Seven candidates, including a husband and wife, are seeking three available seats on the Lawrence Township Public Schools Board of Education in the November general election.
At stake are the three seats held by school board members Pepper Evans, Michelle King and Amanda Santos, who are seeking re-election. The term is for three years.
Evans, King and Santos are being challenged by newcomers Thomas J. Figueira, Amy Gregory and her husband, Nathanael Gregory, and Carlos Raziel Rodriguez.
Evans has lived in Lawrence Township since the 1980s. Her children graduated from Lawrence High School.
Serving on the school board since 2011, Evans said she is running for re-election to support Superintendent of Schools Ross Kasun’s goals for the students – wellness, equity and student achievement. She also pointed to her nine years of service on the school board.
She pointed to her nine years of service on the school board and said she wants to “uphold the integrity of the decisions made by qualified educators to offer culturally responsive education” and to prepare every student for life after high school.
“We must continually look to the future to understand the job market changes, so our students are prepared. I want every child to graduate as a lifelong learner,” she said.
Evans also emphasized maintaining the school district’s facilities “in the highest order,” and investing in staff in a way that makes them feel respected and honored.
Figueira has lived in Lawrence Township since 1987. His children attended the Lawrence Township Public Schools.
Figueira said he is running for a seat on the school board because he wants to improve the district’s overall standing. The school district has dropped from about 40th place in New Jersey to a level barely above the median since he has lived in Lawrence, he said.
“The situation can only be reversed by adopting a singular focus that brings to bear both remedial measures and careful tailoring of planning for students in a ‘try-everything’ approach,” he said.
At one end of the spectrum, struggling students need “multi-vectored intervention,” he said. At the other end of the pole of expectation, more and more intense Advanced Placement (AP) options and better counseling for future educational prospects are needed, he said.
If he is elected to the school board, Figueira said, he would like to see the school district stop wasting time on extraneous matters introduced for “mere political theater.” Each student should be treated according to their individual skills, aptitudes and inclination without labeling, stigmatizing or attributing group traits, he said.
Husband-and-wife candidates Amy Gregory and Nathanael Gregory have lived in Lawrence Township for 16 years. They have one adult child and two young children.
Amy Gregory said she is running for the school board because she wants to provide full transparency to parents and to offer a voice to the forgotten families “defrauded” by the current administration. She wants to encourage public input, so the curriculum mirrors the community’s values.
She said that in talking to residents, “it is clear to me that these families agreed public education is going in the wrong direction.”
“While the district focuses on social justice, the underserved and low-income students they claim to fight for are falling behind and have considerable achievement gaps,” she said.
Amy Gregory said she knows how to think outside of the box. She said she is confident that she can offer a perspective that represents the public, while finding new and innovative ways to provide children with an “exceptional learning experience.”
Nathanael Gregory said he was motivated to run for a seat on the school board because the district has failed parents and “all others committed to quality education.” The district appears to be “sidelining” parents in deciding the curriculum that is being taught and deciding what is best for families, he said.
“My priorities are to return the Lawrence Township Public Schools to an outstanding place for our children to learn and prepare for the future. I will focus on underserved and low-income students by finding ways to aid them in getting the assistance they need to succeed,” he said.
Nathanael Gregory said he also wants to restore the trust between the parents and the public school district that has been “eroded by poor policy decisions over the last few years.”
“What I want is for our children to have a strong education without being indoctrinated with nontraditional radical prejudices that do not align with community values,” he said.
King, who has served on the school board since 2016, has lived in Lawrence Township for 24 years. She has five children who attended parochial and private schools.
King said she is seeking another term on the school board so she can work toward the success of the district’s strategic plan, which was unveiled last spring. “Real and measurable goals are identified in the plan,” she said, and she wants to “help oversee their implementation.”
“I will be highly committed to the success of the three primary goals in our district’s strategic plan – student wellness, academic achievement, and equity and inclusion,” King said.
She praised the district for taking on such bold objectives, as well as having all students reading on grade level by third grade, all students prepared to take algebra in eighth or ninth grade and to have a personalized learning pathway for all students.
“My aim will be to support the achievement of these goals and objectives,” she said.
Rodriguez has lived in Lawrence Township for nine years. He is a 2020 graduate of Lawrence High School and attends Mercer County Community College.
Rodriguez said he is running for a school board seat because he sees “missed opportunities” for growth, leadership and progress. He said that as an Asian-Latino American, he was sometimes the only Latino in an AP class. Latinos are the largest minority demographic in the district, he said.
“This proves that although Lawrence provides a quality education for its students, there are missed opportunities,” Rodriguez said.
If he is elected to the school board, he said he would advocate for offering a new program for Lawrence High School students on Saturdays. It would be rigorous and mentor-driven, he said.
“My forward-thinking perspective would engage in conversation that not only tackles issues in the present, but establishes concrete and empirical goals for the future,” Rodriguez said.
Santos has lived in Lawrence for five years. She has three children. Two of her children attend school – one child attends Mercer County Special Services District and her other child is enrolled in the Lawrence Township Public Schools.
Santos, who was appointed last year to fill an unexpired term, said she is running for a full term because she has identified areas in which the school district could use improvement. She said she has gained the necessary experience on how to create policies to work toward those improvements.
The district should be focused on strengthening the academic achievement of students, she said. There was a significant loss of learning and development during the pandemic shutdown, she said.
To make up for those losses, Santos said a commitment to social and emotional learning is vital. Repairing the damage will require a commitment from the entire community, she said.
“I think that by listening to – and engaging with – all of our community members, we can work toward creating a district where parents and students truly feel like they are represented and heard by staff and administrators,” Santos said.
Polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.
