Each candidate is profiled
UPPER TOWNSHIP — The Sentinel conducted interviews with the five announced candidates for the Upper Township Board of Education and one declared write-in candidate.
They were all asked to respond to four questions: about their work and family background, why they are running for office, their priorities if elected and the qualities that would make them good representatives of the community on the board.
How they chose to answer was up to them.
There are three seats up for grabs in the Nov. 2 election.
The five official candidates seeking one of the three three-year terms are Brian Teeney of Marshallville Road, Woodbine; Frances T. Newman of Diane Avenue, Marmora; Kyle Johnson of Redwish Avenue, Marmora; William Holmes of Route 610, Petersburg; and Kiernan Black of West Maple Shade Road, Marmora. Christine Lentz is running a write-in campaign.
Newman and Holmes are incumbents seeking re-election.
The profiles, in alphabetical order, follow:
Kiernan Black
Montessori education would serve students well, Black contends
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Upper Township Board of Education candidate Kiernan Black believes aspects of Montessori education could fit in well in the township school system.
Black said she found her passion in children and the Montessori education method and has worked in that field for the past 15 years. She is an administrator at a Montessori school that has been open for just over a year now in Philadelphia.
“A lot of people don’t know what it is and how fantastic it would be if we could integrate it into our public schools — a little bit more of the individualized hands-on approach, which is something I believe strongly in,” Black said.
Originally from northern New Jersey, she has been living in Upper Township for about two and a half years after relocating from Philadelphia. Her husband grew up in the township, attending the schools here and Ocean City High School. His family, she said, has been in the area for a long time and was one of the reasons they moved here.
“We have two small children in second and fourth grades and when we moved here they were getting ready for school and we needed them to be in a better school district,” she said. “Philadelphia in comparison to Upper Township, it was an easy pick. The neighborhoods (in Upper) are great and safe and have that small-town feel that we were looking for. We both grew up in small towns and wanted something similar for our children — where they could ride their bikes and have friends in the neighborhood. That’s why we moved to the area.”
Black acknowledged she is still getting familiar with the school district, in part because of the changes imposed by the pandemic, but she and her husband have been “really happy with the teachers.”
She said she is running for the school board because during her education career of teaching, being an administrator and working with parents, most of the time the schools weren’t in her own community and were not her neighborhood schools.
“Now that my children are involved in a neighborhood school I find myself curious about things that are happening at the school,” Black said.
She is interested in aspects both large and “as basic as why they share an art and music teacher.” She wants to get more involved herself and “help provide my guidance because I feel like Montessori is different than typically what you have in the more traditional schooling. I think there is a lot that can be implemented and would be helpful. I think I bring a different insight into education with my background.”
She notes that public schools are using more aspects of Montessori education, individualizing plans for students more.
Black said she doesn’t have a set agenda.
“I want to be there when decisions are being made to be able to help make the best decisions for our children — with the children as the end goal always in mind. Obviously I think as a whole the school comes second to that. Sometimes we make decisions based on what is best for the school as a whole and we forget about the individual child.”
Among the qualities she would bring to the board include being able to communicate with people from a wide array of backgrounds.
“I think I’m relatively open-minded to hearing different viewpoints. I think I have the ability to kind of take a moment to sit back and think about a decision before jumping right in,” she said. “I think I provide a bit of calmness in making decisions, which can be helpful in this day and age. I think we’re all really revved up and we’ve seen some of these images and videos of board meetings getting completely out of hand. I bring the ability to help work through some of these challenging times ahead and help decide what is best for the child.”
Bill Holmes (Incumbent)
Holmes believes God equipped him to serve on board of education
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Incumbent Upper Township Board of Education member Bill Holmes said he is running for re-election to make sure parent and teacher rights are protected as the district navigates the changes coming from state and federal curriculum mandates.
He said he is personally invested in the education community of Upper Township and Ocean City and wants to serve a fourth term. He said he has spent the past nine years as a “positive, transparent and responsive liaison between the school district and citizens of Upper Township and look forward to continuing this leadership role.”
“I will continue to educate myself and engage in dialogue that will ultimately keep all of our students safe and healthy,” Holmes said. “The foundation of education has to return to grassroots of family values that are respected and promoted to instill a healthy learning environment for all learners.”
During his three terms in office he has prioritized buildings and grounds and “witnessed remarkable gains. We will continue to maintain our campuses while staying fiscally responsible.”
He and his wife of 24 years have four children, including a daughter who is a senior at Ocean City High School and a son who is a freshman. Their other two sons serve in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.
Holmes served in the Army National Guard for six years before entering the work force and spent 20 years in energy efficiency management. Now, he said, he is the proud owner of Buddy’s Ice Cream, a small family business.
“My life is built on faith and family first,” he said. “I am who I am because I believe that God has equipped me to be set apart to do this work. My ability to listen and my willingness to stand for the things that build a stronger community are important qualities in leadership. I am approachable, present and motivated to serve” another term.
Kyle Johnson
No place in schools for social agenda of others, Johnson says
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Kyle Johnson, a candidate for the Upper Township Board of Education, believes it is better to be part of the solution than to complain about things you don’t like in the township’s school system.
He is running for the board with the priorities of keeping critical race theory out of the school, focusing on academic topics rather than social issues in the classroom and finding a way to budget to keep Trenton from forcing its social agenda on the township.
“There are some things I see that I don’t love,” Johnson said. “It’s easy to complain and not do anything about it so I figured if there are things we can improve for the kids’ education and their betterment then I should be part of a solution instead of being on the sidelines saying I don’t like it.”
Johnson has lived in Beesleys Point for almost nine years and has a son in sixth grade and a daughter at Ocean City High School. He is a stockbroker who managers trust funds and stock portfolios for people in the area.
He said he has three priorities if he gets elected to the board.
“The first, and it might not be a popular thing, but a lot of parents want to keep critical race theory out of our schools,” he said. “That’s a priority for a lot of people so that will be a priority for me.”
A second is to make sure students learn from curriculums that will focus on academics — reading, writing, science and math.
“Social issues are sensitive topics and parents should be the ones to groom our kids according to our individual beliefs,” he said. “Inside of that, we need to make our curriculum easily accessible and transparent so the parents know exactly what is happening in schools.”
The third priority regards the budget and state funding.
“Right now, Trenton uses school funding as a way to force their social agenda on the residents of Upper Township,” Johnson said. “By developing a budget that doesn’t rely on their money, we won’t have to compromise what we know is right in order to pay our bills.”
“I’m a conservative guy, I’m reliable and I’m reasonable,” he said. “I just want to bring those qualities to the Upper Township school board and give parents the representation that I think they deserve.”
He acknowledged that he is direct about his priorities, but he doesn’t want to “say just what gets me elected. I think the overwhelming majority of people agree with me and I hope you do and if I don’t I hope I didn’t offend you. I want people to know what I stand for and what I’ll do if I get elected.”
Christine Lentz (Write-in candidate)
Lentz says community needs to come together to benefit the children
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Christine Lentz, an announced write-in candidate for the Upper Township Board of Education, said she believes children and their families should be the focus of the community.
An educator for more than 30 years and former member of the school board, Lentz said the community needs to be united.
“The kids have already lost out a whole year because of the pandemic,” she said. “We need to put a positive face on public education. We need to be all together for one goal and that is the kids and families of our community. The families have to feel as important as the kids in the classroom. We have to build a level of trust again. I’ve been a member of the community for 30-plus years and I feel I can bring that to this community again.”
Lentz had contemplated running for school board this year but decided not to get her name on the ballot. Then she received some calls and a few pictures of people writing her name in. She didn’t know where the interest was coming from so she reached out to a school board member. The board member said people had asked her about Lentz running and then questioned if she would take the write-in campaign seriously. She told her she would love to sit on the board again.
After people told her to consider it, “I said, ‘let’s make it work.’ Just the fact that people reached out to me reinforces my feeling that we need to come together for the kids.”
Lentz teaches biology and chemistry at Atlantic Cape Community College and biology at Stockton University.
“I’ve been in education for 30-plus years and continue in my retirement to be where I love to be, and that’s in the classrooms at Stockton and Atlantic Cape,” she said.
“I’ve lived in the township for 30-plus years. I’ve served on the school board in Upper and was vice president for several years,” she said. “I don’t have any children in the district. I don’t have — for lack of a better term — skin in the game. It’s about the community that I live in that I want to enrich.”
Talking about her priorities, Lentz said the district needs “a highly effective, fiscally responsible curriculum, one in which the entire family of the students are involved. We are more diverse as a community in Upper than one wants to think and we need to embrace each other’s similarities and differences equally to provide a rich environment for our kids and our faculty.”
In her education career, she has been a teacher, an administrator and a school board member. In addition to that experience, she said, “I think one of my better qualities is listening. And everywhere I go in the community I’m always confronted about what I think about what’s going on in our climate, in our classrooms, even how I feel politically. I feel that I am a valued voice and am humbled by that and it’s time for me to give back again.”
Frances T. Newman (Incumbent)
Newman provides work experience, board experience
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Fran Newman said she is running for re-election to the Upper Township Board of Education because she cares about the township and the future of the children in the community.
“With years of experience on the board, I understand the importance and responsibility a board member needs to have to provide the best support for our school district,” Newman said.
Her priorities would continue to be “what is best for the students and their whole education and social and emotional well-being.”
She said she also would continue to fight and educate the community about the state funding loss for the district “which is devastating.”
Newman supported the hiring of a wellness coach for the district. Because she serves on the Policy and Curriculum committees, she said she understands the importance of the decisions that are made for Upper Township schools.
Newman graduated from Medical University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy. She retired from Atlantic County Special Services School District, where she provided school-based occupational therapy for 30 years. Now she is providing itinerant occupational therapy services through Atlantic County Special Services two days a week. She is a life member of the Upper Township Rescue Squad, for which she volunteered for 15 years.
She and her husband, Jay Newman, have been married for 37 years and have two adult sons who attended the district’s schools.
John graduated from Upper Township schools, Ocean City High School and The Air Force Academy. He has since earned the rank of major and serves in Guam as the commander of the Rapid Response Security Forces. Mark graduated from Upper Township Schools, Ocean City High School and Liberty University with a degree in elementary education. He then continued his education and obtained a master’s in special education from Rowan University. He is second grade teacher at the Upper Township Primary School.
Newman said the qualities that describe her as a board member are integrity and character of self.
“I work in many different districts in Cape May and Atlantic counties and understand the needs of our district,” she said. “I am able to make decisions based on the facts presented and understand that when the board makes a decision I will follow the will of the board. I will listen to the community and make decisions based on what is best for all students and staff.”
Brian Teeney
Fiscal responsibility, maintaining quality Teeney’s priorities
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Brian Teeney said he is running for the Upper Township Board of Education because he wants to be the voice that parents, students, teachers and residents want and deserve.
“As a parent and resident with two children in the school district, I have a vested interest in the continued success of our students and a fiscally responsible school district,” he said.
Teeney moved to Upper Township from Sandy Hook, Conn., when he was 10 and has now lived in the township for almost 30 years. He attended Upper Township Middle School, Ocean City High School and Atlantic Cape Community College before starting a career in law enforcement.
His wife, Margaret (Hallsworth), also grew up in the township, attending the primary and middle schools and Ocean City High School. She moved back to the township after graduating from college and began a career in human resources before accepting her current job in Wildwood Crest. Their two children play sports on the travel and rec teams.
“My wife and I chose to live and raise our children in the township because we know firsthand that our schools are second to none and the residents make it a real community,” he said.
Teeney said his priorities would be to continue providing children with an exceptional education in a fun and safe environment.
“Equally important will be a fiscally responsible budget and a comfortable and safe work environment for our teachers, administrators and support staff,” he said.
Discussing the qualities that make him a good representative, Teeney said he and his wife have been part of the community for more than 20 years and want the best for all the children. He said he is open to new ideas, is a good listener and is caring and compassionate.
Teeney noted these qualities should help foster more communication and transparency among the school board, parents, teachers and residents of the township.