Iyer, Maeroff, Szilagyi challenge Board of Ed. Fiscal responsibility, ethics are key plans in platform BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer Three Edison residents intend to run for the Board of Education in this year's April elections, campaigning as a single slate. Running on a platform of fiscal responsibility and increased community involvement, the trio say they want to restore the credibility they believe the board has lost over the past few years. Residents Aimee Szilagyi, Gene Maeroff and Veena Iyer announced their intentions during a press conference Feb. 20 at Panera on Route 1. They will be running against incumbents Raymond Koperwhats, Joe Shannon and William Van Pelt. The candidates don't mince any words regarding their thoughts on the current school board, which they said has become dysfunctional and in need of change. "Anybody who has viewed this board has realized its dysfunctionality," said Maeroff. "We just don't completely trust in them," added Szilagyi. Chief among their complaints is the board's decision last November to place Schools Superintendent Carol Toth on paid administrative leave for the remainder of her contract, putting then-Personnel Director John Dimuzio in her place. This has generally been considered a controversial decision, mostly due to the perceived secrecy in which the decision took place but also because of the $180,000 annual cost of keeping Toth on paid leave. The state Office of Administrative Law is expected to look into the legality of the matter on June 6. Until then, however, it has been repeatedly stated that the board is legally and ethically constrained from discussing the circumstances behind Toth's dismissal. Maeroff said the first order of business, if elected, would be to address the superintendent situation. "This board has given a contract to an acting superintendent through June 30, only through June 30, and were we to be elected, there would be an organization meeting set for May 1 and it would seem to me that a high order of business would be a superintendent for the district. That has to be revisited," said Maeroff. Similarly, the candidates feel that the process in which a $52 million bond referendum was shaped and presented also lacked sufficient public input. The bond referendum, set to be voted on in April along with the budget and board candidates, would build a new school as well as provide for renovations and expansion to several of the schools throughout town. Board President David Dickinson has said that the plan is technically tax neutral, since it would be funded by tuition savings gleaned by bringing special-education students back to the district; currently, the district pays to send special-education students to other schools. Still, this proposal generated controversy due to what was perceived as the secrecy in which it was developed, as well as the speed in which it was passed. Saying that the public was insufficiently consulted on the matter, the candidates do not plan to support the referendum this year. "Yes, we need more classrooms; yes, we need more schools; yes, we need more space … but it can't be a fly-by-night decision," said Szilagyi. The three candidates said they would support a similar bond referendum in the future if more effort is made to involve members of the public. This does, of course, present the question of how to handle the problems of a school district that they admit is becoming overcrowded. Szilagyi said that one solution would be to find short-term solutions to buy time while the district works on a longer-term goal. One way to do that, she suggested, would be to rent extra space around town for students, as a stopgap measure, such as in churches and vacant private school buildings. Still, it is incidents such as the Toth matter and the bond referendum that have contributed to what the candidates feel has become an overall lack of credibility with the current board, which they said has had real negative impacts. "Clearly, with what's been going on with the Board of Education, the integrity of the school board and the reputation of the school district is somewhat imperiled," said Maeroff. He noted, for example, that the voters have rejected the budget for two years in a row as a result of what he perceived as a lack of credibility. He also noted that home values may go down if the school district's reputation goes down. The candidates want to ameliorate this perceived problem by involving members of the public in more of the district's decisions. "[We need] an open, accountable, responsive Board of Education … [to] include the community, but not a token inclusion," said Szilagyi. She said that one thing that could be done was to simply alert people sooner about board decisions. Before anything else, she said, people need to know about these things before they happen. Not on the candidates' agenda, according to Maeroff, is revenge. If elected, they want to work with, not fight against, the current board. "We don't see ourselves as going on as some sort of enemy force to do battle with the other people who remain on the school board who may have been involved with the conduct we criticize now," said Maeroff. Maeroff is a senior fellow at the Teachers College of Columbia University and has been active at recent board meetings in speaking out against the Toth dismissal and the bond referendum during the public portions. He has written 12 books on education. Veena Iyer is a parent with children in the school and previously ran for the Board of Education in 2007. She is currently the co-president of the parentteacher organization at John Adams Middle School and is on the board of directors of the YMCA of Edison-Metuchen- Woodbridge. Aimee Szilagyi is an English professor at Middlesex County College and a member of the township ethics board. She said there is no conflict regarding this, since board members are overseen by a state ethics board. She also ran on the Republican ticket for council last November. District elections will be held April 15. Voters will choose board members and vote yes or no on both the budget and the $52 million bond referendum.