Candidates: District must react to growth
Six vying for two seats on Jackson school board
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 03/29/07
BY FRAIDY REISS
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Post Comment
JACKSON — With thousands of new homes being built or proposed to be built in this town, candidates running for a seat on the local Board of Education have expressed different opinions on how the school district should react.
"We are crippled at this point, and it's only going to get worse," said Sharon E. Dey, one of six people vying for two seats on the board.
If the part-time accountant were elected to the board, she would work "aggressively" with the Planning Board to stop some of the development, she said.
"I guess I'd sit down with them (Planning Board members)," said Dey, 35, who is running for the first time. "I guess I'd have to really fight the continuing building."
Dey's running mate, Scott Sargent, said he too would work directly with the Planning Board if he were elected.
Sargent, a laborer for the township Department of Public Works who has never before run for public office, said he would get exact "facts and figures" from the Planning Board about new construction in town.
He then would work to minimize the impact of increased enrollment on current students and to ease the integration of new students into the school system, he said.
"It's all about management and responsibility," Sargent, 43, said.
Local schools already are using 37 trailers for instruction, said school board President Linda A. Lackay, who is running for re-election. Voters rejected a recent referendum question for a new school, leaving the district short at least one elementary school — and any more growth will worsen the problem, she said.
"We're still behind the eight-ball in terms of providing facilities for our students, and any new development will affect that," Lackay, 45, said.
Eventually the state will "override the voice of the people" by forcing the town to build new schools, added Lackay, who teaches at a high school in Mercer County.
Gus Acevedo, who also is running for re-election, could not be reached.
Candidate Sal Duscio, 78, said he is not concerned about new housing developments affecting the town's schools.
Duscio, a longtime township resident who has run unsuccessfully 11 times for a seat on the board, said local schools have "plenty of room" and the district needs to better utilize the buildings it has, not build more facilities.
"The trailers could be eliminated a little bit at a time," said Duscio, who repairs clocks and watches.
Nicolas Antonoff, 73, who is running with Duscio, agreed that overcrowding is not a problem in Jackson's schools. Students are happy in the trailers because they get their own restrooms and water fountains, he said.
Besides, Antonoff said, the district's 10 schools have 1,800 extra spaces. Board members could empty the trailers but choose not to do so, he said.
"They keep the trailers as leverage, to tell parents about the terrible condition of the trailers," said Antonoff, a semi-retired business consultant. "If it's terrible, it's their fault." |
