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To the Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

I support the candidacy of Joe Grillo for the Asbury Park Board of Education.

But, I agree with the letter of Daniel Jacobson as he wrote “…not to factor in the unjust indictment against James Famularo in your [election] decision.”

I was surprised as I read a reprint of a 1998 newspaper article entitled “Ex-board leader Indicted in Asbury” in a campaign flyer. This negative approach to campaigning diverts attention from the issues I believe are at stake in a Board of Education election.

What are those issues:

Measurement of the academic success of students in the classroom. The slogan ‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste’ ought become a regularly repeated mantra of every administrator, teacher, student, parent, Board of Education member, and union leader related to the schools of Asbury Park.

Just as Student National Coordinating Commitment [SNCC] said during the Civil Rights Movement, ‘Organize, Organize, Organize.’ Today in education we must say, ‘Measurement, Measurement, Measurement.’ That I believe ought be the week by week expectation of every Board of Education member.  

Every resident of Asbury Park, whether they have children or young people in the schools or not, could help to transform education in the city, if we begin to believe that these are OUR children and young people. The old song says, ‘Red and Yellow, Black, Brown and White, they are precious in God’s sight.’ And, in our sight as well.

I hope we we will have a post-election gathering of those who do not win and those who do win, as candidates for the Board of Education. The nation must begin to utilize the commitments and energies of All candidates who run for office; regardless of election results. This is especially needed in education. ‘Just Do It’ Asbury Park!

Rev Gil Caldwell

Ocean Avenue

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To the Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

As a single father raising my daughter in the City of Asbury Park, our family endures a double tax as we have to pay for my daughter to get an education outside of the failing Asbury Park School District.

I am asking my neighbors to vote ‘NO’ on the Asbury Park school district tax increase. It’s not appropriate to continually pay more money when we know that the school district does not succeed in its mission of educating our children.

The Asbury Park school district should be lowering our taxes not raising them. Other municipalities of similar population sizes see school budgets that are a fraction of our nearly $80 million dollar budget; meanwhile they serve more than double the students at the high school level and have higher graduation rates. I am not naïve, Asbury Park has severely adverse challenges but if the institution cannot achieve its goal of educating our kids, then why pay more for it?

A significant population of school-aged children are educated outside of the Asbury Park school district; and for good reason. The high school performance rates are still abysmal: only approximately 1 in 5 high school students met the language arts literacy and 97 percent did not meet the mathematics expectations or standards.

It’s just not appropriate to ask families in Asbury Park like mine, to continually pay more money when these are the results. Please think of our family and others who are in the same situation when voting on the School Budget Increase tomorrow. Let the Asbury Park school district improve its performance before dipping into our family’s limited finances for more money each year.

Vote ‘NO’ on the School Budget Tax Increase.

Your neighbor,

Randy Thompson

Park Avenue

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]

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