SOMEA Endorses SOMA2015 ticket in BOE election

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/letter-editor-somea-endorses-raab-roberts-malespina-board-ed/

Not sure how meaningful this is, or whether it's an indication of momentum, but I thought it was interesting that the local teacher's union endorsed candidates in the upcoming Board of Education elections. I would think that this might be a conflict of interest given that the union has to negotiate its contracts with the BOE, but perhaps not. Does anyone have any thoughts about the impact that this endorsement might have on the race and/or background on when and how SOMEA chooses to endorse candidates?

SOMEA endorsed current board President Wayne Eastman (and the other 2 winning candidates) back in 2006, so I don't think it will be a big conflict of interest problem.

I don't know the process SOMEA uses to decide if and who to endorse, but obviously they don't do it that often...

Not in your district but union endorsement is the surest way to make me not vote for someone.

cel said:
SOMEA endorsed current board President Wayne Eastman (and the other 2 winning candidates) back in 2006, so I don't think it will be a big conflict of interest problem.
I don't know the process SOMEA uses to decide if and who to endorse, but obviously they don't do it that often...

SOMEA did endorse Greg Lembrich in this spring's Democratic Primary for Maplewood Township Committee. There was some criticism because SOMEA met with him, but not any of the other candidates.

I'm not sure what the process was here. Ms. Malespina did work in the district, so perhaps some of the SOMEA leadership knows her. I'm not sure about the other members of Ms. Malespina's slate, which SOMEA endorsed entirely.

Two of the candidates not endorsed by SOMEA are incumbents, including Mr. Eastman, whom Cel notes got their endorsement in 2006 (but not in the two intervening elections). It would be interesting to hear their views on the incumbents, particularly as the next contract was just agreed to, seemingly without the usual rancor.

If they didn't meet with them, it would also be interesting to learn how SOMEA evaluated the four non-incumbents whom they didn't endorse.

SOMEA had not endorsed candidates in the last several BOE elections and yes, surprisingly endorsed in a TC primary election which they had never done before. They seem to have found a new activism.

At this point, I take SOMEA's endorsements the same way I take every other endorsement letter written by a friend or neighbor...as a reflection of personal connections and respect, rather than as a decision necessarily taken after a full review of the candidates, their qualifications, or their positions on the issues.

Help me figure out who this guy was stumping for :

A guy comes by - speaks to my husband - and he's stumping for some candidates -but my husband can't remember who! He told my husband that his kids all go to private school, and how he went to COlumbia 'back in the day', and he told my husband that the district really has to spend their money properly and that things are out of hand. My husband's impression was that this guy didn't understand what he was really 'against'. My husband also told this guy that we come across people like him who claim that SOMSD and CHS are just awful, but that we've never understood that sentiment - afterall, our kids all went K-12 so we've been up close and personal with the schools for quite some time.

WIth that info, can anyone surmise which candidates this guy is for? Because I don't want to vote for them.

Did this guy hand your husband any fliers or literature about the slate he was supporting, ffof?

susan1014 said:
At this point, I take SOMEA's endorsements the same way I take every other endorsement letter written by a friend or neighbor...as a reflection of personal connections and respect, rather than as a decision necessarily taken after a full review of the candidates, their qualifications, or their positions on the issues.

Although my endorsement didn't get into any issues either, I agree with your assessment of what endorsement letters have been like.

I think the following issues are the most important and voters should learn candidates views on them.

The BOE is not involved in day to day management in schools. It really cannot determine curriculum or pedagogy or even control what kind of atmosphere is in the schools.

Although the issue of security is of OVERRIDING importance, the BOE is not directly involved with this. The police departments, Admin, and perhaps security consultants would be the ones making decisions.

There are some values decisions which the BOE does make. I think voters should ask candidates the following questions.

PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS AN INDICATION OF ANY CANDIDATE'S VIEWS ON THEM!

1. Boyden's demographics skew dramatically from the other elementary schools, with triple the percentage of FRL-eligible students than the average of the other elementary schools. If the Admin recommended pairing Boyden with another elementary school would you support it or would you prefer other changes like rezoning or a changed magnet?

2. There has been some talk of getting all students to take algebra by 8th grade, in other words, having two levels of math in the middle school, the accelerated trajectory where students take geometry in 8th grade and a "regular" trajectory where all other students take algebra. Would you support a proposal like this?

3. Every year the district has to make hundreds of thousands, even millions, of cuts. If the state cut $1 million from our state aid, how large a tax increase would you accept?

4. The SOMSD's student population has increased by 800 students since 2006 and continues to grow by 80-100 students a year. Moreover, population pressure has been uneven at different elementary schools, resulting in persistent space problems for Tuscan. What kinds of rezoning would Board members accept?

5. Accelerated English.
There has been some talk of discontinuing accelerated English. What is your stance on this?

6. Testing

In the past year, several local Boards of Education and Administrations, such as Montclair's and Livingston's, came out against testing and more or less encouraged students to opt-out of the PARCC exams. The Bloomfield BOE, for one, invested a great deal of energy in opposing the PARCCs on a statewide level. The districts that encouraged or publicly accepted opting-out thereby had higher opt-out percentages than South Orange-Maplewood. Is opting-out of standardized tests something our Board should encourage? Is opposition to standardized tests a statewide cause our Board of Education should take on?

What statewide issue do you think our BOE's priority should be?

I am suspicious of union endorsements. While most teachers genuinely care about their students and their profession, you cannot say the same thing of a union. A union exists to advance the interests of their members and the welfare of students is not a primary concern of the union.

cel said:
Did this guy hand your husband any fliers or literature about the slate he was supporting, ffof?

no :-(

tjohn said:
I am suspicious of union endorsements. While most teachers genuinely care about their students and their profession, you cannot say the same thing of a union. A union exists to advance the interests of their members and the welfare of students is not a primary concern of the union.

+1

@JBennett

Does the BOE have any power to make administration accountable for any outcomes? Or would that be via the Supt?

For example, with the QSAC, the administration seemed to say everything is going fine, but the BOE still seemed to be concerned. Can the BOE require any type of metrics to be met, or reported, etc?

The BOE should set direction. They should not get involved in daily decision making and should override administration decisions only in exceptional situations. If the BOE feels the need to become hands on, it is indicative of either an out-of-control BOE or a Superintendent who has lost the trust of the BOE.

I don't usually pay attention to SOMEA communications on BOE elections.

I've seen Ms. Bethea speak at BOE meetings and I didn't find her to be a willing collaborator within the District.

bramzzoinks said:
Not in your district but union endorsement is the surest way to make me not vote for someone.

I'm stupefied. Can't believe there's something I actually agree on with zoinks.

sprout said:
@JBennett
Does the BOE have any power to make administration accountable for any outcomes? Or would that be via the Supt?
For example, with the QSAC, the administration seemed to say everything is going fine, but the BOE still seemed to be concerned. Can the BOE require any type of metrics to be met, or reported, etc?

Yes, we could ask for something to be reported, although with QSAC the DOE's issues were with curriculum and implementation and the first issue is something the BOE mostly avoids getting into and the latter is something we avoid completely.

The BOE officially approves curriculum (like it officially approves hiring), but most people's mentality is that the BOE should be as hands-off as possible and a vote to approve curriculum is just a rubber stamp.

The hands-off attitude on curriculum is something I disagree with. In 2012 when the Admin presented a K-5 Social Studies curriculum that was very repetitive and had the philosophy that the world ended at the Delaware River I protested and the Admin eventually pulled the curriculum to revise and approve it.

I wish the BOE did get more involved with curriculum since curriculum is a philosophical issue and not purely a managerial one, but I think a better approach would be to give kids more choice in their educations. For instance, if your child wants to read canonical literature and my child prefers more contemporary works, then I think there should be two English classes and kids should choose what they want.

ffof said:

cel said:
Did this guy hand your husband any fliers or literature about the slate he was supporting, ffof?

no

Could he describe his appearance?

ice said:
In the case of SOMEA's endorsement of Mr. Lembrich, it was pretty clear that the endorsement was the result of a personal friendship between him and a SOMEA official. Through this connection, they invited Lembrich to speak to SOMEA, but did not invite others. Then, the friend wrote the endorsement op-ed. I thought that was in very bad form, but I don't have enough information about this BOE endorsement to comment. But that episode did not speak well of SOMEA's endorsement process.

Interesting. Did SOMEA leaders/representatives vote on the endorsement? I can't imagine that one official can endorse on behalf of the union without getting broader authority from the organization's leadership.

I also confess that I don't know the protocol that most unions use when making an endorsement. Do you know whether it is common practice to meet with all candidates? I have heard that newspapers do that before making an endorsement, but the press is different from a union. Perhaps the union can meet with one (or none) of the candidates and just decide that they want to support one candidate (or slate of candidates) over the others. That's certainly their right, and one would think that the union leadership would face backlash if they endorsed a candidate that much of the membership did not support.

How thorough the SOMEA candidate vetting process is would probably influence how much weight people give its endorsement. If anyone has any insight into how it works, I would be interested to hear it.

In 2001, there were 6,396 students.

In 2006, there were 6,100.

At the beginning of this year there were 6,866. This is an increase of 470 since 2001.

The school population decreased in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. It was flat in 2007 and started increasing in 2008. I think this is indicative of a new wave of young families moving into our area as housing prices bottomed out during the housing crisis.

The bigger issue than overall population is the uneven distribution of students throughout the elementary schools (as you pointed out).

JBennett said:

susan1014 said:
At this point, I take SOMEA's endorsements the same way I take every other endorsement letter written by a friend or neighbor...as a reflection of personal connections and respect, rather than as a decision necessarily taken after a full review of the candidates, their qualifications, or their positions on the issues.

Although my endorsement didn't get into any issues either, I agree with your assessment of what endorsement letters have been like.
I think the following issues are the most important and voters should learn candidates views on them.

The BOE is not involved in day to day management in schools. It really cannot determine curriculum or pedagogy or even control what kind of atmosphere is in the schools.
Although the issue of security is of OVERRIDING importance, the BOE is not directly involved with this. The police departments, Admin, and perhaps security consultants would be the ones making decisions.
There are some values decisions which the BOE does make. I think voters should ask candidates the following questions.

PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS AN INDICATION OF ANY CANDIDATE'S VIEWS ON THEM!
1. Boyden's demographics skew dramatically from the other elementary schools, with triple the percentage of FRL-eligible students than the average of the other elementary schools. If the Admin recommended pairing Boyden with another elementary school would you support it or would you prefer other changes like rezoning or a changed magnet?
2. There has been some talk of getting all students to take algebra by 8th grade, in other words, having two levels of math in the middle school, the accelerated trajectory where students take geometry in 8th grade and a "regular" trajectory where all other students take algebra. Would you support a proposal like this?
3. Every year the district has to make hundreds of thousands, even millions, of cuts. If the state cut $1 million from our state aid, how large a tax increase would you accept?
4. The SOMSD's student population has increased by 800 students since 2006 and continues to grow by 80-100 students a year. Moreover, population pressure has been uneven at different elementary schools, resulting in persistent space problems for Tuscan. What kinds of rezoning would Board members accept?
5. Accelerated English.
There has been some talk of discontinuing accelerated English. What is your stance on this?
6. Testing
In the past year, several local Boards of Education and Administrations, such as Montclair's and Livingston's, came out against testing and more or less encouraged students to opt-out of the PARCC exams. The Bloomfield BOE, for one, invested a great deal of energy in opposing the PARCCs on a statewide level. The districts that encouraged or publicly accepted opting-out thereby had higher opt-out percentages than South Orange-Maplewood. Is opting-out of standardized tests something our Board should encourage? Is opposition to standardized tests a statewide cause our Board of Education should take on?
What statewide issue do you think our BOE's priority should be?

Juniemoon said:

ffof said:

cel said:
Did this guy hand your husband any fliers or literature about the slate he was supporting, ffof?

no

Could he describe his appearance?

How lame is a campaigner for a candidate who makes so little impression that the voter does not even remember who the guy was campaigning for?

LOST said:

Juniemoon said:

ffof said:

cel said:
Did this guy hand your husband any fliers or literature about the slate he was supporting, ffof?

no

Could he describe his appearance?

How lame is a campaigner for a candidate who makes so little impression that the voter does not even remember who the guy was campaigning for?

Sounds like that might be a positive in this case

@JBennett ,

Sorry -- I think my QSAC question is a bad example, because it's really a NJ DOE accountability piece in the first place.

Looking forward to the policy to give open enrollment/access to courses (which I believe is about to be voted on), would the BOE review/approve the plans for implementation of the policy, and can it require a review of the trends and outcomes (e.g., to see if some departments are, perhaps, steering students away from advanced courses more than others?)

yahooyahoo said:
I don't usually pay attention to SOMEA communications on BOE elections.
I've seen Ms. Bethea speak at BOE meetings and I didn't find her to be a willing collaborator within the District.

+1,000. My interaction with her has not inspired confidence. In fact, I would seriously consider not voting for anyone she endorses.

Did the entire membership of the Union vote on this endorsement?

BTW I think it is a terrible idea for a Union to endorse candidates for Management, which is what the BOE is.

LOST said:
Did the entire membership of the Union vote on this endorsement?
BTW I think it is a terrible idea for a Union to endorse candidates for Management, which is what the BOE is.

LOST, I doubt that the entire membership would vote on the an endorsement. Probably just the leadership council or the union representatives. But I'd welcome anyone who has information to either confirm or rebut that speculation. I had a similar reaction to your second point, which prompted my inquiry about whether it might pose a potential conflict of interest.

yahooyahoo said:
In 2001, there were 6,396 students.
In 2006, there were 6,100.

At the beginning of this year there were 6,866. This is an increase of 470 since 2001.
The school population decreased in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. It was flat in 2007 and started increasing in 2008. I think this is indicative of a new wave of young families moving into our area as housing prices bottomed out during the housing crisis.

No accounting for general population trends?

My kid would have been class of '07. From the time he was in grade school (mid-'90s), his class was bigger than those before. Everyone complained about class size and temporaries had to be added when his class came through the door. Just throwing it out there.

I think general population trends can have an effect, but our school district is currently growing faster than the general population.

Juniemoon said:

yahooyahoo said:
In 2001, there were 6,396 students.
In 2006, there were 6,100.

At the beginning of this year there were 6,866. This is an increase of 470 since 2001.
The school population decreased in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. It was flat in 2007 and started increasing in 2008. I think this is indicative of a new wave of young families moving into our area as housing prices bottomed out during the housing crisis.

No accounting for general population trends?

My kid would have been class of '07. From the time he was in grade school (mid-'90s), his class was bigger than those before. Everyone complained about class size and temporaries had to be added when his class came through the door. Just throwing it out there.

SOMEA endorsement....its not a deal breaker for me but definitely a red flag.