Newcomers Dwyer, Cawley-Black win seats
OCEAN CITY — Voters opted for the positive, non-partisan campaign message and re-elected incumbent Ocean City Board of Education President Kevin Barnes and chose his two running mates on the Empower All Students ticket in the Nov. 4 election.
The ticket that focused on its political endorsements, including one by losing GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, lost.
Barnes, Jennifer Dwyer and Jennifer Cawley-Black won the three three-year terms, defeating incumbents Liz Nicoletti and Catherine Panico and former board member Robin Shaffer, who was attempting to get back into office.
Barnes received the most votes, 2,732, with Dwyer close behind at 2,715 and Cawley-Black with 2,530.
Nicoletti earned 2,441 votes, Panico 2,376 and Shaffer 2,198. They ran together on the Transparency & Common Sense ticket.
Barnes, Dwyer and Cawley-Black credited their victory to running a positive campaign and focusing on the students, their families and educators.
The losing trio touted their endorsement by Ciattarelli, Turning Point USA and Moms For Liberty. Ciattarelli lost decisively to Democrat Mikie Sherrill even though he carried Ocean City and Cape May County.
Nicoletti, Panico and Shaffer also attacked their opponents, claiming they were needed as a conservative bulwark against a “liberal” board of education, echoing talking points by those conservative groups that have assailed educators and curricula across the nation.
“I do believe the election is an affirmation that voters are confident that the board is doing a good job for students, parents and the local community, but I also feel that the voters saw a need for change and, as a result, elected Jennifer Dwyer and Jennifer Cawley-Black,” Barnes said.
“I believe our message of putting students first and strengthening the partnership between schools, families and the community really resonated,” Dwyer said. “Ocean City values its strong sense of community, and our campaign focused on listening, transparency and maintaining a positive approach to education — ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.”
“I think the message that resonated most with voters was that, as running mates, we really wanted to be sure to keep the focus on the children,” Cawley-Black said. “We emphasized how teachers, the administration and the board can work together to ensure our children have access to myriad resources so we can connect with each child and engage their individual attributes, helping them to become the most successful versions of themselves
“Building a healthy, communicative school district builds strong, cohesive communities, and I think we all really embodied that ideal in our campaign,” Cawley-Black added.
“I firmly believe it was the positive, upbeat, dignified campaign,” Barnes said. “We did not get down into the gutter, which I can’t stay for the other side. We kept it clean. We kept it non-political, focusing just on the children. It was a little of a struggle for me not to fight back, but I’m glad we didn’t.”
“We do live in a great community and we have a great school district,” he said.
“There’s a lot of attacks on the district that are not warranted. It’s the national talking points that are being directed toward us. They are just not true,” Barnes said. “We are very aware of our community and how our parents want to parent their kids.”
He added that most of the board is very conservative, but also is responsible for each and every student.
“We recognize that we’re in a public school district taking care of all children,” Barnes said.
Part of their opponents’ agenda was against what they called “politically motivated curricula and policies,” including repealing policy 5756, which dictates how the district treats transgender students and its related parental notification.
Barnes, who is an attorney, said there can be interpretations of standards that can make them look offensive to a lot of parents, but students don’t see standards.
“They see lesson plans and by the time you go from standards to curriculum to lesson plans, it’s much more palatable from a community standpoint, in my opinion,” he said.
Barnes pointed out he has daughters, age 13 and 15, in two schools in the district, and if there were controversial things taking place, he would know about it.
He believes the negative attacks may have hurt their opponents.
“I do think all these negative attacks, saying children are being indoctrinated, that’s an insult to the teachers. It’s an insult certainly to the children themselves and it’s an insult to the parents.”
He said Dwyer and Cawley-Black are also active parents with children in the district. The three of them talked extensively about the education they believe their children are getting in the Ocean City School District.
He said whenever he has had a discussion with a parent, there has never been a complaint about standards or inappropriate lesson plans.
“It’s just not there. This is all from the outside, complaining, and it just doesn’t apply here,” he said. “I’m sure there’s questionable things going on in other districts, but not here.”
The Transparency slate claimed Barnes, Dwyer and Cawley-Black were endorsed by the Democratic Party as the “anti-MAGA option” and asserted that “partisan messaging has no place in our local schools.”
However, no local Democratic organization issued endorsements in the school election and it was Nicoletti, Panico and Shaffer who touted their political affiliations.
Ciattarelli easily won in Republican-leaning Cape May County and beat Democrat Sherrill in Ocean City by about a 900-vote margin, but lost by more than 400,000 votes statewide.
That demonstrated that even though Ocean City voters readily went for Ciattarelli, that did not translate into support for the school board candidates. If all the voters in Ocean City who voted for Ciattarelli also voted for that slate, Nicoletti, Panico and Shaffer would have won easily.
Barnes and Dwyer were more than 500 votes over Shaffer and nearly 300 over Nicoletti, the slate’s highest vote-getter. Cawley-Black was about 100 votes higher than Nicoletti.
Dwyer said her top priorities when she joins the board will be to “maintain academic excellence, support our teachers and staff, and foster open communication with parents and the community.”
She added that she wants to ensure fiscal responsibility and “keep our schools strong, safe and welcoming for all students.”
“In the beginning of my tenure, my first priority will be to get to know the personalities and working styles of my fellow board members so we can collaborate in a healthy way to help provide the greatest learning environment for our students,” Cawley-Black said. “I also look forward to taking the classes the state provides us as school board members to learn the best way to make effective financial and policy decisions, decisions that will effect our district for years to come.
“I’m excited to learn all I can so I can jump in ready to take informed action to benefit all the stakeholders in the Ocean City School District,” she said.
“Looking ahead, I will continue working to ensure that our schools remain safe, academically rigorous and fiscally responsible. We must support and protect school personnel in the proper performance of their duties,” Barnes said.
“The school board, parents, teachers and administrators must continue to work together and focus solely on local community values and the academic excellence and well-being of our children. I am grateful for the trust the community has placed in me and I look forward to continuing to serve with dedication and integrity,” Barnes said.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff