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[Correction: Kenneth Saunders was appointed to the Board of Education August 2013. An earlier posting incorrectly stated the BOE candidate was a newcomer.]

A current board vice president, a newcomer and past board member are asking voters to support them during Tuesday’s Board of Education election.

Sheila Etienne is a lifelong resident who graduated from the school district. She worked for 10 years as a probation officer before obtaining a criminal justice master’s degree. Her entrepreneurial work as a parent advocate brought her in closer connection with the school district, she said.

“My concern is that our youth are not challenged enough,” she said. “We’ve spent a lot of time putting out fires so if you are a student doing fairly well we are not concentrating on that. We concentrate on children that are doing bad so much sometimes that we ignore the children that are doing well.”

Etienne’s goal is bring more after school programs into the districts, parent resources, and incentives for the students to do well. She has said that the educational struggles to keep up during her college years were due to a limited curriculum during her high school years.

“There is a lot of change going on, there is a renaissance going on in the school system,” she said. “I want to make sure the struggles I went through are not the struggles the next generation of students go through.”

Christian Hall, a three year Board member current serving as its Vice President. He is an Asbury native and the city’s youngest elected official.

An advocate of adding swimming, CPR, Firs Aid and lifeguard certification courses, Hall hopes to bring more electives to the district’s curriculum, like home economics, wood shop, and an automotive repair class.

“I want to make sure our children, our future, is set in a greater place to where our students are more equipped and more prepared than I was,” he said. “I want to add programs that allow them to go out into the world and be more competitive.”

Hall said he wants to continue to work to address the concerns of the parents, staff, and the students. He hopes to incorporate an ROTC program, increase attendance by taking a second look at out of school suspension policy, and bring in more vocational programs.

“I address the issues when people come to me,” he said. “I bring forth solutions not excuses. I feel Asbury Park is pretty much a snapshot of America – tolerance, inclusiveness, family, everyone being involved. There is so much diversity here – we have to continue to work together.”

Kenneth Saunders Jr. is a lifelong resident and school district graduate. He works as an operating room nurse manager.

Saunders has said there is a need for improvement in the city’s education system, saying they are leaving the district without having basic life skills.

“We have a lot of growing to do,” he said. “I want our children to see far beyond the shores of Asbury Park. I want them to have a vision of doing other things than coming out of school and getting a job.”

Saunders said there is a need to encourage more parental involvement in a child’s education.

“My goal is to assist with the renaissance within the community, to be accountable, to be a voice for the people, and to be a bond and not divide the community,” he said.

For more on the candidates, visit APTV’s Candidate’s Forum.

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