I’ve been blessed with a lot of good fortune.  I did well in school, got a great college education, married a wonderful guy and have two kids who I love to the end of the earth and back.

 

As a first generation American, education and hard work were the key to much of my success.  Math was my passion, but I was often the only female in my math classes. My parents were supportive, but didn’t always know how to help. It was my teachers who helped fill the gaps, who encouraged and supported my interest in math and convinced me that the sky was the limit. They not only taught me, they helped me dream.

 

An MA in Math Education at Syracuse was followed by an MBA from Cornell. All of that led, in turn, to a job at JP Morgan Chase and what I thought was going to be a long career in banking.  My 12 years there provided me many challenges and successes, but it was never quite enough.

 

In 2007, I left JP Morgan and “came home”. That was when I bought South Orange Country Day School in South Orange and set about trying to restore it to its Montessori beginnings. I say, “came home” because I majored in math education and had originally intended to become a teacher.

 

I’ve always felt that helping others succeed is its own reward -- when their joy is your joy. And it is particularly special when you help them overcome what seemed to be insurmountable challenges, like learning to read, or skipping rope or making friends. I discovered this years ago when I taught step-up math to incoming freshmen at Syracuse for three summers.

 

I rediscovered it at South Orange Country Day. It is a ton of work but it enriches my life so much to help launch students on their lifelong journey and to help calm the many anxieties typical of young parents. It is doubly satisfying because I’ve managed to build a team of teachers – a real community of learners – who do that each and every day for all our students.

 

After eight years of pre-school graduates, “my” children attend grades K-8 at schools all over this part of New Jersey. Their parents still call me for advice or just to share the latest success stories of their kids. My life is full.

 

Many of those children are in our own school district and I see them and their parents regularly. From those parents I hear not just about their children’s successes but a growing number of stories about the failure of our school district to meet the needs of all the children in its care. 

 

Unfortunately, my own observations confirm what they’re telling me. I have been an active member of the PTA at Marshall and Jefferson schools and most recently co-president of the South Orange Middle School Home and School Association (HSA). I see with my own eyes what’s happening. What is most distressing is that I have seen at least a few of my pre-school graduates start to wilt instead of blossom.

 

We have lots of successes in our schools from the efforts of the many talented and committed teachers and principals who give their all every day. But the successes are increasingly outweighed by the inability of our school district to consistently meet the needs of its students, to make all children feel welcome and to help them discover that they can, through persistence, curiosity and self-reflection become successful lifelong learners.

 

That’s why I’m running. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Notwithstanding the budget stresses and the many state mandates and the pressures of modern society, we can make our schools into places where all students feel safe every day – physically and emotionally. We can make all our students confident and successful learners. We can restore parents’ trust in our school district. We can succeed if we harness the energy, enthusiasm and talent of everyone in our wonderful community.

 

We need to put the needs of children first in every interaction, action and decision.  To get it done, we need leadership, a determination to get it right in the interests of all our kids and a commitment to do it together, however hard it may seem to build the consensus we need. I want to help make that happen.