Board of Education Candidate Ann Cary

Name: Ann Ormsby Cary

Age: 51

Address: 2 Amy Drive

Length of Time in Town: 16 years

Family Life: Married to Larry Cary, an attorney, two sons, Charles, a sophomore at the University of Chicago, and William, a sophomore at WHS

Education: B.A. in English Literature and Writing from Drew University and an M.A. in Journalism from NYU

Professional Life: A 20-year career in marketing communications with a specialty in media relations and event planning; former Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications, United Way of NYC; Director of Public Affairs, NYC Bar Association; Assistant Press Secretary, NYC Council

Community/Political Activities: Co-Founder, Westfield Theatre Guild, a non-profit organization that supports the WHS drama department and provides non-audition performance opportunities for our students

Hobbies:  Writing, sewing, theater-going

What do you think the three biggest issues facing the Westfield public schools in this election?

Dwindling resources, the inequity of the school funding formula, preserving our tradition of excellent schools

Please explain your positions on these issues?

All three of the most pressing issues facing our school district are inter-related.  Dwindling resources, the need for the state to change the school funding formula and preservation of our program and student achievement go hand in hand.  Currently, Westfield taxpayers send approximately $75 million to Trenton each year in state taxes.  This year, we received $1.3 million back in school aid.   

Twenty years ago, 9% of our funding came from the state, now 1.4% does.  At the same time, our enrollment has grown from 4,300 to 6,300 students.  In 2009-2010, we received approximately $4.5 million from the state, again, this year we received only $1.3 million. And that was after the devastating cut of $4.2 million in state aid last year which resulted in the loss of 54 positions, including teachers, guidance counselors, paraprofessionals and librarians, and 41 after school activities.

The district is being squeezed between the mandated 2 percent maximum increase in local taxes and the pittance that we receive in state aid.  Our high property taxes are a direct result of raising local taxes to make up for the lack of state funding.  Now, we can no longer raise local property taxes above 2 percent, so we are forced to cut expenses and program to find the money to educate our students.

I know that the school funding formula is very complex and that many branches of government are involved, including the Governor, the Legislature and the State Supreme Court, but the inequity of school funding throughout the state must be addressed. 

We run an efficient school system.  Last year, we spent $12,009 per pupil.  The state average is $13,833.  For the past few years, the Board has planned and developed creative ways to be efficient and we will continue to do that, but small grants and efficiencies must be supported by an increase in state funding.  

The answer lies in mounting a grassroots lobbying campaign to help the Governor and our legislators understand the inequity in the school funding formula.  If re-elected, I will make it a priority to work for reform.  We need our voices to be heard. 

How do you propose the Board of Education handle the school budget at a time of reduced state aid and the two-percent property tax cap?

I am very proud of the budget that our residents are being asked to vote on and I urge every voter to support it.  It is the first budget in three years that does not include distressing cuts to program and staff.  All of our academic programs, co-curricular programs, fine arts, sports and extracurricular programs are included in this budget.  We have some funding to keep class size in the elementary schools as small as possible, we have adequately staffed Edison Intermediate School for the enrollment bubble, and we are maintaining our rich academic program at the high school. 

In order to keep all of our programs that are so important to our students and our parents and to keep the tax increase at the mandatory cap of 2%, we have shaved operational expenses.  For example, we have a savings of 6.5% in transportation costs, 5.4% in our maintenance budget, 2.9% in operations, and a 1.9% cut in our debt service expenses. 

In our last community survey, 86% of the respondents said that they had moved to Westfield for the schools.  I moved here for the schools and I’m sure that many readers did as well.  The truth of the matter is that the school system helps to keep property values high.  The two go hand in hand.  In the same survey, 95% of the respondents rated the schools as excellent/good.

In March, the Board recognized our fine athletes, students who scored 800s on the SATs, and students who excel in drama and music.  These students’ accomplishments would not be possible if the residents of Westfield did not support them by passing the budget.

I urge all the parents, grandparents, future parents and those interested in maintaining their property values to vote “yes” for the budget on April 27th.

What is your position on the contract the Board of Education negotiated with Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan, which has been objected to by the state Department of Education for going over Gov. Chris Christie’s cap on superintendent salaries?

First and foremost, I want to say that the single most important activity that a Board of Education does is hiring a Superintendent.  We must be mindful that the Board sets policy and the Superintendent runs the district.  That said, four years ago the Westfield Board of Education underwent a national superintendent search and chose Dr. Dolan. She has worked in the Westfield School District for 16 years.  Currently, there is ongoing litigation concerning her contract which I cannot comment on but I will say that her salary in the current budget is in line with the Governor’s new regulations.

For me, what is important right now for the district is continuity of leadership.  These past two years have been very turbulent ones for the Board.  We have dealt with cuts in state aid, soaring healthcare and special education costs, unrest over the current teachers’ contract, and I feel that it would be a disservice to the district if we were to hire a new superintendent at this time.   The district’s performance under Dr. Dolan’s leadership has been stellar.  Our children are achieving academically as well as on the field and on the stage.

There is also a cost to looking for a new superintendent.   The last search cost us approx $25K to hire a consultant to conduct the search.  We do not have the in-house resources to do this.  Once a new superintendent would be hired it would take us a year or longer to get that person up to speed. 

What is your position on the contract negotiated by the Board of Education and the Westfield Education Association in 2010?

Inside the Board I have advocated that there should be a professional, experienced labor negotiator for the School District when it negotiates contracts with its unions.  To date, this suggestion has not been adopted.  I will make it a priority if re-elected.

The unions have an experienced professional negotiator at the bargaining table, and so should the school district.  A professional can bring knowledge about trends, in healthcare and other areas, about contracts in comparable districts for comparison purposes, about pending legislation, about public sector labor law and experience in creating a contract that is fair, not only for the school district, but also for the union members, and the taxpayers.

Contract negotiations are complicated.  The current teachers’ contract is almost 50 pages long and covers every aspect of the employees’ rights and obligations.  Both sides have the right to propose changes to all components of a contract, including salary guides, healthcare, grievance procedures, issues around the workday, sick leave, stipends, maternity and paternity leave and sick leave.

I know that this will cost the district some additional money up front, but I’m sure it will result in savings at the bargaining table.  If I am reelected, I will work to see that the district hires a professional for the next round of contract negotiations, which begins in only 9 months. 

What is your position on the school district’s capital reserve fund and the financing of future capital projects?

There are two actions that need to be taken regarding our facilities and capital projects.  The first action is for the Facilities Committee to meet, review and update our list of capital projects and then to prioritize the projects on the list so that it can be shared with the full Board for review.  I’m happy to say that the Facilities committee is meeting tomorrow to start that process.

In addition, we are being told by our interim business administrator, that we can set aside a portion of our end of year excess funds for capital projects to be done this summer or to be placed in a capital reserve account to fund future large scale capital projects.

In the meantime, smaller projects that we know must be done right away, like the roof at Lincoln School or the doors at Edison School, will be funded out of our maintenance budget which includes approximately $1.2 million for repairs and maintenance.

Therefore, by prioritizing our capital needs, setting aside excess funds in a capital reserve account in June and moving forward with immediate needs, the district has a solid plan for dealing with the needs of our facilities.

Do you believe that shared services can be implemented between the Board of Education and the Town of Westfield or other Boards of Education? If so, what types of services do you believe can be shared?

The basis for all shared services is having collaborative relationships with other municipal and county officials.  The Board and the administration need to continually foster our relationships with the Town Council, the Union County Superintendent, and our fellow board of education members in neighboring communities to see where we can share personnel, equipment, buying power, and supplies.

Currently, the district has collaborative service arrangements with a number of entities which result in savings, but here are two new ideas. 

One idea that could result in savings is to explore the possibility of joining with neighboring districts to buy healthcare.  The larger the pool of employees in a certain program spreads the risk and would allow us to bring down premium costs.  I know that there are a lot of obstacles to achieving shared healthcare plans, but I think going forward we must look for new ideas to share expenses with neighboring districts.

Another idea I have is to see if the district could attract great part-time teachers by sharing them with our neighboring communities.  We will be recruiting a large number of part-time teachers for Edison Intermediate School this summer to accommodate the enrollment bubble and it may be attractive to some teachers to be able to teach more than the two classes that we will need them for at Edison.  This may not result in cost savings, but we may be able to use the relationship with another district as a recruitment tool. 

Do you believe there are any programs/services that should be cut from the school district budget? Do you think there are any programs/services that should not be considered for being cut from the school district budget?

I do not believe that there are any programs or services that should be cut from the budget.  In a time of reduced funding, the Board has worked hard to preserve our rich program of academic and extracurricular programs for our students.

What are your thoughts regarding the student activity fee implemented at the beginning of the current school year?

In the budget season of 2010, the Board was faced with a $4.2 million cut in state aid.  To fill the gap, the administration proposed cuts to both fine arts and sports stipended activities.  Parents and students flocked to the Board meetings to protest cuts and many of the parents suggested instituting a student activity fee to save the programs. 

A committee of parents, Board Members and staff was formed and met several times to discuss how a fee structure would be implemented, what programs would be covered by the fee and how much the fee would be for various activities.  The program was announced and discussed publicly at a Board meeting and was implemented last September.

As always, our parents stepped up to the plate and paid the fees they were asked to pay.  We budgeted for and met our goal of raising $184,000.  Our parents are generous when they want to preserve programs for their children.

How do you propose the school district deal with the projected intermediate school enrollment bubble?

I think the focus right now should be on our plans for September 2011.  The Administration and the Curriculum Committee of the Board have been planning for the so-called enrollment bubble at Edison Intermediate School for two years.  The Administration outlined a number of guiding principles for the public last spring. These were:

• to maintain class size parity in academic areas
• to continue team teaching at both schools
• To provide students with comparable academic experiences, and
• To efficiently use our resources

As we all know, in September we will have 306 students in the 6th grade at EIS and 250 students at RIS.  EIS is physically larger than RIS and has enough full-size classrooms to accommodate a larger 6th grade.  To provide a consistent class size across town, we will hire additional staff so that there will be 12 sections of the core content classes taught at EIS and 10 sections at RIS.  We will also be hiring additional non-core content area teachers to accommodate the larger numbers at Edison. 

One area where I see a need is in the guidance department.  I would recommend the hiring of an additional guidance counselor at Edison and I know that this is a possibility.

As we go forward, we have never had so many part-time teachers working on our intermediate teams before, so the administration and the Curriculum Committee will need to monitor the system throughout the year and apply the learning to our planning for the large class in 2013.

What is your position on parking for students at Westfield High School and the parking/traffic situation in the Dorian Road neighborhood?

The issue of parking at the high school is multi-faceted.  It is also about traffic patterns and student and driver safety.  The Board is currently working with the Town’s Public Safety Committee to seek solutions to these issues.  The town has hired a Traffic Engineering Consultant who met with the public recently to hear their concerns.  He is now conducting a field investigation and will report back publicly before the end of the school year.

That’s good and I am eager to hear an expert’s opinion on these issues. 

In the meantime, I think we should revisit using the area behind the armory as a student parking lot.  When this came up a year ago the price for leasing the land was prohibitive.  I would hope that we would be able to negotiate a price with the armory that works for them as well as for us.  Since no one else has shown an interest in the area, maybe now would be a good time to talk to them.

This would only be part of the solution but it would take a lot of the cars now parked on surrounding streets and move them into the back of the armory, thus easing congestion.  To get the area ready for student parking, the town would have to bear the cost of the paving. 

While we wait for the consultant to do his investigation, I think that the Board of Education and the Town Council should schedule a meeting to talk with the presiding officer at the armory.

What is your position on Westfield High School’s ranking dropping from 27 to 41 in the latest ranking by New Jersey Monthly Magazine? Do you believe these rankings reflect the academic performance of the high school?

Before I make a few comments about NJ Monthly magazine, I would like to say that at a recent Board Meeting it was announced that our school district was ranked as a high performing district by the State.  Using over 500 indicators in five key areas, including instruction and program, personnel, fiscal management, operations and governance, Westfield’s average score was 98%.  This is a much more rigorous study of our performance than the magazine and we came through with flying colors.

Regarding the NJ Monthly listing, we fell in the rankings because the directions on how to report certain numbers were open to interpretation and not as clear as they should have been.  For example, the way class size was calculated was open to interpretation.  Going forward, we will correct that information.

That said, if one pulls out the numbers relating to student achievement, Westfield did very well.  The district recalculated our ranking based on student achievement and it looked like this:

Our ranking if calculated by the percentage of students who scored in the advanced proficiency range in math would be 8th.

Our ranking if calculated by the percentage of students who scored in the advanced proficiency range in language arts would be 21st.

Our ranking if calculated by the average combined SAT scores would be 16th and I would mention that we have the highest SAT scores in Union County.

I hope that the readers of the NJ Monthly magazine will really take a look at Westfield’s scores in student achievement and not just how we fell out in the magazine’s ratings.

What can the school district do to handle the issue of student stress?

Many people are now talking about the film “Race to Nowhere.”  I believe, that we need to change the “race to nowhere” to the “race to personal success” by helping our students find a good balance between academics, sports, theatre, community service, and just taking the time to enjoy being kids.  Each child’s path is different.  All of the adults that guide our children should be helping them to decide their personal priorities.  A small number of students will want to compete to get into an elite university and their parents will have to support their decision to take many AP and honors classes and study for hours each night and on weekends.  The majority of our students, based on their ability and their passions, should put their time and energy into those activities and courses that help them achieve their individual goals while selectively taking honors and AP classes that they find interesting.  And another group of students should be encouraged to find their passion in art or in the woodshop or on the stage or on the field.  The idea is to support our students in the areas they naturally excel in.

Whether it is course selection, social interaction or college application, the adults in our school community, teachers, administrators and parents, need to work together to help our children find balance in life between academic rigor, after-school activities, outside passions and the pursuit of happiness. 

What is your position on merit pay, teacher tenure reform and “last in, first out?”

First of all, let me say that while I might have a position on tenure, that the rules of tenure are dictated by state statute.

Acting Education Commissioner Cerf is now promoting the administration’s position on teacher tenure.  He is saying that tenure should be based on rigorous teacher assessment based on student achievement and observation.  Teachers will get tenure after being rated “highly” for 3 years.  However, if the teacher’s performance lags and for the next 2 years he is judged as only “partially effective” then he will lose his tenure protections.  This is confusing. 

I think a better way to handle the issue is to wait 5 years before granting tenure.  I think, especially for very young teachers coming right out of college, that a longer learning time is appropriate.

I also have concerns about the “rigorous teacher assessment” that Cerf is advocating.  I would not like it to result in additional testing for our students.  I feel that they are tested enough already.  I am also concerned about the cost of the proposal.  I do not want to spend our scarce resources testing our teachers.  I would much rather spend it on student achievement.  I hope that the state is planning to provide funding for their proposals.

Going hand in hand with the issue of tenure is merit pay.  Again, I do not want our focus to target teacher assessment.  I want to stay focused on the children.  It is very hard to calculate each student’s individual academic gains and that is what we would have to do to award merit pay.   

What processes and procedures do you believe should be used for teacher evaluations?

To ensure that the educational goals of the district are being met, both tenured and non-tenured teachers are evaluated each year.  Currently, tenured teaching staff members are observed and evaluated at least once a year by supervisors or their principal.  Non-tenured teachers are observed at least three times each year.  Each year the Superintendent meets with the Board to review the evaluations of non-tenured teachers.  Any problem areas and improvement plans are discussed.  All teachers must complete 100 hours of professional development every five years to obtain and maintain the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure student achievement. 

I believe this is a rigorous system of review, but I would add one piece to it.  If a parent or guardian files a written complaint with the Superintendent about a particular teacher, the school principal would then be obligated to observe that teacher an additional time.  I think that this is warranted to add an additional layer of teacher accountability.

What are your thoughts on moving out-placed special education students back into the school district?

We provide a continuum of services for the 1,100 plus students that are classified.  We want to provide a wide range of quality programs for our students.  Ever-mindful of cost, we provide in-class support, resource rooms, self-contained classes and specialized resource room classes for our students with special needs.  It is the district’s goal to place every student in the least restrictive environment possible.  To the extent possible, we educate students with disabilities in the same classroom as nondisabled students.

It is my opinion that, if possible, we should strive to keep our students in Westfield, using out-of-district placements only when we cannot provide the needed specialized services for a particular student.  That said, we now have approximately 100 students in out-of-district placements and these are the appropriate placements for these students.

The district has moved in the last few years to bring more students home.  For example, we created the Leaps and Bounds program for young autistic children and now have four classes.  One is for pre-school children, two for kindergarten and one for grades1 thru 4.  Approximately 22 students are in the program.  At the high school, we have two specialized programs that keep students in Westfield.  The first is the Bridge Program for students with emotional and behavioral issues and the other is the Prep program for students with cognitive and academic issues.  These programs allow us to keep an additional 23 students in district.

In closing, the district provides a wide range of services for our special needs students that meet their diverse needs while always considering the cost of these services. 

What do you believe the school district could do to prevent bullying?

One of the goals of the Strategic Plan is to foster an environment of mutual respect and integrity, and educate students to become responsible and caring adults.  While this is a goal of the Strategic Plan, the district also has an anti-bullying policy, and engages in character education on every level.  We also train teachers and administrators how to spot bullying and how to deal with it when it occurs.

Bullying is systemic and repeated hostile behaviors of intimidation and harassment that result in the school becoming a hostile place for a student.  Through our character education training, our students learn how to treat each other with respect in a climate of tolerance.  At the middle school level, where bullying behaviors are at their peak, our guidance counselors regularly visit classrooms to talk to our students about wellness, speaking up for themselves and others and navigating all the instant, and sometimes anonymous, forms of communication.   At the elementary level, counselors begin to instill character education in our youngest learners.  At the high school, one emphasis is on self-advocacy and teaching our children to speak up for themselves.  When they go off to college or the world of work they will need to be independent. 

Are the Westfield public schools better off than where they were three years ago?

The simple answer is no.  In 2009-10, the Board was forced to eliminate 24 positions, including teachers, paraprofessionals and custodians, and 41 after school activities.  In 2010-2011, we eliminated 30 positions, including teachers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, librarians, secretaries and custodians.  We had to implement a student activity fee to avoid further elimination of after school activities.  With every one of these cuts, the quality of our program is diminished.

The good news is that after two years of cuts, we have been able to preserve our entire educational program in this year’s proposed budget and keep the tax increase at 2 percent.  By cutting back on operational costs we have saved all of our teachers and activities.  We enjoy good schools here in Westfield.  Even with these cuts, our children excel in the classroom, on the field and on the stage, and 94 percent of them go on to continue their education.

Editor's Note: These questions were provided to the seven active candidates for the Board of Education and these answers are in their own words. Space limits were provided on each question. Editing was done for grammar and style but not substance. These questions and answers are provided to allow you the voter to hear directly from the candidates on the key issues impacting the public schools.