Three of the candidates running for the Ocean City school board have claimed their opponents are getting political in a non-partisan election.
What is hypocritical is that all three of those candidates, in their profiles that appeared in last week’s edition of the Sentinel, all listed as most important getting a Republican elected governor.
They proudly touted their affiliation with two conservative political groups, Turning Point USA and Moms for Liberty, that are aligned with the Republican Party. They also repeatedly framed the election as conservatives fighting against liberals.
That sounds pretty political.
The other three candidates, incumbent Kevin Barnes, the board president, and newcomers Jennifer Dwyer and Jennifer Cawley-Black, did not make any partisan statements in their profiles, confining their comments to how they want to support the students, parents and schools.
School board seats are nonpartisan; political affiliations are not listed on the ballots. There are no primaries. If a person gets enough signatures, he or she can run. The candidates who get the most votes win.
It is hard to see the Ocean City Board of Education, as a whole, as liberal or conservative. The members were elected by their local communities, which around here lean strongly conservative, so mostly conservative people voted them in.
The vast majority of what board members do on a regular basis is not political. It is mundane. They oversee policies of the school district, approve administrators’ recommendations for hiring and firing and deal with the budget.
School boards do not run the district; that is left to the administrators, who oversee the teachers and staff. They do choose the superintendent of schools.
For anyone who hasn’t been at a school board meeting, outside of public comment, which can get lively at times, it’s mostly procedural.
The audience fills up when the board recognizes students honored by the primary, intermediate and high schools. Parents and family members flock in and as soon as the kids are recognized, they flock back out.
Many of the people who stick around have a bone to pick with the board and want their chance to do it during public comment. Others want to offer ideas and compliments.
As many New Jersey school board members have complained over the years, the vast majority of what they do comes under mandates and policies handed down from the state Board of Education.
It is one of those policies, approved by the school board a few years ago, that fuels the three candidates, incumbents Catherine Panico and Liz Nicoletti, along with Robin Shaffer, who won a one-year seat with the other two three years ago and then narrowly lost a re-election bid.
It is a big part of why they are aligned with Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA, because that is also part of those groups’ national agendas.
It is state policy 5756 that includes directions on how to treat transgender and gender non-conforming students, and also broadly includes LGBTQ students. Those three opposed the policy and tried but failed to get it repealed.
They are highlighting this in their campaigns; it coincides with the national anti-transgender push from the White House.
The policy was enacted to ensure some of the most vulnerable students feel safe in the schools, but there is a controversial sticking point about parental notification.
We covered this issue when it arose initially and when it came back. It wasn’t part of a liberal agenda. The board, and district, were conservative on implementing a health and sex education curriculum and gave parents the opportunity to opt out their children from materials the parents find inappropriate.
The priority of board members who agreed to implement the 5756 policy was uniform — a genuine concern for vulnerable students, including those who have higher suicide rates. Suicide is an issue that has impacted the high school in recent years.
This policy isn’t a mandate, but districts that opt out do have to prove they have other policies to ensure there is no discrimination against students.
School board work is supposed to be non-partisan, supporting the best environment — in academics, athletics, extracurricular activities and socially — for all students. The fight over this created a rift in the community a few years ago, leading to formation of a pro-LGBTQ group, We Belong Cape May County, to let all students, especially the ones who felt under siege, know they were welcome in school.
Because this is a politically divisive time, a partisan push for these non-partisan seats may work in these candidates’ favor. They have a political message that’s part of national agenda. Their opponents, who do not, talked about making good decisions for students, parents, staff and schools.
Shaffer, Nicoletti and Panico got a nice boost to spread the message. Eustace Mita, who owns the Wonderland Pier amusement park property and controversially wants (wanted?) to build a luxury hotel there on the boardwalk, has donated $5,000 to their campaign. (Nicoletti and Shaffer spoke before City Council on Mita’s behalf back in August.)
We haven’t seen an amount to match that for Barnes, Dwyer or Cawley-Black.
We’re interested to see what type of campaign approach wins in a local board race.
