ORANGE, NJ — In an effort to educate Orange residents about local education, the Orange Citizens Action Group held a candidates forum on Sunday, Oct. 27, for candidates running for election to the Orange Board of Education on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Originally six candidates were running for the three open seats on the BOE, but one dropped out. The following are in the race for the open seats: BOE President E. Lydell Carter, Guadalupe Cabido, Sueann Gravesande, Shawneque Johnson and Fatimah Turner. Carter, the sole incumbent, is running a joint campaign with Turner, and Cabido, Gravesande and Johnson are running a joint campaign.
While the public did attend, two of the five challengers did not; Turner and Johnson were no-shows. Not letting the attendance rate affect the forum, moderator and OCAG committee member Chenelle Manley asked the candidates several prepared questions.
“Parent and teacher involvement are paramount to students’ success inside and outside of the classroom,” Manley said. “It’s our understanding that parent-teacher organizations or PTOs/PTAs, have seen a decline in involvement over the last few years. How do you think the Board of Education can best promote and afford parent engagement in Orange Public Schools?”
Gravesande suggested the board create a survey for parents to determine what parents in the school community want.
“The board has to work with the superintendent on this,” Gravesande said. “I need to hear from the parent. How am I going to do that? I’ll propose a survey. I would send out a survey to parents and ask the parents ‘what is it that you want?’ or ‘what is it that you’re committed to do for your children?’ or implement phone messages about upcoming meetings. These are the things that I would suggest to the superintendent.”
According to Carter, the problem is that parent involvement may start out strong in the elementary years, but fizzles out as students age.
“I think, developmentally, parents go through a process and their engagement with their kids, and it’s a high level engagement that happens in elementary school; it still kicks up in middle school and starts to wane as they get to high school,” Carter said. “But engagement is about relationship building; engagement is about creating spaces which parents feel they can contribute to supporting their child in whatever grade level they’re in. That is an area where all schools need support. We have some schools in this district that have figured it out, where their parent meetings have made an impact and who have a school leader who is bright enough to realize that if I have a diverse enough population of parents in that room, I need to make sure if parents come from Haiti, they can hear what’s going on. Parents from El Salvador, they can hear and understand what’s happening.
“No matter where they are, we have to make sure we meet new parents where they are, and they feel comfortable enough to where they can be engaged and support their kids.”
Cabido also stressed the importance of ensuring the district is reaching all parents, regardless of language barriers.
“I’m an immigrant. I’m from Argentina, in South America. I just recently became a citizen a few years ago. I feel like that population of parents is being greatly overlooked,” Cabido said. “Forty percent of our students are Hispanic. Just from seeing and talking to people, I know it would be very hard for them to get engaged with the school.”
According to Cabido, research shows that parent involvement has a direct correlation to test scores.
“Regardless of the diversity, I feel like we need to do a much better job as a district in terms of engaging parents,” Cabido said. “That should be our first step. Education is not just the student in the classroom with the teacher, it’s the team — the parent, the school and the child. Everyone has a responsibility and I think that’s the No. 1 thing we should be invested in.”
After the forum, which ran for an hour, the candidates discussed the impact they would have on the school board if elected.
“I have been in education for 22 years,” Carter told the Record-Transcript.
He said in an Oct. 29 phone conversation with the Record-Transcript that much of that time was spent restructuring the school system in New York City as the senior post secondary partnership manager at New Visions for Public Schools, as the system moved toward smaller schools and classes that prepared students for their bridge into college and a career.
“I think the time that I’ve spent, both in the city as a citizen and working in education in one of the most distressed areas of New York City, gives me some of the qualifications necessary to help push the areas of need in Orange as well. We have pockets of excellence in this town but what we haven’t been as adept in is figuring out ways to really spread those pockets of excellence. That would be a big priority for me to make sure that from the top down, meaning starting from the superintendent, that we’ll be working on instruction and we’re working on ensuring that all of our classrooms are rigorous learning environments for our students. That we’re meeting our students where they are and pushing them to the next level.”
Gravesande said she will bring more accountability to the district.
“My impact is to ensure that there is accountability and I will hold the superintendent accountable,” Gravesande told the Record-Transcript. “I will also critique and act as an oversight and also, I will work collaboratively and be respectful to my fellow board members, to help achieve the overall goals of the school district. Ultimately, I hope to improve our students’ test scores and provide more opportunities and exposure for our students.”
Cabido said she is running to improve academic excellence in Orange.
“My main goal will be to improve student achievements, hopefully by increasing parent engagements and creating programs for parents to be more involved,” Cabido told the Record-Transcript. “I’m hoping also to be more transparent or bring transparency to the board which I think is lacking right now. I’d also like to work, compromise and resolve conflicts in the interests of the students first.”
Manley discussed OCAG’s beginnings as a coalition to help get an elected school board in Orange, where the board had been appointed until recently.
“Regarding the upcoming election, I’m hoping that we just help people get more information about who they should elect and will come up with their own decisions. We’re just one step closer to having a total board that is all elected officials,” Manley said.
“I think the event went well. Obviously, we’d always like more and more attendance but I feel like we had a good amount of people — some current parents, grandparents, empty nesters, people with kids out of the homes, a lot of the people who are involved and want to see success for the school board and for the school districts,” she continued. “It was a good turnout and had great responses from the three of the five candidates that showed up today.”
Photos by EmilyAnn Jackman
Orange BOE candidates participate in debate night added by EmilyAnn Jackman on
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