Dear Editor:
I’m writing to explain why the people should elect the Board of Education in West New York as opposed to being appointed.
First off, nepotism should stay out of the schools. Whenever a person is given a job, a raise in status for more money, the interview should be based on merit and merit alone. It should not be based on who donated to a political campaign or any political favor.
Politics should stay out of the schools. I wonder how extensive was the search for our present Superintendent of Schools? Our mayor stated he kept the schools out of politics. He must have forgotten how he criticized our previous mayor for appointing his sister as Superintendent of Schools. He was critical of her qualifications. His dislike for Defino still goes on because the only mayor’s portrait not in the court chambers is Mayor Defino, who was mayor for 24 years. Talk about taking away history! He also left out the fact, when Sires got in office, he went right to the Board of Education and fired the Board President, Dr. F. Cordasco, who by the way fought his removal in the courts and won and was re-appointed to the Board. Richard Tedesco, resigned from the Board after running on a ticket against Sires but I guess he saw the error of his ways and also was re-appointed, but the mayor keeps politics out of schools. The other day, the Governor, the king of nepotism, who appointed his buddy as Homeland Security Advisor, at over $110,000 despite his qualifications, spoke at our new middle school with Sires, who was made Speaker of the House by the Governor and the Superintendent who was appointed by the mayor, oops I’m sorry by the Board. One big happy family of politics in the schools! Way to keep politics out of the schools!
Lastly, the state of NJ had to borrow $2.8 billion to balance the budget to pay for all these new schools. The Governor can’t borrow next year (maybe that’s why he’s resigning). What happens if there are drastic cuts to the Abbott districts? Who is going to pay all these high salaries, which the town people never had a shot at approving? Who is going to pay for the stands at the brand new field so people can watch the game? One day is going to come where the state will say we can’t afford paying 80 percent of the tab to build your schools and pay your high salaries. If it drops to 50-50, the 30 percent will be charged to the homeowners without their vote to decide about all these projects. I think residents should decide what is best for us in the town. The Board of Education deals with a lot of money, makes a lot of personnel decisions. We need independent thinkers on this Board, not afraid of saying you know you are wrong on this one, Mr. Superintendent. We need a woman or two, maybe a parent of a school child on the Board. When Mayor Sires ran in 1995, he made lots of promises. No more nepotism, he was only going to run for two terms, 24 years was too long. Now in his third term, nepotism is rampant at higher salaries. If my children want to become teachers like their Mom, I want to be able to say to them, work hard and you will achieve your goals, not that you have to work for the mayor, buy his tickets and you will be in.
Bill Parkinson