Photos of the S.L.A.M. team from their website.
Congratutions to the winners in Plainfield's school board election, the S.L.A.M. team of Wilma Campbell, Rasheed Abdul-Haqq, Renata Hernandez and Keisha Edwards (see the unofficial tallies here).
While the rest of her team won large pluralities that put them on the Board, Wilma Campbell appears to be the only candidate to win a true majority of the votes by a small margin.
Candidate Mary Burgwinkle said to me last night, "The bad news is that we (the Coalition for Better Schools team) lost...and the good news is that we lost."
What she meant is that all of the losers, though they were willing to take up the challenges facing the Board, will be spared the avalanche of concerns and issues now facing the victors.
It is a sobering list indeed.
While dealing with Superintendent of Schools Steve Gallon III and his assistant Angela Kemp, who was ordered to forfeit her job but seems still to be on the payroll, may be near the top of the list of items to be addressed, there are others, perhaps even more serious.
Such as the BUDGET, defeated at the polls by a mere 85 votes.
After the vote is certified next week, the District must deliver the budget to the City Council, which can reduce the budget or leave it as it is. While the Council can recommend specific items for action, the only thing the District MUST DO is accept the dollar figure for the budget -- leaving it room to make its own decisions about any cuts. The District may also appeal the Council's budget decision to the State, which would make a final determination.
All of this will take time, and without a budget, the District's staffing decisions -- including layoffs -- may be up in the air. Delays can impact the ability of employees eventually laid off to apply for jobs in other districts in a timely fashion.
Another high priority will be executing the CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN mandated by the state's OFAC report dealing with appointments held by employees without proper certifications.
But these are hardly the only matters the new Board majority (aligning with incumbent Lisa Logan-Leach) will have to address. Others include --
- Executing a long-sought contract with the teachers union, PEA;
- Settlements and reinstatements ordered by Administrative Law Judges in several cases;
- Development of a much-delayed District-wide curriculum;
- Dealing with unresolved overcrowding issues in buildings converted to the K-8 configuration;
- Finding resources to complete much-needed but stalled school construction projects; and
- Controlling outrageous -- and mushrooming -- legal expenses;
Whether or not the new 5-vote majority will sustain itself in the face of these complicated and thorny issues, it will also have to deal with the new -- and decidedly less forgiving -- landscape in Trenton.
Gov. Christie is sure to make much of the school budgets defeated in yesterday's votes (among which was Plainfield's) and the war he is waging against the NJEA, the statewide teachers union, shows no signs of abating.
If the new Board majority is constrained by the PEA endorsement it received to give the local teachers union its unwavering support, one has to wonder if Plainfield taxpayers will be the losers if Christie continues to push back.
To top it all off, the S.L.A.M. team must face its biggest loss of all -- its OUTSIDER STATUS.
No longer will Campbell and Logan-Leach be voices crying in the wilderness. No longer will they be able to bask in the glow of having been overruled by the majority. They are now the majority. They will now be the ones on the accountability hot seat.
Let's hope they live up to their campaign language.
It could only be good news for the school district, the students and Plainfield taxpayers if they do.
The platform laid out on the S.L.A.M. website.
- CLIPS: "BOE Election: The tape's tale" -- Unofficial results.
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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8 comments:
Dan -
Please allow me Congratulate Grand Slam on their landslide win! Plainfield city has spoken loud and clear.
Carmencita
If the Council treats the school budget as it treats the town budget it will be a long summer. the council works on suggested deadlines and has no problem being 4 or 6 or even 8 months late!!!
So for the other candidates a plurality is enough, but you feel that Wilma Campbell won a "true majority" by only "a small margin." Dan, you don't need a "true majority" to win a school board election, you only need a plurality. And Ms. Campbell's majority was substantial--roughly 2 to 1, according to your numbers. And the other incumbents were soundly defeated.
I hope the remaining members of the "old order" on the BOE will recognize the reality that their allies were overwhelmingly dumped by Plainfield voters, and that they will work with the new board majority to accomplish more than fancy language and PR.
Having a curriculum would be nice, and now that Wilma has her votes, I look forward to seeing it.
Also, why are we buying out Gallon? I hope the board looks long and hard at his contract. In my opinion he should be fired - not given hundreds of thousands for leaving. Let's hope this board does their due dilligence.
Well let's see how well they do Renata had so much to say and write about always finding fault, now the shoe will be on the other foot. See we always think the grass is greener on the other side, well she will find out just how green it is.
@12:39 -- If you read all the blogs, you would have figured out I was complimenting Wilma and gently Olddoc's comment that no one won a majority of the votes. Go check for yourself. And lighten up, life is too short.
@11:02 AM -- Have you been living under a rock? You missed that the problem the past two years in a row was that the Mayor (who must submit the budget) delayed introduction for months?
Dan,When I am wrong I will admit it,but in all honesty I did not write that no candidate received a majority. I wrote "The wining slate won comfortably but did not win a majority of the votes but with a large enough plurality to have a mandate".
Yes give credit to Wilma Campbell for having a majority of about 164 votes which is substantial in view of the low turnout.
We must hope that the returning board members heed the public's mandate.
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