The event yielded many more pages of notes than Plaintalker can process in one post. Here is part one.
4th Ward City Council seat, four-year term
Council President Bridget Rivers, seeking her second term on the governing body, spoke first. Among her priorities, she named more programs for children, more jobs, a strong police director, a lower crime rate and affordable housing. Moderator George Gore offered questions from the audience, starting with one asking what Rivers would do to encourage the council to work together. She said she believes the council members do work together. Another asked what she would do to make residents aware of the 58 social service agencies in the city. Rivers said they are advertised on the local cable channel, but because some people don't have television, she would like to use newsletters to inform the public.
Rivers is running as a Democrat. Gore said her Republican opponent, Barbara Johnson, was absent due to health problems.
Of six school board candidates, only David Rutherford and incumbents Frederick Moore Sr. and Board President Wilma Campbell were on hand initially, Richard Lear arrived slightly late, saying he had the wrong time. Gore said Anabella Melgar was busy at her church and Deborah Clarke was out of the country, though Melgar appeared later.
Moore said he has served in education for 47 years. He said he believes the district should offer students all opportunities to grow and give them all tools to grow.
"Some will grow, some will not," he said, but all need the opportunity.
Rutherford said he was born and raised in Plainfield, but after studying in Philadelphia to be an architect he taught English and worked as an architect in France. Through his experiences, he said, he "developed into more of an activist." He cited his profession as valuable for the district with many capital improvement projects coming.
" I have friends from all corners of the world and they all know I'm committed and a hard worker," he said.
Lear said he lives in the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District and it was through an essay contest the group sponsored that he became interested in students' needs. Meeting with them, he said, showed they were bright despite low test scores.
"It made me angry," he said, that they had not received the education needed to do well in college. He called it "appalling" that the district ranked 529 of 558 statewide and the high school was last in Union County.
"I want the education here to be phenomenal," he said.
Campbell said she was "blessed to serve for the past nine years" and cited gains in test scores as well as in the graduation rate. She said the district had just graduated its largest class in 10 years.
"That's an accomplishment," she said. "I don't want anyone to leave here thinking our schools are abysmal."
Melgar said she wanted to be a bridge between the Spanish-speaking and larger community.
On other issues, Lear said the student body is 40 percent Latino and called for restoration of a vocational program in addition to academics. Rutherford said he will continue to advocate for a "true dual language program." Campbell said she wanted STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) programs in place as early as the elementary level. Melgar said the board had to "work as a team" to lift test scores. Moore called for early intervention to help students with academic or social problems become engaged in their education.
After Lear brought up newspaper reports on a controversy over $59,000 in payments to the district's law firm, Campbell said the district did not receive direction from the state on the issue until June 25 and Moore said an over-billing issue "really does not exist." Campbell chided Lear for his "attack mode," saying he did not really know the facts. (See state comptroller's report here.)
Rutherford cited a new energy-saving plan that will save the district an estimated $600,000, but said "going green" in Plainfield also had a "darker, more sinister meaning" when referring to Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Green.
Although school board contests are supposed to be nonpartisan, Green announced Lear, Melgar and Clarke as his slate in June, while Rutherford, Moore and Campbell are backed by political activist John Campbell, Wilma's husband. Green was present Sunday but not permitted to speak, as Plainfield Area NAACP President Peter Briggs explained the forum was only for local candidates. Green is seeking re-election to his District 22 Assembly seat and the Campbell's son, John, is a Republican challenger in the same race.
(Part two, on the mayoral race, will follow later.)
Candidates for local school and municipal races will also take part in the Plainfield League of Women Voters forum at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Emerson School.
Did Ms. Rivers say where the money would come from to support more programs, jobs and housing? God and Obama?
ReplyDeletePMUA! With the amount of money it's sucked out of the community since 1998 there would be more than enough money to pay off JFK's mortgage, introduce new programs for residents, and build a few new apartments (elsewhere in the city) as well. She didn't say it, but I think she knows it's true.
DeleteWhat happened to the candidates for Mayor? Did either of them address the NAACP or the 75 members of the community?
ReplyDelete