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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.

Today’s report features incumbent Nicolle D. Harris.

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Nicolle D. Harris, 33, is one of five candidates seeking a three-year term on the Asbury Park Board of Education. Harris has served the board since December of 2012, when she was selected to fill a vacancy left by another board member who had resigned.

Harris grew up in Asbury Park. She graduated from Asbury Park High School [APHS] in 1998 and attended Delaware State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in primary education with a minor in theater arts.

Her father, Daniel Harris III and grandfather, Daniel Harris Jr., are both active community members in the city. Harris’ father recently lost his bid for a seat on the Asbury Park City Council and he is the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed to challenge the results of the May 14 municipal election. Because her family members have been so involved in the community, Harris says her own involvement is not a choice but an “honor and a responsibility,” she said.

Before she was chosen to sit on the school board, she was part of  “Growing After the Next Generation,” a group of citizens that organized trips to the high school to talk about issues of self-esteem and violence.She now works with the on the Stop the Violence Action Committee, a group of volunteers whose mission is to end the gun violence that plagues the city, is a licensed minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, member of the Neptune-based Midtown Urban Renaissance Corporation, and sits on the advisory board for Prevention First in Ocean Township.

After she graduated from college, Harris moved back to New Jersey and settled in Jersey City where she earned a job as the director of a head start program for Newark Preschool Academy. She is now a teen parent coordinator for Essex County Vocational Technical Schools, but grew tired of living in Northern New Jersey and returned to be around family.

An interest in the opportunity to be a positive role model in the community and make a difference drove Harris’ decision to join the board just under a year ago.

“I really have a heart for the kids in Asbury Park, because the same stereotypes people have about APHS kids today they had about me,” she said. “I think people have misconceptions about the high school and always have.”

Harris could have used the address of a relative to attend a neighboring high school, like so many others in the district, but decided she did not want to do that. She credits former Bangs Avenue School principal  Howard West for helping her make that decision. West came to her parent’s house the summer before she was to enter ninth grade and asked them to enroll her in APHS.

“He told them, ‘She will get an education and I will take care of her,’ and he did,” she said.

On her list of concerns for the district are declining enrollment numbers in the high school and the effectiveness of the teachers, citing the district’s high incidence of teachers calling out on a regular basis. She is interested in finding out “what it is that teachers need to do their jobs effectively,” she said.

“There are 1,100 young people of high school age that live within the city, and less than 400 kids enrolled. Where are those kids?” she said.

Also at issue for Harris are the demographics of parents in the school system, many of whom fall within the 25-35 age range. Harris believes the lack of parent involvement in the district is not due to the fact that those parents don’t want to be involved, but because they are at a certain stage in their lives where they may have to work more to make ends meet.

To mitigate these issues, Harris would like to see more GED programs offered, training programs for special needs kids and the addition of a social worker that can meet the needs of the parents “where they are at in life,” she said. Although she is not a parent herself, she hopes that her presence on the board will serve to further the young parent’s involvement.

“Seeing younger faces that connect with them on the board may get them more involved,” she said. “I am them.”

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