GLEN RIDGE, NJ — This election season, Glen Ridge has five candidates running for three open seats on the Board of Education. They are incumbents Elisabeth Ginsburg and Heather Yaros-Ramos, running on the Civic Conference Committee–endorsed slate with challenger Tricia Akinwande; challenger Darius K. Dehnad, running under the slogan “Glen Ridge Parent Alliance”; and challenger Steven Lord, running under the slogan “Common Sense Candidate.” BOE member Michael de Leeuw is not seeking reelection.
Akinwande has lived in Glen Ridge for approximately eight years and co-founded the Glen Ridge Diversity & Inclusion Association. Professionally, she has worked in corporate America and is an operations leader; she also has experience as an entrepreneur. The mother of a middle schooler, Akinwande has been active in various nonprofit organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, Hudson Cradle in Jersey City and Girls on the Run.
When asked what she believes to be the top issue in Glen Ridge schools today, Akinwande pointed to curriculum, saying the district needs to be “improving curriculum, specifically in the areas of accurate world history, science technology and arts innovation, ethics and critical thinking, (and) civics and government.”
Dehnad, whose two daughters are in elementary school, has worked in risk management for financial institutions, a job that requires data analysis and balance sheet management, since graduating from Columbia University in 2008. Dehnad is currently on track to graduate from Seton Hall University Law School this spring. Dehnad has stated that part of the reason he is running is to ensure that elementary school parents are represented on the board.
“The top issue affecting Glen Ridge schools today is an issue shared by districts across the country — learning loss from the pandemic. When I kicked off my campaign in September, I became familiar with the latest research of academics and experts indicating learning loss from the pandemic was significantly worse than expected,” Dehnad told The Glen Ridge Paper, directing residents to view his analysis of the research on this topic at his website, grboe.com. “So, how would I address learning loss? Unfortunately, the first step is getting the board to acknowledge it is an issue,” Dehnad continued. “Second, I would ensure we are collecting and reporting data to validate the effectiveness of our interventions districtwide. This goes to my campaign priority of ‘reporting more district data and making it consumable.’”
Ginsburg, the board’s current president, has lived in Glen Ridge for more than 30 years and works as an education lobbyist for a nonprofit organization. In addition to her role on the BOE, she has served as board president of the Nursery School at Christ Church; a founding board member of the Middleton Early Learning Center; president of the Glen Ridge Historical Society; a Home & School Association volunteer; a member of the Freeman Gardens board; and a member of the Glen Ridge Shade Tree Commission.
“The most pressing issue right now is staffing,” Ginsburg told The Glen Ridge Paper. “State and nationwide shortages in all staff areas exist. From teachers to paraprofessionals to custodians, it is a constant battle to find personnel and retain them. Hiring is really an administrative issue, but in my professional life I advocate for policy changes that will help eliminate barriers to entry to education professions without diminishing quality.”
Lord, who has lived in Glen Ridge since 2007, has one child in the school district. He is a full-time professional sculptor, as well as a part-time lecturer and teacher; he travels internationally to give lectures on sculpting and anatomy.
“The school (district) needs to focus on learning and quality of life for students,” Lord told The Glen Ridge Paper. “I would direct the energy towards teaching our children what they will need to succeed and prosper in the real world. As an artist I would like to expand the awareness of many career opportunities that might be overlooked in the system.”
Yaros-Ramos, who has lived in Glen Ridge for 16 years, has served on the board for nine years already; she has two children. In addition to having served on the board’s curriculum, finance and negotiation committees, Yaros-Ramos has experience in the classroom as a chemistry teacher at Indian Hills High School in Oakland. Prior to teaching high school, she was an adjunct professor at a number of local colleges; she has a doctorate in chemical engineering from University of California, Berkeley.
“There are a number of challenges affecting all public school districts: tight budgets, a national teacher shortage and aftereffects of the pandemic on staff and students. The district is well positioned to address these challenges. Our finances, although strained, are in order; Glen Ridge is still a desirable district to work in; and we’ve added a number of supports — academic and social-emotional — to address the fallout from the pandemic,” Yaros-Ramos told The Glen Ridge Paper. “Glen Ridge is recognized as a high-performing district, both in New Jersey and nationally, supported by an involved and engaged community. Accordingly, I’d like to focus on challenges unique to our district: improving communication, and prioritizing and implementing the recommendations of the equity and special education audit, and evaluating the success of these efforts,” she continued, adding that, while this will be challenging, it is vital that each board member engage in “critical questioning” throughout the implementation process.
When it comes to school safety, candidates discussed the need for students and staff to have social-emotional safety as well as physical safety.
Yaros-Ramos praised the district’s partnership with Effective School Solutions to provide mental health support through small groups and programming.
“American Rescue Plan funds were used to hire additional counselors at each school. We need to provide teachers with resources to incorporate social-emotional learning into their lessons and better communicate the resources available to struggling students. Ideally, students would see their guidance counselor on a regular basis to facilitate students accessing available resources,” Yaros-Ramos said, adding that teachers need to be supported, respected and valued. “The hardest (issue) to address is compensation. Our budget is almost entirely from property taxes — which are capped at 2 percent — and salaries/benefits comprise approximately 85 percent of the total budget, which means, if the BOE is too generous in salary negotiations, we’ll end up cutting positions later. We, as a district and community, need to support our teachers so they feel valued.”
According to Lord, the district needs to be physically safe while ensuring that its methods are not emotionally damaging.
“School safety is a very tough subject given the world we live in. You don’t want to have the kids locked up like a fortress and you don’t want it too lax either. It’s a fine line we have to find, and I will work to figure out the best solution for quality of life for our children,” Lord said. “I realize this is a heated subject, but my stance on school (COVID-19) lockdowns is never again. The damage done by the lockdowns/lockouts will not be fully appreciated for years. The teen suicide rate spiking during lockdowns was just one of many avoidable travesties caused by bad decision-making.”
Ginsburg said the district needs to stay the course.
“We hope that the positions and programs that we have been able to implement through the use of federal COVID recovery dollars can be sustained beyond the expiration — September 2024 — of that funding, and we will be mindful of the ongoing needs of our students for physical and emotional support as we engage in the budget process,” Ginsburg said.
Dehnad is still in the fact-finding phase of determining the best ways to address safety and well-being.
“I strongly believe in transparency and honesty, which extends to admitting when I do not have enough information, or have not studied an issue sufficiently, to respond with an educated, reasoned proposal,” Dehnad said after being asked about this topic. “As you noted, ‘school safety can mean a lot of things,’ and this is reflected by varied subjects and research related to school safety shared by the New Jersey School Boards Association. Additionally, Glen Ridge also has idiosyncrasies to consider, such as students walking independently to and from school starting in the third grade. I can assure you that I will research this subject thoroughly before the BOE’s reorganization date of Jan. 4, 2023.”
Akinwande stressed the importance of hiring faculty that are trained to support students’ emotional well-being.
“From a social-emotional perspective it’s important to hire teachers who are diverse and understand the importance of diversity,” Akinwande said, adding that the district needs to “provide professional development to new and existing teachers on social-emotional learning; emotional intelligence; and diversity, equity and inclusion.”
When asked specifically about DEI in Glen Ridge schools, Akinwande said the district needs to “hire a DEI professional who reports to the superintendent but has a dotted-line responsibility to the BOE.”
In his response, Dehnad said that equity and inclusion needs to be all students and families, noting that the district’s equity audit found that parents who were unable to participate in the Home School Association had less access and influence in their child’s education.
“An education lacking equity in parental agency will never lead to education as an equalizer. Part of (my work on) this would include building a section on my website — after the campaign — to inform parents about the various educational offerings and pathways. For example, one parent who works full-time expressed the feeling that she only learned about different programs, such as the AP Capstone, after her elder son went through the district, so that she knew exactly what to do for her younger son — at her elder son’s expense,” Dehnad said. “Regarding diversity, we all too often ignore diversity of thought. This includes acknowledging — and civilly discussing — viewpoints across the political spectrum without judgment. I would also add that cultural competency is incredibly valuable for our students, particularly in such a global, connected world. I am a first-generation American with parents from Iran, married to an African American woman from North Carolina, so I have a particular affinity for the sharing of cultures and traditions.”
Ginsburg is focused on effectively implementing the recommendations from the district’s equity audit.
“I think that we can continue the efforts that we started as the result of the district’s equity audit, going forward with staff training, attention to continued broadening of our curricula, and efforts to hire a well-qualified, diverse staff,” Ginsburg said.
Lord expressed his support for diversity and the importance of treating everyone equally.
“I follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in regards to DEI: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’” Lord said. “Having a multiracial family, I don’t see any better explanation of how to treat one another.”
Yaros-Ramos stressed that teaching DEI benefits everyone, as cultural competency allows people to communicate and collaborate with people of different backgrounds, which “is critical to be successful in the world outside our Glen Ridge bubble.”
“To me, it’s clear that students of color and special education students don’t always feel comfortable in the district. I think the DEI audit sparked a lot of good conversations, and that was important. We should continue with our steps to broaden our candidate pool, provide administrators and teachers with DEI training, and incorporate DEI throughout the curriculum,” Yaros-Ramos said, adding that it is important to focus on diversity outside of specific months, such as Black History Month or Women’s History Month, and to ensure students are receiving a comprehensive education on diverse individuals — not just in times of victimhood, but also in times of accomplishment. “Given the recent HIBs, I think we also need to address student culture — both acknowledging others’ perspectives and bystander training.”
The election is Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Five candidates run for three open seats on Glen Ridge BOE added by Yael Katzwer on
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