Writer responds to Board of Education members

Iwas glad to see a response to my letter from two members of the Spotswood Board of Education, "Board has worked to keep superintendent search an open enterprise" (Letters to the Editor, Sentinel, June 4). They wanted to clear up my inaccuracies.

First, I had commented that they had not asked for community input, and they pointed out that a survey was disseminated on May 11 and was open until May 22. I had forwarded my letter to this newspaper on May 9 and it wasn't published until May 21, so at the time of writing, it was not an inaccurate statement, but I was happy to see an effort was being made to include the community.

Secondly, I voiced concern over the limited geographic search for a new superintendent. It was pointed out that ads were placed in a Staten Island newspaper as well as several New Jersey newspapers and websites. They commented that they are not searching on a national level because they felt there would be certification issues. As the board is well aware, there is certification reciprocity, and anyone holding an out-ofstate chief school administrator certificate would not have a problem. This is how Dr. John Krewer was able to be superintendent in Pennsylvania, then move to another superintendent's position in Connecticut and then move again to New Jersey. The certification requirements can be viewed at www.state.nj.us/education/educators/ license/reciprocity/.

The writers pointed out that during the three years Dr. Krewer has been in Spotswood, "he has led a team of talented supervisors to update our curriculum beyond New Jersey core curriculum standards." Does this mean that Dr. Anthony Vaz was satisfied with simply meeting what the state mandated? I think there are quite a few people who have no idea what the core curriculum standards are. In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education published "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform." In response to this report, the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in 1996. According to the state's Department of Education's website, the "standards were created to improve student achievement by clearly defining what all students should know and be able to do at the end of 13 years of public education." Since New Jersey has about 600 school districts and charter schools, I'm sure the parents of Spotswood schoolchildren had always expected them to have a curriculum that exceeded state mandates required of all schools, including those in inner cities.

Your final comment, "We greatly appreciate those who reach out to us directly rather than blindly throwing accusations via the media or message board," really shocked me. Obviously, you frequent the Spotswood message board and saw that there were 12 posts concerning the superintendent search. People commented on everything from their concern about the selection committee being confidential to hopes that you select someone who is a better public speaker. I would think you would take every opportunity to respond to people's concerns publicly when you are aware of them, without waiting until a letter to the editor lights a fire under you and forces you to respond.
Darlene Gliese
Spotswood