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The “Meet the Candidates” series continues to spotlight individual residents who seek a seat on the Asbury Park Board of Education.

There are three three-year terms and two one-year terms up for contest on the Nov. 5 ballot, making a majority of the seats on the nine member board available. A total of nine candidates are in the running for the five spots. Full-term candidates are Connie Sue Breech, Arva M. Council, incumbent Nicolle D. Harris, Corey Lowell, and incumbent Qzeena Taylor. One-year unexpired term candidates are write-in hopefuls Calvin Anderson and Carol Jones, and incumbents Kenneth Saunders, Jr. and Felicia Simmons [shown above].

Today’s report features incumbent Felicia Simmons.

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Felicia Simmons, 34, is one of four candidates seeking one of two one-year unexpired terms on the Asbury Park Board of Education. Simmons was recently appointed to the board to fill one of two vacancies left by Gregory Brewington and Gregory Hopson, Sr. after they resigned in June.

She had originally completed a nominating petition to seek a full three-year term, but changed her petition to seek one of the one-year unexpired terms that were added to the ballot after Brewington and Hopson tendered their resignations.

Simmons attended schools in Asbury Park, Neptune and Bradley Beach before ultimately graduating from Asbury Park High School in 1998. Her 10-year-old son, Zachariah, attends Asbury Park Middle School.

Simmons was formerly employed as an assistant activities director at King Manor, a nursing and long-term care facility for senior citizens in Neptune Township. Due to budgetary reasons, her employment there ended in February. Shortly after losing her job, she enrolled at Brookdale University where she seeks a bachelor’s degree in social work. Eventually, she would like to open her own nonprofit agency “to bridge the gap between youth and the elderly in Asbury Park,” she said.

“There is such a rich history here in Asbury Park, and many of those things our young people do not know about,” she said.

Simmons is a member of the Asbury Park chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee [formerly the Parent Listening Project], a group of concerned parents, grandparents, community members and neighbors who work together to bring about a better education environment for the children in their respective districts, and an active member of an Evangelical church in the city. She also volunteers with the Sportz Farm Foundation, a local organization that provides after school athletic training and academic support to students.

Her involvement in the board of education stems from being an active parent in the community. She began to attend regular board meetings within the tumultuous time when there were threats of closing the entire district down within the past three years, she said.

“I watched teachers go up [to the microphone] and cry about losing their jobs. I sat and watched the board, saw the business administrator texting, [board members] laughing to each other on the side, no one seemed to care,” according to Simmons, who was compelled to go up to the microphone during the public portion of the meeting and voice her opinion. She was almost ejected from the meeting for it, she said.

It was after that meeting she met a fellow parent who suggested she get involved with the Parent Listening Project, which lead her to seek a seat on the school board. If she is able to continue her work with the board,one of the things she she would like to see is more money put into modernizing the recreational facilities in the district.

Simmons is also not impressed with the curriculum, and is appalled at the fact that her son comes home with no books, she said. An increase in books and programs is on her list of priorities—she would like to see a green energy program to teach children 21st century skills, stronger art programs, and to find additional school councilors who can help student cope with their day-to-day problems, she said.

She also sees the Asbury Park district as “top heavy,” she said.

“We have the most supervisors of any district—even the ones double our size,” she said. “When does the money get to the kids? We need new equipment, new technology like Smart Board in the classrooms and in-services for teachers to know what is new,” she said.

In addition to addressing the budget and bringing programs back into the school, Simmons would also like to bring a community-centric atmosphere back to the school.

“The [school] board has the power to change the culture of the school, through policy we can directly set up programs to help the children,” she said. “I don’t just want our kids to get by, I want them to strive—and we can do it.”

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