Long Branch BOE Forum Draws More People Than a BOE Meeting And Much More

Patty Booth O’Neill

There were two no-shows, (Michael Zimmermann and Julio A. Rivas) to the dismay of the audience, and a couple of “gotcha” questions, but mostly candidates were there to speak about what they have to offer the Long Branch school system.

Questions like transgender bathrooms, the locker room situations and how many BOE meetings have you been to caught mosts  off guard, but did lead to a long “Why is that?” conversation. Most agreed the dancing and singing children and maybe the school band should be brought back as entertainment. Some in the audience murmured that free food would do the trick to fill empty seats.

The audience could not speak but could write questions on an index card that Moderator Marcia W. Brown, who was no-nonsense, fair  and kept everyone to their time limit, would ask the candidates. Most were general questions aimed at all, some to a specific person.

There are six people trying to fill three seats available (listed in the caption on the right. A one-year unexpired term seat available (to replace someone who is retiring) with two people, Sama and Jon Zimmerman, vying for that seat.