Lesinski seeks BOE re-election
Hopes to focus on Title IX equality, district policy
With board of education [BOE] elections just around the corner, eight have declared candidacy for four spots on the nine-member board.
Along with most other districts in the state, during the 2010-2011 school year, the BOE voted to move elections to November. Previously, the city’s BOE elections were held in April each year, separate from the general election. This year’s election will be held Nov. 6.
Incumbent board member Barbara Lesinski is running for a full term. She was appointed in September 2011 to fill a spot on the board left open after Connie Breech’s resignation. Before that, Lesinski was on the board from 2007 to 2010, serving as president in 2009 and 2010 before she lost her spot in that year’s election.
Lesinski has lived in Asbury Park for 27 years and also served on the city’s Housing Authority in 2004. She is a science teacher with the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission [MOESC].
When Lesinski first ran for the BOE, “it was a personal thing,” she said. An Asbury Park resident said something about the school district that upset her, and she was motivated to run.
One of her pet issues is board policy, she said. She makes it a point to see that policies are being followed. When she was board president, she spearheaded the effort for a school uniform policy.
Lesinski also finds Title IX equality funding to be important. At recent BOE meetings, she has requested the board look into creating a girls’ softball field. The girls’ softball teams currently play on a Little League field with a pitcher’s mound, despite the fact that softball fields are not supposed to include mounds. She believes the recent refurbishment of the football field for the boys’ team should have an equivalent for girls’ sports.
This also extends to academics, she said. The district has held workshops on minority male education, which she feels is “leaving girls behind … The whole population has the same issues, and boys as well as girls don’t do well.”
She also believes transparency in the BOE is important.
“I like to share information some people don’t like to share,” she said. “I like an open process.”
She is running for re-election “to continue serving the board and the students,” she said. “I hope that whoever gets elected puts the students first.”
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Six candidates are vying for three spots on the BOE with full three-year terms this year. Those candidates are Lesinski, fellow incumbents Rev. Geneva Smallwood and Sheila D. Brazile, and newcomers Christian Hall, Talesha Crank and Jessie M. Ricks.
A one-year unexpired term is also available. Incumbent Gerard Dalton and newcomer Qzeena Taylor are facing off for that spot on the board.
BOE elections take place along with general elections on Nov. 6.
