Long Branch BOE Candidates Speak at Forum: Questions & Answers

By The Link News

Marcia W. Brown

Long Branch – This coming Election Day voters in the City of Long Branch will be asked to select three out of six candidates for a full three-year term and decide between two, who are seeking to fill the one-year unexpired term. On October 22, a forum was held at the Portuguese Club on Broadway sponsored by the Long Branch School Employees Association and the Rotary Club of Greater Long Branch. The forum was also hosted by the Greater Long Branch Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Guild. Doing an excellent job as moderator was Marcia W. Brown.

Seeking a full three-year term are current incumbents Violeta Peters, who is the current BOE President, and Joseph M. Ferraina, current BOE Vice-President. Out of those seeking to be elected to their first term on the board, only two of the remaining four candidates were in attendance. Raymond Garland and Jon R. Zimmerman were there, but Michael Zimmermann (no relation to Jon) sent a written statement and Julio A. Rivas was a no show and no statement.

The two candidates seeking to fill the one-year unexpired term were Dominic Sama and Jason DeSantis, and both were in attendance. Candidates were held to a agreed upon time limit and were kept on message.

Each of the six candidates were given an opportunity to make an opening statement. That was followed by the moderator asking each two questions which was personally directed at them based upon their applications, careers, and experience. That was followed by audience members submitting written questions which the moderator read. The final section of the form was closing statements.

First question asked to Jon Zimmerman, who was a principal in Kearny, was what he thought was the strongest and weakest areas of the Long Branch Schools.

Jon Zimmerman

He spoke about his son and daughter going through the LB school system. I would get phone calls from coaches, phone calls from teachers they viewed my children not only as students, they knew them as people, and could tell if they were having a tough day in class, and I would get a phone call at home saying we noticed the children were a little off.  He was also amazed by the programs offered here in Long Branch from the arts to athletics. “As far as weaknesses, as an outsider, I’m not going onto the board with an agenda or vendetta. I want to sit back and be an observer and make educated decisions on what I see and offer my opinion as someone with 20-years’ experience doing the job on how we can make Long Branch a better school district.”

His second question, was what strengths he would bring to the board in making better decision making. “I have 20 years’ experience as an administrator, principal of an elementary school. I have experienced a ton of things; I’ve seen change come and how schools and students have changed since COVID. Anyone who says that students who stayed home came back and aren’t behind, need to be looked at. Those on the frontline, teachers need support,” Zimmerman said. He added that he has been a resident of the city for 11 years and would also like to look into the many positions that are at central office, as his former district didn’t have the same positions.

Dominic Sama

Sama was up next, and his first question had to do with the challenges he thinks the schools are facing and why voters should trust him. “I understand coming back from pandemic, students weren’t the same. Other issues are transparency in the board. I think we need to live stream our meetings, academically the sky is the limit, and we need to improve our mental health services in a big way,” said Sama. He added that if he is elected, he will be learning as he goes, but will be listening to outside input.

His second question had to do with a public statement he made about prioritizing fiscal responsibility. He was asked that given the $10 million dollars lost in state aid, what would he propose to stop the negative impact on school programs and services. “I would step back and look at what is needed for the kids, whether its academically, extracurricular, the arts programs, we have to look at the entire budget. We also have a lot of administrators here in Long Branch, we should ne looking into that as well. It is a difficult question to answer in less than a minute,” said Sama.

Violeta Peters

Violeta Peters has been a member of the Long Branch Board of Education for over 20 years and has served with several administrations. Her question was what has been the most important change to the schools under her leadership. “As president of the board one of the things I focus on is keeping the board informed and that I solicit input and comments from all the board members and to keep them abreast of any changes or any concessions that I might have with the superintendent,” said Peters. She also highlighted her involvement with the health center which caters to all employees and their families. “I am also very involved with nutrition, along with Tasha Youngblood-Brown (fellow board member) and have meet with the company who provides our meals to our students to ensure they are provided the best food for all aspects of our community. I feel that they were not catering to the needs of our students.

Her second question had to do with the $10 million dollar shortfall from the state aid. She was asked what actions will you take as a board and what impact will it have on students and staff. “I was not part of the finance committee, but as president I was involved. The budget that initially came out had us increasing the tax rate. Some of us felt that we really wanted to stay within the tax rate that we had been able to accomplish over the last several years. Due to the support of our Senator (Vin Gopal) we were able to get some of the aid back. So, working with the administration we were able to produce a budget with zero school tax increase. Let me tell you, that was a very difficult ask,” said Peters.

Raymond Garland

Raymond Garland was up next. He has had several attempts in the past seeking election to the board of education. In his campaign literature he stated that he wanted to improve school safety. His question was what are the safety risks and safety challenges to our schools and students and what would you do? “Particularly just for Long Branch I would have to sit down with the board and review their policies, sit down with the superintendent of police, the sheriff of Monmouth County and take a look at what security measures they have in place. But I can tell you this, doing security for 25 plus years and I’ve meet eight presidents, doing security for them at airports, football games, baseball games, just think about all VIP’s that go to Newark or Kennedy Airport that I would have under my tenure to watch and make sure they we’re safe,” said Garland.

He also stated that immediately after 9/11, he was in a room with his captain discussing air safety with several airlines. “We came up with a slogan, See Something-Say Something. That slogan is used all around the world. Something like that incorporated into the Long Branch school system would be groundbreaking and not cost that much money. We should do assemblies and extra drills, and look at the locks and doors and have Class Three (police officers) at every school. I think that would actually help a lot,” Garland said.

His second question was what other things would he like to work on as a board member. He stated that he is the president of his condo association that has several elderly people and a large Jewish community. “I mention that because they pay taxes for our school system. I think 55 percent and unfortunately with all the property values going up in Long Branch a lot of the older people in my building are having problem with homeowner fees, possibility an increase in taxes, so they are encouraging me to do this. Talking with Joe and Vi, we have a plan in place not to lower the budget, but to hold it in place where we don’t have to raise taxes,” said Garland.

Joseph Ferraina

Joseph M. Ferraina, former superintendent of the Long Branch Public Schools and current vice-president of the board was the next candidate to receive two questions. Ferraina was asked what he feels will be the biggest challenges facing the district and board in the upcoming years. “When you talk about the budget it’s incredible, we didn’t have a deficit, we got shorted in state aid of $10.5 million dollars and what happens there is this, prior that the finance committee came in with a budget that was eight cents higher and we said we need to lower that. Then we lost the 10 million dollars we still stayed at zero. If we do not control spending, what happens at the end of the day the ones who get hit the most are the children,” said Ferraina. He added that he has been trying to use transparency, but stated its very difficult. “I asked a very simple question two years ago and I still don’t have the answer. I wanted to know how much money central office unaffiliated got paid. They have no union, and I wanted to know what they got paid five years ago and what they get paid today. How much that was increased and how many positions have we increased. I see a difficult time coming and we need transparency, tell the folks out there the truth about the numbers. We lose 10 million dollars and still able to go without reducing staff, think about that,” said Ferraina.

His follow-up question had to do with his inability to get information from the administration. “When you get on the board and you vote no, the other board members look at you and they are unhappy with you, and then work against you. Realistically I haven’t been able to get the information I need and I feel very uncomfortable about that because as I told them the other day, I was a friend and a board member, now I’m just a board member. If the people chose to reelect me and those working against me, it’s ok, but if I get reelected, I will do the best I can to ensure that voting on the next budget were not just voting without knowledge,” added Ferraina.

Jason DeSantis

Last up for the two questions was Jason DeSantis, who is running against Sama for the one-year unexpired term. The moderator stated that statistics over the past two decades Long Branch has seen a significant growth of students whose first language is not English, today 55% of the district students are Hispanic/Latino, 25% are white and 16% are African American, almost one fourth are English language learners. Do you think our schools are prepared for such a diverse population and if not why? “As our demographics and population changes in Long Branch and students with English as a second language I think its very important that we accommodate them, but also I look at it very differently I think it’s not our job to enable them,” said DeSantis.

His follow up question was if you Google what Long Branch is famous for, it will not mention education at all, but surfing fun and beach. What would you do to promote career education and greater college attendance of Long Branch students? “You forgot athletics too, we have a pretty darn good athletics program as well. But for me, I’m going tlook at education excellence not in terms of sending kids to college, I’m goanna look at educational excellence as preparing students for the real world. I have my college degree; I have my master’s degree and that’s very important but its not for everybody. I’m very big on trades and I’m very big on vocation, we need to prepare them to succeed and that doesn’t always mean college,” said DeSantis.

Question #1:

Given the diversity of our community and school staff, how do you ensure that all voices including those from multiple generations with different view points are considered in your decision-making process?

Answers

Peters; “I just left a conference (she was at NJ School Boards in Atlantic City) and one of the topics that I was interested in and listening too was community involvement. I know that at each school level parents are involved, but I would love for more people to come to our board meetings, from our diverse community,” said Peters.

Sama; “I think that I would evaluate all the input from all community members regardless of their diverse background, age, generation. I would listen, be opened minded and evaluate. We need community involvement, like what Mrs. Peters said. I’ve been to board meetings where hardly anyone shows up, and honestly, it sucks. We need to celebrate all the diverse backgrounds in our community,” said Sama.

Ferraina; “You know I talk a lot about 9/11, the reason is because that was a time in America that was very special. People came out and looked at each other totally different, and really cared about each other. It’s easy to talk about diversity, the difficult part is this, the people that are working people that don’t speak the language, it becomes very difficult for them to engage, they feel uncomfortable. I don’t even feel comfortable at board meetings, how is that? So now you have an idea how people can make you feel. The bottom line is we need to hear all the voices,” said Ferraina.

Garland; “Mr. Ferraina spoke about 9/11, I was there and saw people from all over the world become one. I was just at a Jamaican restaurant in town, and West End has any type of food you want. The town does a great job of celebrating diversity, let’s bring that into our schools,” said Garland.

Zimmerman; “As someone who didn’t grow up in Long Branch, I think diversity is its strength. My kids grew up here, and they made friends with all races. It’s amazing what goes on here. But to answer your question, we need community involvement. It’s important for officials to be seen around town, I think you learn more going to a Friday night football game sitting in the stands, going to a coffee shop or informal environment. As an elected official I think it’s important to be out there meeting with different groups,” said Zimmerman.

DeSantis; “I think having a blanket policy on diversity is very different. In the Latin American community in Long Branch, you have many different ethnicities. If you think everyone of those ethnicities have the same needs and wants, your pretty naive. For me it’s about the individual and we need to reach out to the community,” said DeSantis.

Question #2

According to state test scores, only 9% of students are proficient in math and science and 23% in reading. Can you address why test scores are so low, this is addressed to the current board members.

Answers:

Ferraina; “Test scores measure one part of the equation. It’s not acceptable for us to be doing a lot better. What happen is that years ago we didn’t have the methods dealing with the students from the time they came in until the time they graduated. You can’t have a student going through public school and not reading by third grade. Today we can track students, identify where they are. We need an IEP (Individualized Education Program) for every student. Not everyone walks and talks at the same time,” said Ferraina.

Peters; “Test scores when talking about elementary schools are not a reflection of the product we have at the end. We have a 95% graduation rate. Those test scores are not necessarily a reflection of the educators and education we provide,” said Peters.

Zimmerman; “The state gives you two sets of test scores. They also give you growth scores. When a student walks into your classroom at such a level, the state measures what they got on the third-grade test compared to the fourth-grade test. I think Long Branch is a little better, actually a lot better with the growth scores,” said Zimmerman.

Question #3:

“How would you create policies from hiring family and friends?”

Answers:

Zimmerman: “Nepotism to a certain degree must be frowned upon.  But I have no issue if a student grew up in the town of Long Branch and has a connection to someone in Long Branch and deserves a job and they’re the best candidate for that job, I don’t think it’s an issue. I think it’s an issue when someone is not qualified,” said Zimmerman.

Ferraina; “In the area of nepotism there are laws that are involved. Realistically, the board does not hire, we actually vote on the recommendations of the superintendent. In the last meeting, I made it very clear to make sure we are following all the laws, that they have all the certifications and everything they need. Because we are not reviewing the applications. We have to be really clear on nepotism, as it demoralizes the staff,” said Ferraina.

Sama; “I agree with Mr. Ferraina, but when your looking for the right candidate that’s what matters the most,” said Sama.

DeSantis; “I come from a background of being an entrepreneur since I was 28-years old. So, the idea of nepotism, I don’t understand it and it was never a part of what I did or any involvement of what I did. It has to be strictly based on merit,” said DeSantis.

Peters; “We as a board are going to vote on a recommendation made by administration. We ask for the qualifications of the individual, we ask about experiences they had and then we make a decision on how we are going to vote regardless if the person is involved with or has a relationship with a board member. But it is based upon qualifications of that individual. We have to relay on the administration as they are the ones who have a panel,” said Peters.

Question #4

What would a candidate do in regards to retention of employees of color?

Answers:

Ferraina; “I can speak to that based upon my track record. I go back to board members that were committed to working with the administration. I had made a recommendation for an African American female for a principals position, and she has been there and doing an amazing job. I also worked with getting people into intern positions so they could learn and able to get them into positions,” said Ferraina.

Question #5 was directed to DeSantis

A number of posts on your social media pages are disparaging to women and monitories. Do you think this is fitting for a board of education member? And your page also talks about the influx of illegal immigrants, and our community has a large population of immigrants.

Answer:

“Well, I would like to ask what post, and what was said. Making a general statement like that, I think is unacceptable and I take that to heart,” said DeSantis. In regard to the post about immigrants, he stated that he posted recently about the U.S. Government giving 23 billion to foreign countries and people coming here illegally. “Charity starts at home. My home, my son, my mother come first, then my community. Not at anytime was anything said that was disparaging. We need to take care of Americans first.”

Question #6:

How would you support trans and queer students in the district?

Answer:

DeSantis; “For me trans and queer are two different things. Someone’s sexual preference is not my business or the boards business. But in terms of transgender students where a male goes into a female bathroom, I’m against that. That is a cross I’m willing to go down on,” said DeSantis.

Zimmerman; “I think its important to support all students. Mental health is huge right now, but as far as transgender students, you want to make them feel as comfortable as you can without effecting the majority of students in the building,” said Zimmerman. He also didn’t believe that males should compete in female sports.

Question #7 was directed to those candidates who are currently not on the board.

How many board of education meetings have you attended this year and what were your thoughts?

Answer:

DeSantis; “I went to my first board meeting two weeks ago,” said DeSantis.

Sama; “This year I attended one early in the year. Unfortunately, due to my college class schedule I have been unable to attend them. However, in the past years I attended a number of meetings. I also think this is why we need to live stream the meetings,” said Sama.

Garland; “I’m guilty as charged. I haven’t been to one meeting since I signed up to run in August of this year,” said Garland. He added that he did something better, going door to door and talking with residents.

Zimmerman; “I haven’t been to any this year. I have been to a dozen or so in the past. My goal in the near future is to make all of them,” said Zimmerman.