Why I Support an Appointed Board of Education
I believe a school board appointed by the Mayor has served Summit well.
The deadline for candidates to file for a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot is 4 p.m. Aug. 16.
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Editor's Note: This opinion piece was updated by Dennis White on Saturday Sept. 17 to provide attribution to his opponent's quote.
My opponent for the Common Council seat in Ward 2 supports “explore moving to an elected school board” (Summit Patch, July 18, 2011), citing a supposed decline in Summit public schools. I disagree. I believe a school board appointed by the Mayor has served Summit well, and we should spend our time and resources on more pressing issues.
How have our schools performed under an appointed board? According to the facts, very well. Summit students excel academically, athletically and artistically. The percentage of graduates from the Class of 2011 attending the most selective colleges is among the highest, at 28%, in the history of the district. Summit graduates excel in Advanced Placement courses, with 87% scoring 3 or higher on AP exams. Student performance improved this year on the state’s High School Proficiency test. Ten district sports teams won conference, county, regional or state championships. Summit students won national awards in forensics, exhibited artwork in statewide events, were selected for regional and state bands, orchestras and choruses, and garnered multiple prestigious theater nominations and awards.
Summit schools achieved these results working with a diverse student body and significantly more low-income students than surrounding towns (Summit’s low-income student population is 12%, while that of Chatham and Millburn is less than 1.5%). These are results we can be proud of, a tribute to our appointed Board members working collaboratively with dedicated administrators and teachers.
The experience of NJ districts with elected boards shows that voter turnout for school board elections is usually very low, typically under 15%, which means that a small group of residents dictates who serves on the board. Candidates are often one-issue candidates (e.g., fire the superintendent, remove a book from the library, change the health curriculum). In fact, in many communities, school board candidates run unopposed. In Summit, on the other hand, both Republican and Democratic mayors have been able to appoint highly qualified professionals to the Board on a nonpartisan basis.
Is there room for improvement in our schools? Of course. But there is no evidence that an elected school board, with all the politics that come with an election, will get us better results.
Summit faces many important challenges. Let’s not get distracted by a false issue.
A. Dennis White
Candidate for Common Council, Ward 2
MsSummit
4:28 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011
We need an elected school board. Summit schools are clearly not competitive with many surrounding school districts. Look at the number of kids who leave for the Magnet and for private schools. Aside from the taxation without representation, there are accountability issues and conflict of interest issues. Would you want the President of the US to appoint the Congress? It sounds as though you have drank the proverbial Summit Kool-aid. I hope for the sake of our kids you are not elected.
summitdude
7:21 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011
For starters, Mr. Hurley's quote should probably be sourced. Not to do so is poor etiquette. A hyperlink to this information should have been easy enough to find.
Secondly, "exploring" does not exactly mean he is endorsing an elected school board. To a certain extent you seem to be putting words in his mouth. Again, a proper sourcing would help here. Exploring is also no sin. I am in favor of EXPLORING every option to lower costs and improve quality schools. That doesn't exactly mean I consider each one a good idea or decide each is worth implementing. If we don't "explore" things, how will we know what will work and what won't?
I also in no way think this is a "false issue." The management of our public schools is very much an issue (if not the number one issue) in our town. Electing a school board has many merits. Let's EXPLORE those merits as a town, not rule it out or call it a "false issue."
I also should make a point to readers that you glossed over. "All the politics that come with an election," gives the impression that school board elections would a partisan affair. On the contrary. School board elections would take place in April and they are nonpartisan ballots. There would be "politics," of course, this is life after all, however not "politics" as in Washington gridlock politics.
An elected school board may be a mechanism to hold members accountable, which would help ensure due diligence.
summitdude
7:23 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011
Another omission from this letter is that there is no mention of the fact that the school budget appears on school board ballots. Votes would have the chance to vote the budget up or down. Every year we have the chance to hold council members accountable for the budgets they pass. Why not be able to do so for the school board? (They actually have a bigger budget!)
Summit Res
9:50 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011
I guess I'll be voting Republican for the first time in my life! (Even though I disagree 100% with Hurley's stance on Planned Parenthood)
Your so called "facts" are hardly such. For instance, NP does much better by almost every measure despite it smaller size. Summit does well in these tests because we live in a well off community, where many students get private tutoring and attend SAT, AP & college prep classes, and generally come from households where there is significant parental involvement. They do "well" despite the schools not because of them.
I like being in a diverse community - you make it sound like a bad thing.
Summit has no science labs in the middle school, yet spent over $800K on unneeded renovations to the HS Auditorium, (and no I'm not talking about the safety issues - they were covered by RODS grants). We spent a fortune on turfed fields, and dropped a division so our team could appear to do better -success by lowering the bar! Their board's priorities are all wrong. We have a mayor whose children attend private school, yet he is the one who appoints our school board and casts the deciding vote on the Board of School Estimate. I believe the BOE's former president also sent his kids to private school? If you believe that these are "non issues" then why are you attacking your opponent on them, you can only lose votes - and you just lost mine. I hate sound negative, but you are living in la-la land, having taken a big gulp of the Summit Kool-Aid!
Bill Wilson
9:35 pm on Monday, September 19, 2011
I saw the list of schools the graduates are attending. Hardly the "most selective colleges."
Bill Wilson
9:36 pm on Monday, September 19, 2011
Summit Res, please please please, despite this, do not vote for Hurley. His prior (i.e. sincere, before he was running for office) posts are nothing short of venemous.
Summit Res
10:26 pm on Monday, September 19, 2011
Bill - As it happens, I'm in the other ward so I will not have to make that difficult choice. Despite his venom I do agree with some of the positions he has taken in the past, can't remember which because of the deleting, and I do admire him and (I assume you) for posting with real names, unlike myself who feels the need to post anonymously for fear of retaliation against my children.