SAYREVILLE – Kevin Ciak will serve as president of the Sayreville Board of Education for a second consecutive year and Anthony Esposito will serve as vice president for the first time in his board tenure.
Ciak and Esposito were named to their positions for 2018 at the board’s reorganization meeting on Jan. 2.
This will be Ciak’s ninth year as board president and second consecutive year after being named president for 2017. He is the longest-serving member of the board, having joined in 1994.
Esposito will assume the position of vice president for the first time while on the panel. He joined the board in 2016 and is currently serving his first term.
Prior to Ciak and Esposito being elected to their positions for the year, the victors of the 2018 election – Phyllis Batko, Karen Rubio and Christopher Callahan – were sworn in to three-year terms as board members.
Batko is an incumbent who has been a member of the board since 2005; Rubio and Callahan are newcomers beginning their first year on the board.
Once all members were present on the dais, Ciak was nominated as president and Esposito was nominated as vice president. Both nominations were unanimously approved by board members.
Ciak began his remarks by thanking Batko, who served as vice president for 2017.
“When I initially was suggested that I should run for president and Mrs. Batko for vice president, I wasn’t really sure how that was going to work out because oftentimes we have different philosophies,” Ciak said. “But I have to say, I think if nothing else, it led to a more productive debate among the board, a more open discussion among board members. And I think that the two of us serving together worked to bring the board together and have those quality discussions that the voters expect us to have.
“So, Mrs. Batko, I want to thank you for your leadership over the past year,” he continued. “It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
He also congratulated Callahan and Rubio on their election to the Board of Education and Batko on her re-election.
“I look forward to working with you, the new ideas that you’re going to bring and the fresh energy you’re going to bring to the board,” Ciak said.
Ciak concluded his remarks by discussing the board’s plans for the future of the district.
“As we look forward to the upcoming year, this board is pretty fortunate in that we just completed, with the help of our community and many of our staff members, a Vision 2030 strategic planning process,” he said. “So much of what the board is going to be looking at and focused on over the upcoming year is the output of that strategic planning process and how do we, as a board, begin to action it.
“And what excites me about that is it’s not just something that is a board vision, it’s not something that’s just a superintendent vision, but it was something that [Superintendent of Schools Richard] Labbe really wanted to spearhead in terms of developing the ownership among the staff, developing the ownership among the community, to ensure that the strategy that we’re executing on as a school district is not that of just the board or the superintendent, but really one that is important to the community and the staff at large. So I’m excited about the prospects that strategic planning process holds and the items that it’s identified.
Ciak said over the past three-and-a-half years, the district has made a lot of progress in terms of implementing new initiatives designed to bolster student achievement.
“When you look at our middle school level, we’ve got more students taking algebra at the eighth grade level today than we did three-and-a-half years ago. Our kindergarten students are now looping. In addition to that, we’ve implemented a program called Effective Schools Solutions for our high school students who are at risk in an effort to ensure that they graduate on time and that we provide support for them that they need.
“We’ve implemented new courses at the high school level. We’ve implemented the new standards-based report cards. We’ve made dramatic improvement with regard to special education. We have less students today out of district receiving special services than we did when I first joined this board. And when I first joined this board, we only had approximately 340 students. We now have 620 students. So the fact that with double the amount of students, we have less special education students out of district is a testament to quality of education that we can provide for them here in Sayreville, as well as cost savings that entails for the taxpayers,” he said.
Ciak said the strategic plan for the upcoming year will guide the entire district in a new direction for innovative initiatives.
“I’m really excited about where we’re going to be heading in the next year and I’m excited about the team that we’re going to work with in order to take us there,” he said.
Contact Matthew Sockol at msockol@newspapermediagroup.com.
