Leiz Looks to Bring Experience to BOE Discussions

Board of Education President Ginny Leiz said she is running for a fourth term on the Board of Education to use her experience to help move the district forward in several areas.

Leiz, the board president for the last three years, cited the need to address growing enrollment and the current fiscal situation facing the board as the areas where she can bring her experience to the table for discussion.The board is currently wrestling with several issues involving enrollment growth and the drafting of the next school budget.

"I want to apply the knowledge of the district and board membership from my nine years of experience," she said. "I want to continue to make my personal skills available to the community."

BOE enrollment projections show that the district is facing a climbing student population at the high school in the coming years. The projections show WHS to reaching the 2,000 student mark. Leiz said these numbers will bring a series of new issues which will need to be addressed.

Specifically she said the needs of a larger student population will need to be addressed, including creating more clubs and activities to connect the students to the high school, along with addressing the potential to add more classes and academic offerings to the high school. Leiz said there may be a need to add additional counseling and guidance staff to the high school in order to address the issue. The BOE discussed last week the possibility to shuffling teachers around to address the need for more faculty at the high school next year, in addition to potentially hiring more teachers.

"We will top 2,000 students at the high school and that will be a real change at the high school," Leiz said. "We need to go through the impact. We need to look at what a larger school means for small setting instruction."

To address the challenges from rising enrollment, Leiz is proposing the creation of an administrative committee to focus on the issues and make policy recommendations to the school board. She would have the study committee focus on the high school first before working on the district wide enrollment projections.

"This is something for the experts to weigh in on," Leiz said. "Parents may have some role in it. The board's role is to identify the critical needs and ask for a report to be generated."

Leiz said budget issues continue to be at the top of her list with the school district facing state caps and declining revenue through property taxes along with declining state aid. Gov. Chris Christie has announced a in the remaining state aid to Westfield for this fiscal year and is expected to announce further state aid cuts in his budget address on Tuesday.

She said she would like to explore alternative revenue sources for the school system, including grants and new revenue generating programs. One program idea Leiz proposed was the creation of new preschool programs, which would allow parents to access the program at a lower tuition than the private schools and bring more revenue to the school district. She also noted the district can explore centralizing more special education programs in the district, cutting back on the amount the district pays in tuition to other districts.

Leiz said she also would like to work on lobbying the state for the possibility to receive more state aid in future years. She noted this will likely be tough.

"The misnomer that Westfield is a wealthy district is difficult to deal with," she said. "It is hard to educate the state on the breadth of demographics in this town."

Leiz cites multiple accomplishments in her nine years of service on the board. This includes working on the selection processes for Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan and high school principal Peter Renwick, the upgrading of Kehler Stadium with a new field house, turf field and running track, the creation of the early childhood learning center at Lincoln School, the refurbishment of the high school auditorium and the Roosevelt Intermediate School expansion project.

Leiz holds a bachelor's in mathematics and secondary education from Muhlenberg College and a master's in operational research from Columbia University. She has worked in the financial services industry as an adjunct business professor. During her BOE service, she has served on multiple committees, including finance and negotiations.

Leiz is one of four candidates for three seats on the board. Board Vice President Julia Walker and board member Richard Solomon are seeking reelection and newcomer Mitch Slater is seeking his first term. Susan Conover informed BOE election officials last week that she was withdrawing from the board race.

The board election will be held on April 20 at the same time as the school budget referendum. Board members serve three year terms and are not compensated for their service.