Four share views on school issues
Two incumbents, two newcomers run for board
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer
Sayreville voters will go to the polls April 21 to elect three of four candidates seeking three-year terms on the Board of Education.

Kevin Ciak

Among the candidates are incumbents Kevin Ciak and Jill Trapp and newcomers Helen Bruno-Raccuia and Laurie Esposito. Ciak, Trapp and Bruno-Raccuia are running together.

Esposito, 47, lost by a slim margin last April, but said she is more confident about her chances of winning a seat this year. She said residents are dissatisfied with the $47 million construction project at Sayreville War Memorial High School, which was delayed to a June 2010 completion date. Cost overruns were among the reasons the board sought an additional $2.2 million in additional money through a second referendum last year, which voters approved.

"Last year, some people didn't know who I was," Esposito said. "This year I feel stronger also because there are so many issues they had with the high school. Two of the people who are running, especially Kevin Ciak, had a lot to do with the high school. He's on the high school committee. Somebody has to be accountable and I really think the people of Sayreville feel they need a change."

Helen Bruno-Raccuia

Ciak noted that the district completed the Samsel Upper Elementary School and the Arleth Elementary School addition while he was board president, both for less than the budgeted costs and without delays. He said this was one reason board PresidentMichaelMacagnone asked him to lead the board's construction oversight committee.

"First of all, the high school construction oversight committee formed in response to the challenges undergone and created by the project," Ciak said.

No one wants to take on a project with so many challenges, he said, adding that the situation is analogous to why the state Legislature does not have a committee on property tax reduction. He noted that the project is progressing well now and the board intends to recoup any damages that can be recovered from several responsible parties once it is finished.

Esposito said district officials have to regain the trust of residents. More research needs to be done earlier in the construction process from now on, and the board should pursue compensation from parties who are responsible for delays and cost overruns with this project, she said.

Jill Trapp

"I just feel that accountability is necessary, and that is one thing I'd look into," Esposito said.

She also voiced concerns about what she described as exorbitant raises that were not given out justly. The majority of the board voted in favor of salary increases for the district's three central administrators, as well as the salaries and stipends of those administrators' secretaries last year.

"I don't know how they can account for that in the economic crisis we're having right now," Esposito said.

"I love the secretaries," Esposito said. "I think they're all wonderful, but I personally feel that if you're going to give a few extra secretaries more money, I think it should also go to all of them. I believe they all work equally as hard."

Esposito supports the budget that the nine-member board unanimously approved recently, especially in light of the potential safety issues that could arise at schools where repairs are needed.

Laurie Esposito

"I would always love to see our budget go through, because it benefits our children," Esposito said. "With the present lack of trust, I don't know if it's going to go through … To me, when it's a safety issue, there should be no hesitation at all. You never want to see the children put in jeopardy, ever."

Ciak said the board's finance committee spent 36 hours reviewing this budget with the administration, putting it through intense scrutiny at a time when the recession made it difficult to include needed repairs to schools. Ciak said that deferring that work another year would be more costly. Also, the board opposed the pension deferral option in favor of dealing with that expense now, in order to avoid making an existing problem bigger by pushing it off to another year.

"It's a tough economic time," Ciak said. "Any type of budget at this time is going to be a challenge. I want to continue to invest in facilities and infrastructure."

Ciak said members of the Borough Council are going to tour the capital projects that the district has outlined soon. It would better inform those officials and help them prioritize in the event that the budget is defeated and they have to find areas to cut from.

"I'm excited about it," Ciak said. "I think it's a great opportunity for the Borough Council and the Board of Education to work together and all be on the same page."

Ciak is a 34- year-old financial manager at General Electric and a lifelong resident of Parlin. He is seeking his sixth term with the board and is the immediate past president of the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Ciak serves on the district's technology committee, which formed in 2007 for the purpose of integrating technology in the classroom. He also said the district completed a five-year redesign of its curriculum and officials are determining what constitutes effective instruction in the classroom and establishing learning communities in order for educators to share instructional techniques.

"I am looking to continue the progress made from a curriculum standpoint," Ciak said.

Trapp said she also thinks the district's curriculum and technology offerings are improving. She joined the board in 2006 and is seeking her second three-year term.

"I feel that I still have a lot more to give to the community and I don't feel that my job is done yet," Trapp said. "I feel that we're going in the forward direction, but there's still a lot more work that needs to be done and I'd like to be a part of that."

Trapp said she is cautiously optimistic about her chances of being reelected to the board.

"I believe I've proven my worth," she said. "I feel pretty good without feeling overly confident. I'm cautiously optimistic."

Trapp, 49, has been a Parlin resident since 1984, when she moved from Bayonne with her husband, John. They have two adult children.

Trapp served as PTO vice president when her children were attending Sayreville Middle School, and she was also director of basketball operations for the Sayreville Athletic Association from 1999 to 2006.

Trapp has been working for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for the last 31 years and has been an active union member for most of her career. She serves on the school board's athletic committee and community relations committee.

"We're improving lines of communication," Trapp said. "I'd like to take some credit for that."

Trapp also serves on the Parent Involvement Council, the High School Parent Advisory Council and the Education Council that works with the Sayreville Education Association. Trapp said that while she has only served on the board for three years, she has been attending board meetings since 1992.

Trapp supports the budget.

"I feel that it's barebones, I feel that it is very tight and, unfortunately, I'm concerned that the voters aren't going to see it

that way," Trapp said.

Trapp said the board must invest in critical infrastructure projects in order to avoid greater costs in the future. This is the reason she was in favor of the high school referendum in 2005, since the school needed an expansion in order to meet the needs of the student population.

"The children had outgrown the school physically and academically," Trapp said. "If we want to continue to compete with the rest of the world, we obviously have to give the children the tools so that we can compete."

Trapp said the board would discuss compensation for losses the district sustained due to negligence on the part of any responsible parties. She said the taxpayers deserve to be compensated if any parties were negligent.

While the project has faced many challenges, Bruno-Raccuia said she is pleased with the results of the construction at the high school so far. She said the students deserve to have the renovations and additions, which also benefit property values in the borough.

Bruno-Raccuia, 47, has been a teacher in New York City for 25 years — 16 in Brooklyn and the past nine in Staten Island. She is a member of the Sayrebrooke Residential Community Association at the Sayrebrooke townhouse community in Parlin, and she is also on the borough's Recreation Advisory Commission.

"My life's been about working for kids and education, and I feel that was why I want to run," she said.

Bruno-Raccuia was born in Jersey City and moved to the borough's Parlin section in 1990.

She has taught all subjects to elementary school students in third through fifth grade and now teaches science exclusively to students in kindergarten through fifth grade in New York City. She said she would like to see more hands-on science activities, such as a district science fair, at Sayreville schools and in the curriculum.

"My heart is in the sciences," Bruno- Raccuia said. "We have terrific science teachers, but the students read about it. I would like to see more project-based learning."

Bruno-Raccuia described the budget as lean, noting that school repairs such as roof work at Sayreville Middle School were left out. She and her husband Peter have an 11-year-old daughter who attends the middle school.

She said the ongoing recession make this budget process a difficult one for the district.

"I definitely support our budget," Bruno-Raccuia said. "I think Sayreville's is always a very lean budget … I think people are hurting and it will be tough, but I will absolutely support it, because I think we need to make the repairs to these schools. Our children need to be in a safe environment."

The district can save money by using its faculty for training purposes, Bruno-Raccuia said.

"We have talent in our district," she said. "We need to use the talent we have to save money instead of sending people out to workshops. We have resources here that we can continue to use to save costs."

"We in Sayreville do a lot with very little," Bruno-Racciua said.

The candidates will debate the issues at the Samsel Upper Elementary School at 298 Ernston Road at 7 p.m. April 15, after a budget presentation at 6:30 p.m.