BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Independent Press is continuing its profiling of Bloomfield Board of Education candidates in the November elections. Profiled already were incumbents Shane Berger and Jill Fischman, and challengers Djanna Hill-Tall, Laura Izurieta and Lillian Mancheno. All are running for three, three-year seats. Not yet profiled are challengers Catherine Bumpus, Eileen Murray and Gladys Rivera. Linda Lo is running for an uncontested, one-year seat. All candidates have been asked the same questions.
Benjamin Morse
Former Bloomfield Board of Education member Benjamin Morse is running for a three-year term. Morse had been a BOE appointment for one year but lost a re-election bid.
“I’m running to keep the administration on point,” he said in a telephone interview. “There is a lack of a sense of urgency. For example, the absence of an assistant superintendent. It took time to replace her.”
Morse has one child in the school system and has kept busy with nearby Watsessing Elementary School. He wants to create more permeable surface space at the school, and at other schools in the district, and more structures that would provide shade.
“Every school in the Bloomfield district has blacktop,” he said.
He hoped to also have a rain barrel at Watsessing, for irrigation, and has brought in a group to write a grant for this.
“When I was part of the BOE the first time, I was a policy junkie,” he said.
According to Morse, when he was a board member, resolutions were passed which advocated board positions but did nothing more.
“What kind of actionable things can we do?” he said. “Kids go through the system one time. I don’t think the administration has paid proper attention to things. I see board members who vote ‘yes’ and don’t bring anything to the table.”
He would like to see the sixth-grade made part of the middle school.
“Students are ready for more but not getting it,” he said, adding that too often funding for extracurricular activities is cut.
He believes he can make people maintain enthusiasm and positivity, bring people together and develop better communications with the community.
“I’m a pretty good communicator,” he said.
Morse belongs to the Bloomfield Middle School Home and School Association; the Watsessing Elementary School Home and School Association; and the Music Parents Association. He has remained involved with the Watsessing H&S.
“I’m in the community here,” he said. “The school is the anchor of our community.”
Morse is a reporter and editor for a commodity market publication.
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