Four candidates are vying for three positions in this year’s Board of Education elections. One ticket includes parent Theresa Burns and Hoboken City Clerk James Farina, both of whom are incumbents, along with political newcomer George Fonseca. That “Excellence in Education” slate is backed by Mayor Anthony Russo. Running as an independent is Sean Sovak, who is also new to politics.
Currently, most of the school board members are allied with Russo. The present board’s accomplishments include having kept the school tax rate stable for seven years and having instituted new programs including charter schools.
The election will be held on April 17. The polls will be open between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. There are no morning voting hours.
Sean Sovak
Sovak, 28, is a political newcomer to Hoboken and an independent running for a seat on the School Board of Education. The University of Pennsylvania graduate has lived in Hoboken with his wife since his graduation in 1994. He has spent the past seven years focusing on his career at a Manhattan real estate finance company, W.P. Carey, which has more than $100 billion in assets.
“I believe I am qualified for this position because I have a high level of energy and enthusiasm,” Sovak said Tuesday. “I came out of the public school system and believe that I will bring a fresh perspective to the Hoboken schools.”
Sovak believes that his experience in the business world makes him an excellent candidate. His business skills include allocating resources, creating and maintaining budgets, sustaining interpersonal relationships, managing projects. “One thing that I’ve learned is that you have to keep an open mind,” he said. “In every situation I want to know what is going on, what we are going to do about it, and why are we doing it. It’s all about listening to people.”
Sovak’s priorities are to streamline the schools’ budgets, set high testing goals, provide better guidance programs, and make sure that the most important priority is the children. “There is a lot of money in the school budget,” he said. “I want to make sure that it is being spent effectively. And I am worried about the current allocations of funds and resources.”
Sovak also is an advocate for open lines of communications within the board.
“I want an open book mentality and full discovery,” Sovak said. “If we have an issue, let’s deal with it, and make sure that everything is on the table. Only when you are working together, can you get things done, and if we do that, the money will be spent wisely, effectively, and efficiently.”
George Fonseca
George Fonseca, 44, is a veteran of the Hoboken Police Department and a member of Russo’s Excellence in Education ticket. Fonseca is married with three children and has been living in Hoboken since 1963. He was a Marine for six years and has been active coaching Little League and basketball, and has walked a police beat for the last 16 years.
“There are a couple different areas where I think I can be beneficial to the schools,” he said Thursday evening. “Walking a beat for 16 years, I see what’s going on and I understand and talk to children all the time, so I understand what their concerns are.” Fonseca would like to expand recreation programs and sports and enhance school safety.
“I want to get parents more involved in their child’s lives,” Fonseca said last week. “With the string of recent school shootings, I believe it is important to teach students respect for their elders, and to ensure that they have a safe learning environment. Safety isn’t something that can be overlooked.”
Fonseca, who is Hispanic, also realizes that since he is a minority in a district that has a large number of minority students, he will be someone who students can go to and can look up to as a role model.
“I am approachable,” he said. “I’ve always been good in one-on-one situations.”
Fonseca also supports greater computer access in the schools, and he expressed that there should be a commitment to the school’s 3-and 4-year-old programs.
James Farina
The 53-year-old Farina has spent his entire life in Hoboken, and has been on the School Board since 1974. He also has been the city clerk since 1984, and a long time Russo ally. Before that, he was the director of Health, Welfare, and Recreation. He is an active member of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church and maintains current membership with The Elk’s Lodge and assists in adult and teen sports leagues.
“My experience over the past 20 years is one of my biggest assets,” Farina said last week. “I have worked with so many different boards. I’ve been a part of both the majorities and minorities.”
Farina believes that the schools are in good shape, but there is always room for improvement.
“Our schools have scored as one of the highest in the state out of the Abbott districts,” he said. The Abbott districts are urban school districts that get special state funding. They are selected based on the number of low-income students who qualify for free school lunches.
One of the schools that Farina campaigns for is the Connors Primary School, which scored extremely poorly on their last round of standardized testing. “We need to get help to the Connor School so that they’re able to achieve what the other schools in the area are doing,” Farina said. “We need to sit down with the teachers and the administration there and figure out a solution. Because it’s the teachers that are there every day, that know first hand what the problem is and how to improve that situation.”
Farina also hopes to effectively disperse $56 million in recently obtained state aid dollars.
“This money is going to help in the process of the renovation of the schools,” Farina said. “This summer it’s going to help roof some of the buildings and bring the schools up to date and make them more conducive to learning.”
Theresa Burns
Running for re-election on Mayor Russo’s slate, 41-year-old Theresa Burns believes that she has learned a lot in her first three years on the board.
Burns is currently employed as a teacher in the Caldwell/West Caldwell School District and is married with two children who attend the Wallace School here in Hoboken. She is a graduate of Montclair State University, a former Marine, an active member of the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) and is also active in the HOPES, which is a Hoboken volunteer organization dedicated to stomping out poverty.
“I have a passion for quality education,” she said Thursday. “I recognize that there are a lot of wonderful things happening in Hoboken, but we have to continue to expand these programs. If there are two things that I have learned in my first three years, is that you have to be patient, and you have to communicate.”
Some of Burns’ goals would be to increase communication between the Board of Ed., the administration, the teachers, the parents and the students. She also praises the schools for being at the top among Abbott school districts, but would like to see them improve to the level of more affluent suburban neighborhoods.
“The only way to move forward is to work together,” she said. “I think that there are so many good things happening, and I want the community to see that. I think a lot of the achievements happening in the schools today are being overlooked, and I want to get the word out about the good stuff that’s going on.”