late arrivals and delayed drops off disrupt not just students' mindset, energy and learning time, but also negatively impacts teachers ability to run a smooth class. There are examples of students simply not being picked up by their bus, and other examples of failed communication with parents on bus timings and routes. This is not acceptable. Unfortunately, transportation problems have been a perennial feature of what should be a joyful back-to-school season. Many parents are rightly asking why this issue has persisted year after year. The decision by the Board several years ago to sell the bus fleet has forced the District to rely on contracted companies, which has led to a lack of consistency. Despite strides made by Superintendent Bing to address the problems with transportation, we believe things could have gone differently. If elected we will work with other Board members and the District to ascertain the reasons for ongoing challenges and develop a detailed and pressure-tested transportation plan well before the school year begins. The transportation plan must leverage technology better, improve communication with parents, and include ongoing sharing of information on construction/infrastructure projects in Maplewood and South Orange for better route planning. We will also work together to assess our transportation vendor, the capacity of the District's business office to manage operations, and the adequacy of the budget to meet the transportation plan.

We have rapidly grown from a K-12 District to a PreK-12 one. We’ll work to ensure that all Pre-K families, no matter their child’s building placement, feel included in the District and have all of the information they need to make informed decisions for their child. We will also work with the District to enhance processes for continuous parental feedback and implementation of a smoother transition leading into Kindergarten.

High school is a time of discovery and self-expression, when students pursue various interests and more challenging coursework, including in the arts, athletics, STEM, global studies, and our environmental future. The District should foster this discovery by offering a variety of courses that meet a wide range of student interests and prepare our students for careers in emerging and evolving sectors in the 21st century. High school should also be a safe space for students in what can be a challenging time, and the District must foster those spaces for LGBTQIA+ students, students of color, immigrant families, and others. The District should also continue to support programs and initiatives, such as MAC and the Achieve Foundation, that provide additional academic support for students and help to bridge opportunity gaps. Additionally, the newly re-launched Freshman Academy must incorporate teacher and student feedback to make the program all it can be.

Special Education: Families deserve a special education system that works. The experience of special education families is often a deeply frustrating one and has sometimes left parents to feel that their only recourse is a lawsuit. The District needs stronger IEP and 504 processes and implementation that ensure consistency, responsiveness, compassionate communication, and accountability. With new District leadership, we have an opportunity to finally build those systems and trust. The District was right to listen to the community’s concerns and withdraw its proposal to eliminate inclusion classroom co-teachers for science and social studies. The District should continue to improve the co-teaching inclusion model. Our Gifted & Talented (G&T) and Twice-Exceptional (2E) students need particular attention as well. The District has recently changed the process for identifying gifted students and expanded on its multi-tiered system of supports. It should ensure that G&T and 2E learners have integrated supports to nurture their strengths, address their challenges, and help them realize their full potential.

The District’s charge is to raise well-rounded adults who are active participants in democracy and society. To achieve that, the District must prepare students not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well. From Pre-K to elementary, middle, and high school, our children need a strong curriculum on social and emotional learning. They must also receive support not just from their teachers, but from school counselors. We will work with the District to bolster support, professional growth and best-in-class programs to empower these professionals to focus on their core role as counselors to students.

Screens and AI are transforming education and our world, posing both opportunities and challenges. There are great opportunities to prepare students to thrive in a technology-infused world. There are also challenges, as AI is quickly transforming academics and careers, and as screens used outside the school day can give rise to bullying and social anxieties. We will encourage the District to fully leverage educational technology wherever it can be a benefit to our students’ growth, while also making common sense decisions to reduce over-use of technology that may hamper educational growth or harm school culture and student well-being. District policy around technology should incorporate lessons from districts across the country and be rooted in research on child development. We plan to collaborate with District leaders and the community to create policies to take care of our students’ all around growth and wellbeing.

It is not the Board, but the Superintendent, District officials, and ultimately teachers who do the hard work of educating our District’s students. Having a strong sense of community within each District building will provide support between teachers, administrators, and parents. We will work with the Superintendent to replicate best practices across all of our school buildings to foster and enhance trust and community. The District must treat teachers as the professionals they are, valuing their experiences and providing opportunities for them to grow in their practice. If our teachers feel empowered and supported by their administrators, they can successfully meet the needs of our students across all grade levels.

We are living in a strained budget environment. Costs are rising faster than the cap imposed by the State on tax revenue growth, and the State often fails to provide the aid that is called for in law. If elected, we will work alongside other Board members and the administration to address rising costs through responsible budgeting, forward-looking capital planning, advocacy at the state level, and clear communication with the community. The Board must insist on continued long-range budget planning. It must work collaboratively and creatively with the District to allocate resources equitably, explore new sources of revenue, and control spending while keeping in mind student learning and wellbeing.

Especially in these difficult fiscal times, the District must keep the public informed about the budget and how it will impact students. We applaud the District’s recent budget presentations to illuminate the state of our finances and to collaborate with the new Budget Advisory Committee. There is more that can be done to ensure that budgeting, facilities planning, and program evaluations are more accessible and understandable to families and staff. In particular, the District should again publish a cost-center view of the budget to illustrate what is being spent in which areas, and to be transparent about where reductions in force are occurring and where. The District should also make clear how it proposes to prioritize the $423 million in facilities repairs and upgrades that it has identified in the Major Amendment to the Long Range Facilities Plan.

During a particularly precarious and lean budget period, and in a time of heightened concern for many families, we remain steadfast in our commitment to racial diversity, LGBTQIA+ rights, and progressive values. We will stand by those values, actively monitor federal policies, challenge unlawful funding cuts, and protect programs that support every student’s growth and well-being. And by keeping families informed, hosting community conversations, and working with partners at the local and state level, we will ensure our schools remain safe, inclusive, and focused on the needs of students.

We will ensure that there is a platform for elevating what is working and apply those learnings across the District. We will celebrate school-level success stories and promote practices that have a positive impact.

We commit ourselves to establishing clear goals, publicly sharing progress, and holding the District accountable for outcomes—academic, social-emotional, and fiscal. We will also track our own Board goals progress.

As improvements to communication increase, we will also make sure the community has the information it needs to understand the “whys and hows” of the decisions being made at the Board level. The public has a right to provide meaningful input into those decisions. Therefore, we will ensure that students and parents are provided the time and opportunity to voice their concerns and agreements outside of the public speaks portion of the Board meetings.

Conversations about our schools can devolve into vitriol, particularly online. Disagreement is healthy when it is constructive, and we will foster constructive dialogue, seeking to have all families, including those new to the District and historically underrepresented, be informed, included, and empowered to engage. We will rely on evidence-based information without dismissing anecdotal stories from our community members. Whether listening in public forums or seeking out apprehensive voices, we will foster dialogue that makes room for everyone to be heard.

Parents are partners with the schools in the education of their kids, and they should not struggle to find the information they need. We will work with the District and Communications Director Mr. Draper to provide simple and effective communication to parents and improve upon the dissemination of information to parents in our key demographic languages, and improve the website so that necessary information is easily accessible to parents.