Contested School Board Election to be Held
On November 4th, 2016, the incumbents Henry Senger and Irene Feldsott will be challenged by Paige Egan and Tonya Valency for two seats on Saddle River Board of Education (BOE).
Senger, who is board president and council liaison to North Highlands in Allendale NJ, talks up their past achievements on the board with Mrs. Feldsott. “The outstanding accomplishments that have occurred while I have been a board member were successful because of the vision ofa dedicated team and the whole board of education, working with a thoughtful administration and caring staff collaboration with unwavering focus on results”, he told the local paper the Town Journal.
From their website (HenryIrene4Wandell.com), they write the following:
We have served on the Saddle River Board of Education and have had one guiding principle, to improve the quality of the Saddle River Public Schools for the benefit of our children.
Over the past several years all local Boards of Education have faced some very difficult issues; we here in Saddle River have taken on those issues (mandated tax caps, Quality Single Accountability Continuum, reductions in State Aid, Common Core implementation, just to name a few) and with our community’s support have insured a high quality public school education for all of our children no matter what issues face us.
Our fiscal situation enabled us to receive a “AAA” Bond Rating. In fact, recently we were able to issue bonds to replace our HVAC system at a lower interest rate and achieved significant financial savings for the taxpayers of Saddle River.
Fedlsott is a parent of two Wandell alumni and has served on the board for the past 10 years.
The challengers who are both active parents in the community who have both decided to run based on feedback and support of fellow parents who want a change in the current path of the BOE. Issues they cite include high tax increases, the bad decisions on middle school options for parents, the failed hiring of superintendents for the school (Wandell has had several superintendents in the past 5 years alone), decreased teaching staffing, declining enrollment in the school and bad upkeep of the school.
Their platform runs on the following principles:
- Launch a educational excellence plan
- Re-establish trust in the BOE
- Maximize return for School tax dollars
- Preserve high school choices
- Address declining enrollment trends
On November 4th, the town and its voters will make their voices heard.