the candidates for the board of education for princeton sponsored in organized by the princeton area league of women voters and princeton community t v five candidates are running for three seats a school board term is three years two candidates are running  kendall our other candidates are mary clurman daniel dart and brian mcdonald my name is karen syracuse so i'm the moderator i was contacted by the league i do not live in princeton voting area so i will not be voting in this election but school board the league of women voters is a nonpartisan political organization encouraging and form active participation at work to increase understanding of major public policy issues and to influence policy through education advocacy the league itself neither supports nor poses a political party or candidate princeton community t v is taping the form for rebroadcast in its entirety on comcast channel thirty  are also be a schedule of broadcast times posted on princeton t v site w w w dot princeton t v dot org and you can always watch it when it's ready on demand at either vote for of one wonder or l w v princeton dot org and princeton t v dot org we don't want any independent videotaping or videos other than the official one being made by t v we have a league representative anna who will be taking photographs during the forum and she'll provide copies on request up please wait to the form is ended audience well there's anna to photograph the candidates and with their permission of course we have a league timekeeper sitting right here she has a yellow warning card fifteen seconds you got to keep your eye on that and a red stop card or pink when the card goes up you know try to finish your sentence but that would be it our candidates will have just a familiar familiarized the audience they all know this they agree to how time to minute opening remarks one minute closing for each question to get one minute we have optional thirty second kind of back and forth discussion for each question only one thirty second per person a question all come from you the audience a little index cards not taken orally and from the leak and we consolidate them we don't always read exactly what's written because then as we have to combine some of the ideas into one quick we'll have a little tiny lightning round at the end you get to say yes no not both just yes or no we'll alternate which candidate starts in each round to them and here's a caveat we want to say regarding statements and responses made by the incumbent board members any answers they give are their own opinions and answers and may or may not reflect the settlement's of the in the sentiments of the entire board of education we all know now begin with our opening remarks in reverse  medical order starting at the end of the table the candidate mcdonnell good evening i'd like to express my thanks to the league of women voters into crystal chevelle in particular for hosting this event and for all of the important work they do to educate and inform voters i'd also like to thank betsy and daphna for their service to our schools for the past three years and to mary and dan for running for positions on the board of education these are time consuming volunteer roles but ones that are critically important finally i'd like to thank everyone in the audience tonight and those watching on television i'm brian mcdonald and i'm running because our schools are at a critical point in their history we need to make important decisions about aging facilities issues pertaining to the health safety security and fair treatment of our students increasing role meant that is already resulting in overcrowding and an operating budget that is under considerable stress i believe i can help chart a path forward that makes critical investments in our schools and keeps tax increases as low as possible i'm a product of public education and princeton's great schools are one of the reasons my wife lee and i moved here twenty three years ago all three of our children have attended our schools with the youngest currently a sophomore at p h s i'm deeply rooted in this community for more than twenty years have been an active engaged citizen and volunteer for many of our communities nonprofit institutions and feel that my unique background and skill set make me particularly well qualified to serve on the school board at this time i have a professional background in public finance and served for seven years on our town citizens finance advisory committee where i worked energetically and successfully to keep tax increases as low as possible during my time is an officer of princeton university i spent five years on the facilities planning group which oversees more than twenty two hundred million dollars of construction renovation and maintenance a year i also served on the steering committee of the last campus plan i love our town and our schools and look forward to serving on the board of education thank you  and a good evening thank you to christophe and the league of women voters for providing this forum for discussion my name is daphne kendall and i'm running for reelection to the board of education i have served as a board member since two thousand and six that has truly been a privilege for me to serve our community in this way i'm proud of my contributions to the positive change we've experienced in the print public schools meaningful changes in our district include the later start time at princeton high school students and families during my time on the board we extended the labor contracts for off and without any disruption for the first time the board and go she added voluntary payments with a two for advanced study and we also  an additional voluntary payment with the princeton theological center we have had meaningful dialogue about race and equity effected change to the curriculum and teaching staff so that students may see unlike themselves in literature and in their classroom extended the superintendent's contract through two thousand and twenty two all these personnel changes have had meaningful impact on the quality of learning in our district and on students and their families and you may have heard over the past two years the board has been planning most students i think the district has implemented many changes that have made our school district better and our children were cared for but there is work to be done and i hope to continue to be a part part of these changes he thank you hi my name is daniel tara thank mission ironically two purposes one is i want to ensure adequate funding for the critical educational needs of the prince a public schools and i want to make sure i want to maintain affordability for all princeton citizens and if you look at the prince of public schools today it's really big business but the referendum that was proposed as one hundred thirty million dollars that's a massive amount of money for a community our size our operating budget is one hundred million dollars i mean it over the next ten years we will spend a billion dollars of taxpayer money supporting the educational needs of our students so as i look at  composition of the border and our superintendents experience i see a lot of educational skills and experience is but a real lack of financial skills and that's what i bring thirty years of financ and i really want to do my priority in terms of the facilities because we do have aging facilities to invest in our six schools we have six great schools and i want to say all are available money go into those for ten years and i'm by training a monastery teach your so what i bring to the board is the difference in point of view i think that the idea that the right steve cochran has put forth in the public really interesting or exciting but i wish that the and i'm running for reelection for the princeton public schools board of education it's been really truly my pleasure to serve the community in this role for the past three years but there's a great deal more work to be done i'm very happy to be here tonight and i'd like to thank the league of women voters for holding this forum and for educating our community second i'd like to thank my fellow candidates for seeking this critically important volunteer role for our town in my mind considering the needs of princeton students now and for the future is the most important work we could possibly do in case the storm runs late i must tell you it's my older son's thirteenth birthday and i struck a deal that i would be home by nine o'clock so i know things will be over by then but i know how board of education things run and if it runs late and i run out it's not because i don't want to be here but i've made a commitment to be home and my husband i are proud proud products of public schools we moved to with our sons in two thousand and eleven for the public schools my sons are now in fourth grade at c p and eighth grade at john witherspoon so the value of public schools was instilled in me very early in the young child my parents one is a former public school teacher one is a former school committee member in my massachusetts hometown both of my in laws are former public school teachers as well as a my so yes i'm an educator i'm proud to be an educator and represent this board in this way and i believe that that my perspective is really important at this time so i was a public school teacher i've served as the director of professional development for a consortium of public school districts and i've worked as an educational consultant i've studied the effectiveness of professional development as well as teacher leadership and the attraction and with ted so before i was on the board of that in this town i was very active with our schools i launched the first p t o after at community park working to ensure that all students have access to opportunities as a member of the board i chaired multiple committees and then on multiple committees and i look forward to telling you about them so i believe the board would benefit from continuity of leadership and been growing concern about the district's operating expenses expenses if the school district is currently already maximizing its annual levy as allowed under the two percent cap with exemptions where do you envision that the district will get the one point seven million necessary to cover the proposed five slash six cool and i'm not sure what that actually says but where we get that one so pleased to have the opportunity to speak about a five six school i worked in a five six school and i can tell you there's a certain economy of scale that will come into play so part of that money part of that cost will be we have currently our fifth graders that every elementary school when we bring them together will now have all the fifth grade teachers together and will be able to divide obviously the number of fifth graders in the town by number and actually we may have a i have some savings there i think over the meaning i'm looking at some puzzle faces in the crowd i mean that if we have three classrooms at every school and only seventeen or eighteen students in a classroom based on we can't perfectly decide where everyone moves into this town but all fifth graders come together at the implications for the operating budget and i don't think that's a well thought out plan i think they are much more cost effective and affordable solution i would not want to see thirteen million dollars taken away from our six exams is existing school this week we had a mold problem and that's the kind of deferred maintenance of and in terms of where we come from would end up coming from teaching and other critical education programs so i think that question please there has been a growing concern about the district's operating expenses expenses if the school district is currently already maximizing its annual levy as allowed under the two percent cap with exemptions where envision that the district will get the one point seven million necessary to cover the proposed five six school there's another word i'm not sure what the fuck with the money without it thank you so first of all they did the tax levy right now operating expenses inside of the current budget and i think that there is a question about whether or maximizing the tax levy and also whether there are other sources of revenue possible so i would think that we'd want to take a cup steps the first is to focus on more revenue advocating to the state to restore the state funding formula which itself would result in an one point five million dollars a buck a tax levy to our district the second is to go to the state charter charter school to ask for more equitable funding the charter school which is currently fully burdened on the host community which is not the case with most of the country and we also want to talk more with our nonprofit institutions whose children we educate about proper payment for occasional services yes i just wanted to add to one thing when i mentioned there to save us i pad the privilege to serve on the board of st sustainable princeton for the past three years never passed your we worked very hard with the schools and recently they submitted grant requests for ninety million dollars and w that would not result in any reduction in the referendum amounts it does have the potential for very significant energy savings and more sustainable operations i think there are a lot of things to schools thank you this round w begin with candidate clement and it is related to things good things that have been brought up so you'll be glad you had a chance to talk more about it can it clear when you'll start in the down the table many in town are concerned about maintaining the quality of our schools being sensitive to taxpayers what specifically would you do or proposed to strike the right balance once again i would talk to the community and i would what might that but i've seen is the school board tends a talk to each other and when the community asks for documentation of their research they're told there is none of that just talk to each other that they haven't actually done the research i think this is not the right way to do things as far as where money is actually going to come from it's not that you need more money it's that you need to work better with the money that you have so i think that first there should be the existing schools in a much more cost effective r so we never asked that question i think it is the most important question that we face at this current time which is how do we both make very much needed investments in our schools and not have taxes increase to the point where our most vulnerable get priced out i think that's a central question there there unfortunately aren't easy answers but i do believe that the board does have a dual obligation not just to the school but to the full community to try to find a way to make this work for all of the residents and i would love more time to be able to serve on the board and really substance to we engage the community to come up with ideas that can allow us to do both it's simply not ok that we can't invest in our schools or that if we invest in our schools that are most vulnerable residents or so i would like to you know spend the time get citizens actively involved in thinking about better ways to allow us to move forward to accomplish many in town are concerned about maintaining the quality of our schools while being sensitive to taxpayers what specifically would you do or proposed to strike the right balance thanks i want to make sure that was about i think the question was about the quality of our schools which i'm going to bring back to students we've already asked after do more with less of the last two years principals elementary principals even though we've got rising in rome and have not gotten an increase in their budget to use in their schools so they're already being creative they have more students in their schools and they're not given more money to for professional development they're not getting more money for pencils and they're still they're already being creative we also have a very good working relationship with period at the moment and one thing that was negotiated was a professional development daily rate so we were able to train two hundred fifty staff members this summer using our own staff as most of the most of the programs were led by our own staff and a humongous cost to savings over what it had been in the past because there's a daily rate now that teachers have agreed to a so two hundred fifty speech years came and seven hundred fifty i believe spots were use that means many people pay more than once and we also just restructured technology department when someone left that that also led to myself my parents are immigrants i grew up with not a lot of money but i had a very good public and so when i make these decisions when i'm involved in making i look at the pos impact but i also know that every decided to run that was the very first recommendation recommendation i made and the second was to create an analogous committee for facilities and i'm absolutely delighted that danny some of the other candidates have to embrace what those battles and i really think everybody can get fellow colleagues i hope we can get into that greater detail the five six the planets have a community school walking distance to many of our other schools to meet the needs of a lot of the families in that neighborhood i will go on and on and hope to have the opportunity to thank you this this question to get a candidate dart down the table many in town are concerned that if the referendum in any form passes the district and current board do not have the capacity or ability to execute large complicated construction projects how would you add positively to that process if elected now you know i grieve effect concern one hundred percent of pointed out that i didn't pass referendums we didn't get value from money we have to sue an architect personally on it however in addition to that we would have a board of volunteer experts who have skin in the game and would volunteer because their taxes are likely to go up if it doesn't go well with a wonderful community architects engineers contractors design people and i would get them involved very quickly and i would get down to involved of the local schools to make sure they knew what was going on at each local school addition to the citizens committee i think it be very important to understand how other institutions have to successfully manage projects and deliver them on time and on budget and as planned i would encourage the schools to talk to the university of severely different institution with very different resources but at the it's it's at the university we never thought it was enough to hire an outside architect and to hire a contractor in addition to  the clients inside there are professionals who are full time employees project managers and architects who serve as an important daily bridge between the outside people and the university so they represent the client in addition the people with different financial interests can't the second thing is i would go to other schools that have successfully managed a large referendum projects and learn everything we can about what they did to get those projects delivered on time  responsibilities of the board of education outlined by outlined by law and they do include the oversight of a referendum such as the one our community is considering i have to give you all an image in november october november of last year board of ed members not on a school bus and took a day trip to pennsylvania with our architect because we had so many questions about the designs they were showing us we we wanted to see designs in person and actually it was after that visit that we went back and really added the things and stepped it was mentioning of an architectural firm and national firm that works with schools we also met with heidi hates jacobs i served as one of the board of ed reps to the five six design team so i am a collaborator by nature i like to bring different people together and i'm a quick study and i and i actually think throughout this entire process the board has learned quite a bit and have heard questions along the way you can  something you can delegate to people making money off the projects so i think you have to space them out and do what's really important first thank you so i just like to add just to grind point there is money for a project manager included you know all these things have been taken into account  will be a short answer because i think the board number members have much more access to information than the non board members do i really don't know the rigor with which other alternatives have been explored and there was something chart posted recently on the website that was reasonably informative that indicated that there had been some analysis time of different options but i'm among many community members who would welcome more information and an opportunity to ask more questions about the full range of options that were considered so i think it's very hard as a non board member to comment on the level of analysis took place about six here and i agree there is also a fine line we're walking as board members just to reiterate we are speaking as citizens not as at not as members of the board for purpose of this event yes as as deficit it is more expensive to add on to the schools but also you have to go back to what's pedagogically right for students so if we're bringing sixth graders back to our elementary schools talk about up operating costs you're bringing at assistant principals at least two of them to be between i can't believe our school run without assistant principals and they run very well without them but you bring sixth graders back to elementary schools and the needs of k to six i almost in my mind i'm envisioning an upper school in a lower school also pedagogically we believe sixth graders should be taught by content area specialists and they're not five six grades in every elementary school and nor would there be other ways you could specialize math social studies science etc and so that structure does not exist if we add to to all of our schools in that way we don't have the economy of scale and we don't have the same education first experience and when i first became involved in march and then we saw the referendum sent in newark new jersey department of education in april we asked for all these other options the study and the answer that came back was no written that was it wasn't until late september that they provided information well after the fact about alternatives and we don't think they were adequately vetted so we think we should take our time this is too in this on but will be with us for thirty years any mistakes we make will be weapons for thirty years so we need to slow down get the community involved get more citizens involved and do a thorough analysis of all about the board's process for developing its proposed referendum what would you have what would you have done differently and how would you have the board proceed if you are on the board and elect well this is a community that loves to be involved and engaged and has a lot of talented people and for other projects where there was the public library or the pool those are projects that you know had multiple years of planning design sharat sense significant community involvement i think in this case it's just moved too fast and it would have been great if the process could have started earlier or if it could have taken that if we could take a bit more time to have the opportunity to really engage our community and make sure that everybody's perspective is brought to the table and then all the analysis that people have questions about is is done and considered but you know not able to turn the clock back and only looking forward if there is an opportunity to have some more time and these are urgent needs we can't the further spread very long these are urgent needs i would suggest the creation of a couple of committees and very different forms of much more substantive community engagement than has existe so far can you back them up build on what you said brian i do think there urgent need sense my i can't remember exactly my first month or two on the board enrollment has been discussed i remember meetings where we talked about not knowing how many more students were coming with there be enough room in the schools when kids came at the end of august we didn't know when people were registering so i agree with you that in a perfect world when you're planning a pool and you're planning a library and other critical needs for the community you need to take as much time as you need unfortunately we don't have all of the time in the world to do this i do think we can improve things going for it i think our communication can be improved and we are also you know we're all working very hard to learn this as we go some of this and i think communicating that to the public is something that we can improve upon going forward but i do think it is an urgent need and the students are here in our  district there should definitely be a process for feedback there should definitely be a process for feedback that needs to be established but it should not be committees handpicked by the board education itself you should not be criticizing yourself because that's what they've been doing all been critiquing their own work and they've not allowed to tell criticism from anyone else what we need to have as a regular procedure for the valuating projects that the schools are doing are the communication is understanding understanding the issues yourself but also making sure that the person you're talking to understands the issues when people ask questions and you don't answer them you give them the same attitude again and again you're not understanding what they're asking you residents are asking for understanding and  fact that they can use to make serious decisions and school referendums or a law by new jersey law to go on the ballot up to five times a year so there's no reason to rush we could put a critical facilities referendum which would be only twenty seven million of the one hundred thirty million originally proposed on the ballot for december eleventh zero january and address those critical needs and th commission to do a thorough analysis of the demographic projections which many of us have question we think the aroma it needs are exaggerated we think there are some and roman challengers but we think  question one more time thanks what do you think about the board's process for developing its proposed referendum what would you have done differently what would you do differently how would you have the board proceed if elected i think going back to what  betty said i think everyone can agree the district can do better with communication that's definitely we can improve upon but i want to step back and it's almost two years ago that we started planning for trailers outside princeton high schoolers two trailers right now at a cost about half a dollars we have to rent them for fifty thousand dollars a year and what we did was we moved the teachers into the social studies teachers out of their classrooms into the trailers and we made two more classrooms out of that every and this was you know  we also looked to renovate the valley road building it's not compliant because we were so concerned about overcrowding at community park and it didn't make sense and just to answer your question about princeton high school being time in that there still is time to do some important work i do not question the incredible the hard and honest work that the board members of put in and it every time i think they've been working in good to seek answers and the first thing that occurred to me was there's this thing called special education and eighty percent are students have i peace the first law on special education wasn't passed until one thousand seventy five so that's the first thing the second thing is all our kids have break at the same thank you and the referendum portion of our program has now officially ended because when to change topics i have two questions on the equity audit and this question will begin with a can it back leo move down the table both questions are really the same so on the read one it's very detailed finding number five of the equity audit states that quote across the board confidence in the districts responses to incidents of racism sexism homophobia and other oppressive occurrences leaves room for improvement only fifty seven percent of students sixty four percent of parents and twenty percent six percent of faculty agree or strongly agree that if they report a concern these concerns will be addressed how do you feel about this finding what would you do about it so i said when we got the report and we knew there was an issue when we authorised the report and so when we read the equity people report it was it was kind of like reading you  know an evaluation of my child and you know that it's a good report if you can see your child in it and so when i read the report i could see prince in public schools and the the boards drop as oversight our job is to see that the district is well run not to run the district and we know that there are incidences of bias they're not addressed because eventually they find their way to the board and that's not how that's not efficient that's not how it should be i'm a child i'm a child i'm sorry i'm a parent of a child with special needs fifty percent of the kids are suspended in the district last year of a children of color and fifty percent overlapping were children with eyepiece some well aware that there's work to be done i think there's been professional development well the good news i think is this is a topic that all five candidates completely agree on and it's incredibly incredibly important topic and it has to be and addressed soon and with energy and with resources for those of you who didn't have a chance to was made it is absolutely exceptional and i would encourage all of you to go to the board website and read that and to also go to youtube and watch the presentation it is really important and not easy to hear everything i want to compliment the board there's only one person on the board who's been there for more than three years and i'm delighted that one of the identified this is a major challenge with superintendent cochran and are taking it as seriously as they are the one other thing i would say is it's going to take time and these are some deeply rooted cultural issues that are not going to be solved from bottom up meetings it's going to require strong leadership from the board the superintendent and the principals to make progress in this area and he expanded and like to just add we did hear that that people were leaving our district for certain reasons and we had never established an exit survey before before we were on the board in twenty sixteen that had never been done so that's something that student achievement put into place we're asking parents why are you leaving what is it we can learn from your experience we also did a parent climate survey and one of the questions was do you feel welcome in your child's school and we're not an equitable district if students and parents do not feel welcome in their own school and so that we're still going through that data but it is very important and we're asking those questions we want the feedback from the from the family i'm really impressed with the changes that the school board has made that they have been major additions to stuff from maintenance there's been a new administrator of counseling and a very good program and presentation to the public on the on this i know everybody on the board works very hard and i know they've tried to do their best but i just think that what they need to do is look outward as well and and realize also that there's patience is required but if patience is all that all you have you have to do also public school systems are complex and school boards are called upon to address many issues although finances and facilities are extremely important please tell us another priority or priorities that you would like to focus on if you are on the school board i think opening the process to students and families is important also i would i would like the princes as a question the security i'd like to see classes in in school safety i'd like to understand what parents feel would be make them feel comfortable safe that their children of ok and like to know what children will do how to them will take responsibility themselves if and if a shooter or a bomber is is going to come to the school i think that the one of the best ways to them to understand the situation and then in a again another discussion thank you the i would mention to really related things one is to close the achievement gap we have some students that don't exceptionally well and not taking four or five courses a semester and going on to excel exceptional universities and some that are getting discouraged and dropping out so we really have to explain within our school system we have to find a way to address that issue one of the ideas has been a community school i would just like to make that unity park as opposed to a news new grade five six school and with a new property for buses and administrative staff the second issue which is related is really the stress level at princeton high school that really unacceptable loves and i know my own daughter went through that she came home senior year want to take care remembers four or five a p courses and about had a heart attack and created a very stressful year for her so we live in an extremely gifted competitive talented environment and we have to find a way to make it a joyous and vironment a productive courses and this work has begun we just had a presentation today from the science supervisor and for the past two summers there has been we're tied down or fi under represented children and put them into accelerated  courses over the summer and research has shown that the summer is a great time to help to close the achievement gap another thing i would do another issue i would like to work on is auditing our special education services  there's a lot of a picnic i think for the community and i would hope an audit would help people to understand the community to understand what the services were provided what we're providing why they're being provided and what really the cost is to the so i love the idea of the community school and i would hope that the schools can move forward with initiatives that are going on across the country to engage all members of family particularly of at risk students to address challenges like the achievement gap or the big challenges even here in princeton the one thing though i would suggest might work even better is if the schools could partner with the town with corner house and with the library that are also seeking to address very similar issues because if we join together i think we'll have better outcomes so that's one of them to several more time ago  two more community engagement our town benefits from the work of more than two hundred volunteers on twenty seven boards committees and commissions many of these are advisory some of these are quasi governmental but the town could not function bit on the question what would you like to work on on the school board that has not been addressed by the screen so i have a few things i am focusing on improving communication and also a continuing our work on equity for also week improve communication of the past three years we created quarterly meet the board sessions where we invite the public in to meet us to talk with us our students asked us to hold sessions at princeton high school which we've done and we spoke with students and going to what mr dark said about student stress we said where where do you start to feel it because that j w it seems that you know you're crossing the street the stress is not there but you cross the street and it's here so one thing we've talked about is we've heard from high school students and they're very wise in this town i actually think we need to hear from our younger students as well i'd love to extend the challenge success survey to middle school students learn about their experiences and maybe take that joyous younger years before the stress begins and move that up to the upper years and i will need for expansion it's like a spoke to two different parents and says that they had children special ed which hasn't been talked about much here one of them said to her they both said that their children were very bright very creative all kinds of ideas but they had special disabilities one had put she called dyscalculia which mean that she that the child couldn't handle math so the talk in one case to tell was put into special ed because he because he didn't speak articulate but he was very bright and then and they didn't know how to handle that so they looked they put him into the regular class and in the regular class they didn't know how to handle him either because is that his his his language disability children need to be looked at individually and don't really want to not rebut but to build on what brian had suggested which is more community involvement in the example uses university of engaging with this problem professor david august who has four young children two in the public schools he's committed to the public school for the next twenty and to say he's a supporter of the rough opponent of the referendum would be an understatement but what he has offered to do is to teach one hundred fifty students at the high school in the introduction to computer science course for you in the cafeteria python which is one of the courses i haven't been able to get into so we have resources that we have not used at all in our computers that connect to the community another dream that i have and i think its community can solve it is to create an outside equity grant fund we created an equity fund in two thousand and sixteen to ensure that all students could go to washington i'm one of those parents this year i went to that meeting last night when mr burris talking about this amazing trip i was so proud all of our kids get to go but there are so many other trips that not all students get to go on and other activities that they don't get to be involved in so that is a way i'd love to involve the community and really remove every barrier for students to achieve and take part in anything they'd like improve or increase communications with the prince and residents who do not have children in the school system so they can vote more knowledgeable i think at that sun i think that's incredibly important and i think that what i would do is get them involved in the process is early as possible and this is why i i speak to this april decision with the board sent up this one hundred thirty million dollars referendum prior to the community getting involved and then did forty meetings afterwards really selling the plan to the residents as opposed to building computers so you have to get them involved early you have to listen patiently and really take their ideas seriously in this case you have to cost them out and we have all these brilliant and knowledgeable and talented and gauge people in our community so i've been critical of the process for them and i think that with a flawed process emails we don't manage email less so again we don't run the district we see that's well run and if we're not communicating with community members in a way that is that we're the news is getting pushed to them we're not we could do better and so one of the things that i would like to see is when we finally have a new website is to have an opt in for residents who are can you want to learn more about prince of public schools i get two emails every day from john witherspoon and i get i don't know three or four e mails during the week and i to a bigger issue which is the desire for greater transparency this is a community that loves information and there's a big opportunity to provide a lot more information communication can be a one way  street and that can be helpful so one example is the finance systems finance committee newsletter that we put together the comes with everybody's tax bill that i think is been helpful for a lot of people in understanding you know the components of the tax bill and the towns finances but beyond communication there needs to be more engagement there needs to be a two way street where there is a dialogue between the schools in the community and some of superintendents recent present patients have begun to do that very well on the topic of the referendum we just need to do that a lot more and on many different topics to have an engaged community who are feel that they understand and  embrace our schools jeff and i work together a lot two of the things she said i was about to say we will have an improved website we're looking to have that on line before the end of twenty eight teen we need a better website so anyone in the community can say what's going on in the schools this week is there a band concert is there a choir concert maybe a sporting event i'd like to take part in i'm when i was in high school in massachusetts i was involved in musical theater and all of the dress rehearsals were open to the public to senior citizens for free because they wanted to and a wonderful supportive audience for the students but it also got our taxpayers to see what our schools were providing and that is something that we need to do a better job of but i really need an opt in section on the website so that you're not inundated by e mail i'm wondering if we even need i'm not sure the cost of a mailing but to really make sure we reach all of our community members to to let them know what's happening in our schools the people who have those in a list have volunteered to spread the word if they don't volunteer to spread the word that's ok but at least those who do should be notified about it i'd love to see a regular feature in the in town topics which as brian says would engage people it would say we have a problem we need to fix the schools they're there meissen the lockers so let's let's get together this is the things we've considered the things we've tried and yet they come back year after year what would you do you  were ok not a lightning round you get to say yes or no i guess you could say passed and to say board meetings would be much faster if we actually made decisions in a yes or no way we don't do things like that we're happy to take part security personnel or staff members be located at building entrances and be armed no not armed only if the police say a number yes or no no clairmont would you support the expansion of the dual language immersion program absolutely yes yes yes charter school said that the two sides would need at least twice a year in the current year and next two academic years to discuss their relationship potential collaboration and cost savings got that  do you have confidence in the demographic projections on which the referendum bases the need for new buildings yes bagatelle would you would you support the creation of a citizens facilities at pfizer a committee who would meet with architects and builders and advise the district regarding capital needs and implementation to do the work i remain focused on the needs of students and frankly that i've been good at bringing a different people together to consider what it is just what it what it is our students need to live lives of joy and purpose from our mission statement our superintendent has put it colleen wilcox is saying teaching is the most optimistic all professions and i would actually extend that to say board service is the most optimistic of all public service it's been an honor to learn from so many wonderful educators concerned citizens and former and current board members many of whom are here as you've heard i'm an educator  a parent i bring a unique perspective to this board i'm not apologizing for the fact that i'm an educator i actually think you need an educator like me on this board and i like the work i do and i'd like to continue to do it with my colleague deftly kendall our answers are very similar because we work so much together and that's why we've had such a productive first term so please make an informed vote when you head to the polls thank you i love prince in the know you all do too or you wouldn't be here  women voters for giving us this option i think that the most important thing is that we everybody be considered the children the different children the children who have different needs not just the special needs but also the children who have high achieving abilities everybody needs to be considered including the community and i'd like to see the part of that i think communication is the basis of successful work thank you i believe have a set of skills a complement the  so i'm running for reelection so that i may continue to contribute to the great changes happening in this district that have benefited all of our students i'm very proud of the work that has been done but i also know there is much more work to be done i'm hopeful that over the next three years we will continue to make meaningful strides towards equity for all students including through programming and care to close achievement gap representation of under served groups and higher level courses and all around respect empathy and compassion for all as a board member i believe i have demonstrated that i ha been a good steward of the jewel that is a prince and public schools as a board of education candidate i commit to continuing to be a good steward for schools we have spent much of this year and this evening focused on facilities facilities are important but the education of the nearly four thousand students from many different backgrounds and with many different needs for which we are responsible is also important when you vote for a board of education candidate please consider the students first and please ask yourself which candidates are best suited to shepherd the princeton public schools through all of the navajo issues you will face over the course of the next three years i believe my compliments are those of my colleague betsy badly on behalf of the students and staff over the past three years are a good indication of how we will perform over the next three years right now our town is struggling to balance two critically important issues excellent schools and affordability unfortunately these goals are currently in tension and we have to work hard creatively and together schools town institutions and citizens to find a way forward we must make important besson investments in our schools and we must find a way to do this that does not hurt our most vulnerable residents this may take time but we can and we will do this as one community while the referendum has been the dominant issue for the past year we must also maintain our focus on ensuring excellent outcomes for all students regardless of race ethnicity religion gender level of family income or ability remind you of your polling station you can always check vote for one one or for more help with any questions you can always apply to vote by mail the clerk has to have this application in seven days before the election i think they're all being