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Schools

Six Board of Ed Candidates Vie For Three Open Full-Term Dais Seats

None of the six candidates running for three, three-year terms is an incumbent

The three incumbent Middletown Township Board of Education members whose seats are up on the nine-member board are not running in this year's election. Vying to fill their three-year seats are six newcomers to the race. 

Each has pointed to a vast number of issues they'd like to address in the district if elected.

In interviews with the candidates, everything from better budget balancing, to improvement of school facilities, to exploration of more shared services, to greater focus on academics were listed as motivations for running.

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Others cited imminent district needs such as transparency, tackling pension reform and review and reassessment of administrators' salaries. One candidate said that the simple addressing of  "negative rhetoric" on and around the board is critical.

All felt they had the expertise, qualifications and background necessary to make them most qualified for the job.

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Voters will decide at the polls tomorrow, April 27, which of the three candidates running for the three-year terms will serve as their new Board of Education members.

In the meantime, Patch has the background and comments of each for your review ...

Bob Superti, 36 Oakwood Road

Superti has been retired from AT&T,  where he worked for 35 years, since 1989, as an auditor and technological consultant.  In his line of work, he said, reducing costs for customers, improving productivity and expanding AT&T’s client "enterprise" were his areas of expertise.

Outside of the corporate structure, in the political arena, for approximately three years Superti has been a county Democratic committeeman. He also volunteers his time promoting the Middletown Fire Department and working with the non-profit 180 Turning Lives Around. He is a life member of both the Red Bank Elks and the McKee Technical High School Alumni.

While he has never served on the Middletown Board of Education, Superti is a former board member of the Paramus board. He also served on the ad hoc committee for Middletown’s Building and Maintenance Committee, which was charged with studying the school facilities.

"I would bring expertise in maintenance and deteriorating facilities, and finance," he said. "I know what needs to operate a school system," pointing out that in his career he has analyzed insurance policies and understands contracts. With that sort of experience, he feels he can better help clarify and address areas of concern in the school district.

Calling himself a troubleshooter by nature, Superti also said his understanding of how spending works and past experience examining proficiencies in a company would be beneficial contributions to the board.

"I would attack all the negative rhetoric that is hurting our schools, clarify the false statements, such as demonizing our teachers," he said. "Many things that are said that are inaccurate about our schools, I would be the voice to verify some of those things," he said.

Bob Banta, 180 Lohsen Avenue

For ten years, Banta has owned Banta Translation Services, which provides professional translation services to the legal and medical profession. His part-time job, for five years, has him driving the local school bus route for the children.

Banta is a class parent at his child’s school, a volunteer firefighter for Belford Engine No. 3, a coach for Pop Warner, and the director of soccer for St. Mary’s Athletic Association.

His motivation for running is the fiscal situation. "What drove me to run was the budget cuts," Banta said. "I saw how disastrous they were last year; and this year there are more cuts. I want to be a part of the dialogue and process to determine what will be cut."

Ensuring fiscal responsibility is key, he said, adding that in his role as a board member he would make sure "we just don’t cut to cut, but keep programs that are important to the kids." Banta's solution to accomplishing that goal is to examine where there is fat in the budget to cut and do so. He said he can bring "cohesion, use my skills, draw upon teamwork, to get board working together."

Banta said he also believes someone on the board is needed to "unite everyone" so they "can do what they are capable of, moving forward."

His past work experience, including retail and team-building skills, he feels will help him in his board role. Shared services, he believes, is another initiative that the board needs to look at more in depth.

"I plan to offer a fresh perspective on things," Banta said. "You need to look at all sides, and no side should be discounted. You have to look at every possible avenue."

Gerry Wexelberg, 8 Downing Court

Gerry Wexelberg has owned a security systems engineering company, Dynamic Security LLC, Edison, for the past 20 years.  His volunteer work includes coaching for Pop Warner, serving as president of the Booster Club at Middletown High School North, and assisting with Rude Awakening, Project Prom and the Great Race in the township.

The main reason Wexelberg said he is running: "I believe transparency and oversight of education have become worse." He added that the poor economy the board is dealing with demands "forward thinking and alternate solutions."

He is ready to take on those challenges, and said he feels that the skills of being a veteran and business owner make him a fit for the board. The children in the community are his focus, he said, adding that he believes the skills he has acquired being both a father and thorough businessman "are assets we need on the board."

"Hopefully, we can get things done," Wexelberg continued. "We can work together with the township and the school to do what we can for our kids.

"We need to come together as a community and remember why we moved here. Because many of us moved here to raise a family and we have to get back to that."

John Macrae, 44 Devonshire Court

John Macrae has been a partner in the accounting and consulting firm of J.H. Cohn, Roseland, for seven years where he said he helps companies improve their growth and profitability. Prior to this position, he was a vice president of finance for an engineering firm.

At home, Macrae is a Little League coach, and also helps out in an unofficial capacity with his children's lacrosse and basketball teams.

Professionally, he served as an advisor on the School of Business for Monmouth University, also serves on the advisory board for several clients, and is a co-director on the American Consulting Engineers Council of New York.

Macrae said he is running for two main reasons. After attending BOE meetings for the over a year, he said he became frustrated with the lack of communication and visibility in the administration.

He said, there is "lack of experience in planning and financial management on the board. That "gap" or "lack in that skills set" is one he said he can fill, since it is something he does every day in his profession. His planning and financial backgrounds, in particular, carry skills he thinks would be assets to the board. "It makes me unique," Macrae said. "That skill set isn’t there right now."

"I am used to working with teams of people with different views," he said. "I would work with the administration and board to be a more cohesive team."

Barry Allan Travis, 52 Stephenville Blvd.

Barry Allan Travis is a full-time student at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken. He is a sophomore in a five-year program, studying civil engineering, and pursuing his master's degree in construction management.

Each semester, he works full-time in the engineering field. He has been involved in the Boy Scouts all through his school years, including at Middletown High School North

Travis said that he wants to "increase the cooperation with teachers and have a greater focus on academics and college preparation.

"I feel we need to utilize teachers more in curriculum writing," Travis said, adding that improved communications is needed in the district. "We need to support the teachers more; listen to what they have to say."

Travis said that he feels the focus on academics seems to have been lost. "Money is the big focus of both the teachers and the board of education, and the academic focus tends to get lost," he said. "We need to try to focus on the children and stop blaming each other. We need to come together as a community."

Because he is a college student, who recently graduated from Middletown High School North, Travis believes he has a unique perspective. "I used all the tools given to me to succeed in college," he said. "And I also know what I wish I had." According to Travis, Middletown has fantastic high schools, but there’s a need to put a greater emphasis on academics and college preparation.

"If I hadn’t taken advance placement courses, I wouldn’t have assimilated well in college," Travis said. "I bring that missing opinion to the board. I’m not running on an agenda of change. I feel my opinion could be so beneficial because I have that fresh perspective."

Richard Morrill, 7 Nottingham Way

Richard Morrill is a retired detective from the New York City Police Department, where he worked in that capacity for 17 ½ years. After retiring, he worked for 14 years for Barclays Capital, as the director of facilities for North America.

He currently serves as a commissioner for Middletown Housing Commission and has been held that position for five years ago. In addition, he said that he served two years ago on Middletown’s Strategic Planning Commission.

Morrill’s volunteer for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery, in which he drives cancer patients to and from the hospital for treatments. He also is a hospice volunteer for Tinton Falls-based Vitas.

He is running on the platform of "no status quo." He explained, "We can’t keep going the way we’re going." He said that towns around Middletown are have zero percentage increases in their budgets, and Middletown is coming in with a 1.5 percent budget hike and said, "we can do better."

Morrill said that all expenditures have to be studied, including lawn services, buildings and maintenance, carpenters, plumbers, and said that outsourcing or shared services should be considered. Working with other townships and the schools for bulk purchasing should also be looked at, he said. Barclays, under his direction, saved $3 million a year implementing shared services, according to Morrill.

Upgrading school facilities is also on his agenda. Morrill, who served on an ad hoc committee that surveyed the elementary schools, said that all the schools need new roofs, painting is needed and ceiling tile replacement.

For Morrill, the two other important issues that need to be tackled are administrators’ salaries and pension reform. "We have highly paid administrators," he said, adding that the salaries of administrators must be addressed, and that identifying whether all administrative positions are necessary could bring savings that can go toward the schools.

Pension reform, he said, is also needed, stressing he feels that teachers’ salaries should be capped, or it will "put us in the hole down the road." Morrill believes that instead of pensions, a 401K program should be looked at, where there is a matching contribution by the teacher and the township, so "we can do away with pensions."

Teachers need "to be taken off the dole when they retire," he said. If, for instance, a teacher lives until 97, he said, the residents of Middletown have to continue paying his or her pension for that long.

"The township and the state can’t sustain benefits and pensions any longer," he said. "Tenure is another concern. I don’t know of any job in America where you are protected.”

Tomorrow Patch will provide an overview of what to expect at the polls on Wednesday.

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