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On Wednesday, October 24, 2018, a 'Meet the Candidates' night was held at DeMasi Middle school for members of the public to get to know their School Board Candidates. All 5 candidates still running for School Board attended the meeting and about 35 members of the public took part in the event. The forum was arranged by the PTAs and PTOs of Evesham Township and was moderated by Barbara Kutcher of the League of Women's Voters - Burlington County.
The event was conducted in a very similar format to the 'Meet the Candidates' night from last year: candidates would each get 2 minutes for an opening statement, followed by questions from members of the audience, concluding with a closing statement from each candidate. Questions were not asked directly to the candidates, but were placed on index cards and given to the moderator, who would screen, summarize and combine questions where appropriate. Unlike last year, the moderator did not provide the name of the resident asking the questions. The order of response rotated throughout the evening.
OPENING STATEMENT
Christopher St. John expressed appreciation to be in attendance, that this was an important process to be able to express views directly to the public. He noted that he had spent $488.04 of his own money and created a 'half-baked' Facebook page. He was born and raised in Marlton and he and his wife decided to move back to Marlton to raise their children. He is currently an attorney at a law firm in Cherry Hill, and was previously an Assistant Prosecutor in Camden for 12 years, as well as a Deputy Attorney General in the army, and a JAG in the Army Reserve. His goal is to bring unity and respect to the process, to get past the divisions in our town.
Eric Sperrazza has been campaigning by being active on Facebook and knocking on doors. He has been a corporate trainer in the financial sector for the past 11 years, taking complex information and boiling it down into easy to understand 'soundbites'. He is also a personal fitness trainer to Marlton youth. He has 4 children in Evesham schools and his wife is a Teacher's Aide at Jaggard. He wants to bring unity and transparency back to the Board of Education.
Lewis Kipness is a 27 year resident of town and is a strong supporter of public education for every child in the district. He is a retired Contracts Manager with an MBA in Finance. He emphasized education to his children who are now both children's educators. He was previously on the Board of Education in Boonton, NJ. He is a team player and is running to continue the excellence of our school district.
Jeff Bravo is running for his second term on the Board of Education. Jeff is a life-long Marlton resident and is currently a teacher 'on the front lines', in another district. He sees every day how good, bad and indifferent policies affect children. Previously he had been an accountant and auditor where he learned to question everything. He left accounting when he became a father, aspiring to become a teacher. He believes his background in accounting and experience on the board will help with the upcoming funding cuts.
Joe Fisicaro Jr is running for his 5th term on the Board of Education and is running again because he feels he can help guide the board with the looming budget issues due to state aid reduction, as well as the upcoming Superintendent and Teachers' contract negotiations.. He has been an Evesham resident since 1984 when he was 4 years old and fell in love with the town. He was also on the Evesham Township Planning Board from 2003-2008.
PUBLIC QUESTIONS
(Please note that none of the questions are exact quotes, because the moderator wasn't reading from cards directly, but trying to combine, summarize and modify questions on the fly. Some of these summaries did not turn out well and made the questions she asked quite confusing. The responses are summaries of answers, unless they are in quotations.)
Incumbents, what are your accomplishments and challengers, what do you want to accomplish?
Bravo: It's not about 'me', its about 'us', what we accomplished. He is proud that he spoke to everybody and listened to all. 'We don't all need to agree.'
Fisicaro: Agreed that it is a team. 'We' accomplished a lot with security and SROs, conservation, energy resources and solar initiatives. We stopped programs from being cut and teachers from being laid off. Was on the board through 2 teacher contracts and a superintendent contract. Noted that the current BOE has worked well together after the Evans closure and has worked well with some members of the Town Council regarding SROs.
Kipness: Hopes to bring an openness and non-partisan view to the board. Has been on a Board of Education before and listened to residents as well as other members of the BOE.
St John: His biggest focus will be to mend the relationship with the Town Council, hoping each treats the other with mutual respect, and determine 'how can we benefit the children'? Will work in harmony with the Town Council and begin to mend relationships from day one. Wants to ensure education for all children and sees much room for improvement based on test scores, though scores don't tell all. Wants to have more diversity of views and backgrounds among board members, and is concerned that the current board is heavy with educators. The board shouldn't have too many conflicted members (members with family members working for the district. See below.)
Sperrazza: Wants to bring transparency to the School Board process as the public isn't familiar with the issues, the average mom and dad don't have insight into the process. Wants to bring unity, promoting community events and fund-raising possibilities. The town has been 'brutally divided' and he hopes to help heal that. He is a supporter of the arts programs, as he is a child of the arts.
Considering the budget cuts from the state, what will you maintain and what will you cut?
Fisicaro: "We are only as good as the programs that we have and the educators that teach those programs." It's important to understand how the funding cuts work with the 2% CAP. How and when we cut is just as important as what we cut
Kipness: Encouraged everyone to attend the Vision 2020 sessions the school district is having with the public to determine the future direction of the district. Everyone needs to participate to find a way forward. Wants to approach local businesses to help. Since we earn revenue from the Reading Recovery program, are there other programs we can market that way?
St John: We need to take advantage of the generosity of people in town and partner with non-profits. Quoted Mr Scavelli as saying 'Everything is on the table'. Noted that some programs might look a little different after cuts.
Sperrazza: As a finance trainer, he wants to see the actual numbers. Agrees with the idea of approaching non-profits for partnership, such as Evesham Education Foundation to help subsidize what we are losing.
Bravo: Agreed with Mr St John that some programs might look a little different in the future.
What can be done to negotiate and settle a sustainable teacher's contract, especially in light of budget cuts coming from the state?
Kipness: Noted that teacher salaries and benefits are 80-85% of the school district budget and that we need to attract and retain the best talent possible. He could tell the high regard that teachers are held in after attending the Strategic Planning Session, but is aware that state aid is going to cause issues.
St John: Stated that everyone will feel the state aid cuts. There is a fine balance between paying for the best and cutting where we need to.
Sperrazza: Wants to galvanize the community and see what we can do to make concessions and keep the teachers happy. But we can't cut off our nose to spite our face. Believes there is a happy medium.
Bravo: Wants to approach the problem the other way, rather than concessions, look at alternative means of revenue with Shared Services, advertising on fields, etc. Rather than lower costs, we should raise revenue.
Fisicaro: Believes adding revenue is key. Wants to renegotiate shared services. Notes that the average teacher salary in the area is projected to increase 3.15%. Educators lost a lot of salary and benefits in the past decade and doesn't think they are ready to lose more. Is concerned that while Evesham and Lenape districts have lost money, other local districts have gained money. These other districts may become more attractive to local teachers if they can offer more.
Are teachers salaries adequate, need improvement or should be dialed back?
This question was not phrased well and didn't produce much differentiation between the 5 candidates. All agreed the compensation was adequate.
What will you do to get money from PILOTS?
Like the previous question, this was not phrased well and the moderator admitted she didn't understand the question. She tried phrasing it a few different ways but realized the question wasn't being communicated properly. The ensuing discussion was a bit disjointed, but all candidates expressed their dislike for long-term PILOTS and the hope that there would be better dialogue between the Town Council and School Board in the future, so the School District might be able to share in revenue from any future PILOT agreement.
What is your position on SROs (School Resource Officers - cops in school) and who should pay?
Bravo: Believes it is vital to have SROs in the school, to have children come to see the police officers as their friends, and to help prevent crime and bullying. Hopes to improve the relationship with Town Council so this can truly become a shared service.
Fisicaro: Believes SROs are 100% needed and help to create community where children can trust the police officers. Because of aid cuts, believes a conversation with Town Council regarding funding is necessary.
Kipness: Believes SROs are both needed and necessary and that a better relationship with Town Council can help to create a true Shared Service.
St John: Believes SROs are needed for 'good positive relationships with police officers'. Having spent 12 years working in Camden, he saw what happened when children don't have a good relationship with the police and believes Evesham does an amazing job with their SRO program. Hopes to be able to come to a compromise with Town Council regarding payment.
Sperrazza: Believes some program is necessary for security and it is fantastic having officers at the schools, but at what cost? We should look at whether that program should be police or private security, possibly retired veterans, and determine which is most cost effective.
After Mr Sperrazza finished his answer, Mr Kipness asked if he could respond to Mr Sperrazza. It should be noted that this was the only 'rebuttal' of the evening. The moderator asked if all candidates would be amenable to an additional 45 seconds for all, and they were.
Mr Kipness doesn't believe that private security is as well trained as our local police, and that it is easier for our police officers to build relationships with the teaching staff and the children than a private security firm that is hiring staff, possibly from outside of Evesham.
The next question wasn't communicated well. I spoke with the writer of the question after the session, and they were trying to ask if you needed to cut money either from SROs or teachers, where would you cut? Instead, all candidates understood the question in reverse: if you could add additional SROs or teachers, what would you choose? All chose adding additional teachers.
Are any of you conflicted, meaning will you have to abstain from school board votes?
First some explanation. This is essentially asking 'are you or anyone in your family employed by the Evesham Township School District?' While I suspect the questioner already knew the answer to this, it is an important question to ask.
Board members are not allowed to vote on any item in which they have a financial interest. There are two important votes that will be undertaken by the School District in the coming year that fall into this category: 1) Whether to offer another contract to Superintendent Scavelli, whose contract expires at the end of the school year. If not, new candidates for the position must be identified, interviewed and ultimately voted upon. 2) A new teachers' contract will need to be negotiated and voted upon.
(In addition, while not on the agenda for the coming year, any votes regarding the teachers' healthcare benefits would also be included in this category. There are, however, many additional duties and votes for School Board members that would be unaffected by this 'conflict'.)
For anyone 'conflicted', they will not be able to vote on either of these issues - they would need to abstain. For both of these issues, a majority of members is needed to pass, 5 votes, regardless of how many members can actually vote on an issue. For instance, based on the current makeup of the Board of Education, 3 of the members are conflicted. This means if a teachers' contract needed to be negotiated with the current board, only 6 members could ultimately vote, and 5 of the 6 would need to vote YES for a vote to pass. Ultimately, an abstention counts the same as a NO vote.
Mr Sperrazza's wife and Mr Fisicaro's mother-in-law are employed by the district. St John, Bravo and Kipness have no voting conflicts. (Note: This paragraph has been updated. Previously it stated Mr Fisicaro's wife was employed by the district - that was incorrect.)
Sperrazza: Noted that he would not be able to vote on a contract for a Superintendent, and that it seems to be a dividing issue in the town. However he believes that there is more to the job of School Board Member than just one vote in January.
Fisicaro: Said that sometimes you are more than just a vote, that you can still participate to try to achieve your goals, sometimes with hours of calls and trying to convince board members of the importance of votes.
Do you support moving Administration and selling the Admin building?
All candidates believe that this is certainly something that should be looked at, that a cost benefit analysis should be done. Mr Fisicaro added that they have looked at it in the past and that it wasn't cost effective - there are 60-80 people plus the warehouse, and currently there is no where to put them.
Is now the right time to look for a new Superintendent?
Sperazza: Noted he is running for school board due to the vitriolic divide in town. 'There's one major name that has divided us in the past... Mayor Randy Brown... he's not going to be an issue in January. The other is John Scavelli, that's the name that's still tearing us apart....if it were up to me, a new name wouldn't be that bad of an idea... But good news, its not up to me.'
Bravo: No, it is not the right time. Mr Scavelli has led the district and in the difficult times ahead, we need someone with intimate knowledge due to budget cuts. Are there things Mr Scavelli could do better? Sure, but this is not the right time.
Fisicaro: Noted that he was involved in a prior Superintendent search prior to being married (before he was conflicted) and when times were 'good'. There are not always good viable candidates, and frequently you have to settle on someone who is not a Superintendent. Superintendents tend to have a short work life span because of the stress of the job, so they tend not to move around a lot. This is not the right time to look for a new Superintendent.
Kipness: No, this is not the right time. Mr Scavelli has maintained his professionalism through difficult times and we need him to get us through the next few years. He has heard nothing but praise for Mr Scavelli.
St John: Stated that Mr Scavelli has told him 'don't make this election about me.' He likes Mr Scavelli personally, but he needs more information. It would be irresponsible for him to decide whether a new Superintendent is needed without that information.
CLOSING STATEMENTS
Fisicaro: Relayed a question his father had asked him about whether he wanted to be a show horse or a work horse. A show horse looks good and takes all the public credit, while the work horse just gets things done. 'I want to be the work horse.'
Bravo: Wanted to let everyone know he's just an honest guy with no agenda and no politics, looking out for the kids.
Kipness: Professional ethics are paramount. Since he is retired, he has the time, energy and experience to help the School District.
Sperrazza: Wants to bring civility and transparency. He is someone with 'skin in the game', fighting for moms and dads. Believes if you are voting just for the Superintendent's contract, you are doing the district a huge disservice.
St John: Can't promise perfection, but he can promise mutual respect. He will build long, strong relationships with other agencies.
While I have additional notes from the evening, I think this is a good summary of the event. I have tried to provide as much context as is possible in written format, but this should not be your only input for deciding your vote. There is still a week until the election. I have spoken with all the candidates, and I believe we have some fine men to choose from - we will be in good hands regardless of who wins. All the candidates seem more than willing to talk with the public, so if you have any questions or are still undecided, please reach out to them or go to their Facebook pages.
If you have any questions about the Meet The Candidates night, or if you think I got something wrong, feel free to respond in the Facebook post, or contact me via Facebook messaging or an email to MarltonNeil@Yahoo.com.
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| This is what you will see inside the voting booth. Note that the last candidate, Melissa Fleming, has dropped out of the race. |
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| Closeup of School Board ballot |
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