Board of Ed 'Pick 3' - 1 6 7

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At tomorrow's school board election I will be voting for Barksdale, Abdul-Haqq and Graves. I hope you will, too.

Pat Barksdale, Rasheed Abdul-Haqq and David Graves have invested years, as parents and as interested citizens, in working for an accountable school system that adequately prepares our young people to make their way in the world. For the past year, Pat Barksdale has been able to do so as a member of the school board.

The picture for our school system is troubling for many reasons, perhaps the least of which is student performance at the moment.

As has been recently noted, student performance has improved in state-mandated assessments. With regard to the No Child Left Behind Act, the perennially troubled Hubbard Middle School -- which has defied the best efforts of several boards and administrations -- is the chief concern.

We need board members who will promote policies to solidify the gains and successfully attack the problems in student performance.

Betrayal of the local school districts by the Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) is a sore point. While politically better connected districts swooped in and looted the funding pool, those who played by the rules -- like Plainfield -- are left holding the bag. The Emerson School has been torn down and we do not know when it will be built. Jefferson School students have been shifted out of their building. Plans for a needed new middle school have been abandoned. There is no more discussion of replacing the Evergreen School. Nor of improvements to the High School. The $185M supposedly earmarked for Plainfield has vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, changes in the student population have meant using some of the old High School building for classes. And the former National Starch office complex, which is supposed to return to the tax rolls according to the original agreement between the city and the SCC, looks like it will be a school facility for much longer than originally planned.

We need board members who will pick their way carefully through the rubble of these disastrous failures by the State and its construction agency and strive to right the wrongs the district has suffered.

Governor Corzine has initiated a discussion of Abbott schools funding which is only going to get more intense and threatening as the true state of the State's finances is clarified. Aid to our school district comes in a whisker under $100M per year. Not only has a cap been put on state assistance to Abbott districts, the notion that these districts will be required to chip in more by way of an increased tax levy is now on the table.

Plainfield has not raised its school levy in dog's years and you can be sure the prospect is coming.

We need board members who can negotiate the tricky shoals which lie ahead as the funding for the district faces inevitable changes.

Lastly, perennial pressures to turn the school district into a patronage pit and a source of costly sweetheart contracts for well-connected vendors must be resisted.

We need board members who will guard against a raid on the public purse in matters of both employment and contracts for services.

I believe those with the gumption to resist being hornswoggled into selling the kids, the taxpayers or the community down the river should be entrusted with the role of school board members.

That is why I will be voting for Pat Barksdale (Row 1), Rasheed Abdul-Haqq (Row 6) and David Graves (Row 7).

I hope you will, too.

-- Dan Damon

NOTE: The polls are open Tuesday, April 18, from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. If you are unsure of your polling place, call the City Clerk's office at (908) 753-3222.