EDISON – The Edison School District Board of Education has reorganized with a focus on selecting a new superintendent and continuing the board’s progress on addressing overcrowding issues in the schools.
Board President Jerry Shi addressed members of the board at a reorganization meeting on Jan. 2. He was nominated to serve as board president for a second year.
“I look forward to working in partnership with each member on this board as we tackle the challenges facing our school district,” he said.
Shi said he urges board members to commit to the two greatest challenges facing the district – selecting a new superintendent in an “impartial, fair, open and transparent process” and continuing progress on addressing overcrowding issues in the schools.
“We have to ensure the next superintendent has the necessary qualifications, experience, vision and temperament,” he said.
Shi said the overcrowding crisis magnifies each day. He asked the board to stay committed to creating a plan to alleviate overcrowding and implement a full-day kindergarten program.
“I also ask the board to commit to evaluating our budget for our taxpayers, they are our watchful eyes,” he said. “I ask the board to evaluate our expenses, see where we can cut costs without sacrificing the quality of education. We should not take a dime away from the classrooms and we should not fear to cut fraud, waste, abuse and fat from our budget. We have already cut $4 million dollars from the budget, we can do more.”
Shi also called upon the board to work on better communication with the parents of the district.
The challenges the school district faces will not be easy to fix, Shi said.
“We, as a board, should explore the best solutions, keeping an open mind and committing to thoughtful debate,” he said. “We may not always agree and that is OK, that is democracy at work. But we do agree on our goal [for] a stronger, safer school district that honors our educators, delivers value to our taxpayers, functions for our parents and most importantly deliver the best education for our students.”
At the reorganization meeting, Ralph Errico was sworn in to serve his second term on the board, and newcomers Elizabeth Conway and Yunxia “Yuna” Chen were sworn in for their first terms. Errico was nominated to serve as board vice president.
