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June Korzeneski
At the Board of Education’s annual organization meeting Monday at Hillside High School, board members installed retired teacher and guidance counselor
June Korzeneski as president and the newly re-elected
Angela Menza as vice president.
For the first time since 2004, the Hillside Democratic Committee will not have majority control of the school board after reform candidates swept all three seats in last Tuesday’s election for the second year in a row.
The Democrats now have just three members on the panel: Nagy Sileem, Ralph Humphrey and Angela Garretson, who’s running for a seat on the Township Council in next month’s municipal election.
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Posted in BOE '09, In the Schools | 5 Comments »
A month after the state School Ethics Commission recommended that Hillside Board of Education member Elbert Smith be suspended for six months for ethics violations, the school board is still waiting for a final decision by Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy.
Hillside school board president Nagy Sileem said that while he has read the commission’s ruling online, neither he nor the board secretary have received any details from the state regarding Smith’s fate.
(more…)
Posted in In the Schools | 24 Comments »
The members of the new Hillside Alliance Against Drug Abuse (previously the Hillside Mayor’s Alliance) were announced this week.
Not a member is George Cook, who during the last four Council meetings lobbied for a seat on the panel.
It probably didn’t help Cook, who ran for a seat on the school board in April, that he described the new Alliance in a newspaper article as “a little toy and they are pulling it back and forth to see who gets it.” Even if it is true.
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Posted in In the Schools, Township Hall | 1 Comment »
Sixteen candidates submitted applications for the interim school superintendent position.
Board President Nagy Sileem told the Star-Ledger the school board review the applications during a retreat tomorrow and interview the candidates next week.
Posted in In the Schools | 3 Comments »
The Hillside Township Council last night elected 3rd Ward Councilman John Kulish as its president and 1st Ward Councilman Edward Brewer as vice president.
KULISH |
Councilman-at-large Leonard Gilbert did not seek another term as council president, just as he had promised last week.
Neither Kulish — a registered Republican allied with the Democratic machine — nor Brewer are up for election next year. Could this be a plan to keep the at-large candidates, whose terms expire next spring, under low profile to avoid taking the blame for this year’s (and last’s) property tax increase?
As expected, the two independent council members, the 2nd Ward’s Shelley-Ann Bates and the 4th Ward’s Gerald “Pateesh” Freedman, were not appointed to any council committees.
It has long been a show of force by the majority party on the council and Board of Education to excluded opposition members from committees, although the practice seems a bit odd. First of all, being on a committee isn’t fun. It means extra work and extra meetings. Secondly, all final decisions are made by the full council or school board, not by a committee. And finally, not being on any committee sure makes it a lot easier to sit back and be the critic.
In any event, President Kulish told Freedman and Bates not to be concerned about the lack of assignments, promising them they’d be kept busy “up to their necks” in the upcoming year.
In other news:
Richard Bauch, of Democratic moneybag firm Schenck, Price, Smith & King, and Kathy Hatfield are in as Personnel Attorneys
Robert Renaud was reappointed as Special Tax Appeal Attorney
Steve Rogut is the Bond Attorney
Samuel Manigault is the Public Defender
Francis McIntyre is in a Special Township Attorney for the Board of Health
Harbor Consultants are still the Township Engineers
Ed Kologi and Michael Simitz are Special Township Attorneys
Daniel McCarthy is Special Township Attorney
Robert Varady, a resident of King Street, is the ABC attorney
Diane Rowe was reappointed as Deputy Township Clerk
Supee, Clooney and Co. are the auditors again
Anthony L. Acampora, M.D., who Kulish noted was his doctor, was appointed to complete all pre-employment physicals
Hugh Keffer is the night prosecutor and Lara DiFabrizio is the day prosecutor
Adam Samiec was brought on again as an engineering consultant.
Appointments to boards included the usual suspects:
Local Assistance Board: Rev. Nancy Ruckert and Ann Kaufman
Board of Health: Alan Zimmerman, Rosemary McClave, Debbie Stroud
Zoning Board of Adjustment: Joe Miskiewicz, Nagy Sileem, Chales Watts
Swimming Pool Commission: Paula Reico
Community Recreation Advisory Council: Frederick Bloomfield
Posted in Township Hall | 5 Comments »
Here are the minutes from the last Community Forum meeting held on May 3. The minutes were released by the organizers.
Stay tuned for the date and place of the next meeting.
* * * *
Attendance: Councilwoman Bates, Nathalie Yafet,, Ralph Humphrey, Rayba Watson, George Cook II, Lynn Liput, Marcelle Jackson, Lenora Williams, Tawn Walker, Robert Douglas Jr., and Tonia Hobbs.
Develop a Mission Statement:
A final statement will be tabled for the next meeting. However, some suggestions included a nonpartisan grassroots group of Hillside residents dedicated to providing information that empowers citizens to access and participate in local government for the purpose of strengthening our community.
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Posted in News | No Comments »
The Hillside Democratic Committee raised more than $18,000 and spent over $17,000 of it in a failed bid to elect their school board slate in last month’s election.
That explains why there were so many long faces at Township Hall the day after school board veteran Nathalie Yafet and her slate wiped the floor with the committee’s candidates
Election finance reports obtained by The Hillsider show the machine’s Committee for Sensible School Spending — made up of county employees Richard Samiec, Jamar Cherry and Salonia Saxton — outraised and outspent Yafet’s slate 6 to 1. But Yafet, June Korzeneski and Tori Isaac bested the big bucks in the voting booths.
Among the machine’s contributors were the usual suspects who always give to power broker Charlotte DeFilippo’s organization.
Harbor Consultants, who serve as the township’s engineers, donated $500.
Scott and Cynthia Readlinger, of Cranford-based Hale Insurance, each donated $750.
Martin Statfield, another insurance broker, ponied up $500.
Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Roselle, gave $500 out of his campaign fund.
Imperial Construction Group, of Elizabeth, also gave $500.
The campaign inherited the leftovers from the previous year’s committee for school board members Nagy Sileem, Angela Garretson and Ralph Humphrey. That was $6,750.
The Hillside Democratic Committee, meanwhile, only loaned the failed campaign $3,950.
An interesting expense noted in the report was $108.63 reimbursed to DeFilippo for “pizza, etc.” The report did not say if the pizzas were for herself or campaign workers.
* * *
As for Yafet, her team’s reports showed a $100 contribution from former school board member John O’Shea and $60 from Korzeneski relative Kathleen Russo, of Monroe Township.
Yafet and her husband Steven gave $3,000 of their own money.
* * *
There were no reports, however, from the third slate organized by school board member Andre Daniels.
All candidates are required to file reports. Contributions of over $300 have to be itemized, and all cash contributions of any amount have to be disclosed.
But the state Election Law Enforcement Commission’s Web site show no filings from Jose Betances, George Cook and Antoinette Parker — even though the campaign had lawn signs and two sets of color glossy literature.
Posted in In the Schools, News, Pay, Play & Tax, Township Hall | No Comments »
Nagy Sileem and Angela Garretson will be reprising their former roles as president and vice president, respectively, after a marathon voting session Friday at the Board of Education’s organization meeting.
Sileem and Garretson are part of the Democratic majority that continues to control the board. Two were decided upon after several rounds of voting and a 15-minute recess.
Garreston was president last year, with Andre Daniels as vice president.
In the first round, Garretson, Sileem and June Korzeneski — who was just re-elected on a slate with Nathalie Yafet — each tied.
In a subsequent round, in which board members had to name their choice rather than vote on each name, Korzeneski and Sileem tied after Daniels abstained.
At that point, Sileem called for a 15-minute break, during which he, Garretson, Ralph Humphrey (who arrived late) and Elbert Smith left the high school library, where the meeting was being held, and went down the hall for a powwow.
At separate times, Garretson and Sileem each came back to schmooze with Daniels.
Daniels got elected three years ago on the Democratic committee’s slate, but this year ran his own slate against the machine line. He has also expressed interest in seeking a council seat.
When the meeting restarted, Daniels voted with the majority to elect Sileem president.
The vote for vice president — between Angela Menza and Garretson — split down faction lines and Garretson won.
In other business, the board voted to retain all their current attorneys, auditor and broker.
Posted in In the Schools, News | No Comments »
The day after
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Charlotte DeFilippo’s people finally made Nathalie Yafet cry. But those were tears of victory last night after her slate — in the words of Councilman-at-Large Jerome Jewell — “swept it.”
Yafet returns to her fifth term on the Hillside Board of Education. June Korzeneski returns in her first outright election win, having been previously appointed and re-elected on an unopposed unexpired-term ballot. And college student Tori Isaac is the newest, and youngest, member of the board.
The flat school budget also passed, which means the township council won’t have the chance to cut it — and mask the 6 percent municipal property tax increase.
We haven’t heard what the atmosphere was like at the Democratic Committee’s after-election party, but if the mood at Town Hall was any indication, the waterworks must have been flowing. After results poured into the clerk’s office, 3rd Ward Councilman John Kulish was being comforted by his wife.
Yafet is hated by the political machine because she’s a unwaveringly outspoken watchdog popular with voters. And despite nasty campaigns, Yafet has won five elections in a row.
When her husband Steven stood as an unsuccessful board candidate in the last two years, that provided the machine with two extra consecutive opportunities to trash Nathalie. See here.
Didn’t work.
It’s hard to say whether Andre Daniels’ slate — which put up an impressive campaign — helped split the vote in Yafet’s favor. Many people tend to vote across slate lines and his team certainly could have taken some of Yafet’s votes. It didn’t hurt, though.
Daniels is now the tie-breaker on the board. Yafet, Korzeneski, Isaac and Angela Menza will undoubtedly form one bloc while Angela Garretson, Elbert Smith, Nagy Sileem and Ralph Humphrey will remain as the other.
We wonder what Daniels, who was elected with the machine’s help, will do next year when his term expires.
Posted in Heard Around Town, In the Schools | No Comments »
All 10 candidates running for the Hillside Board of Education agree — at least they did at Thursday’s forum — that voters should approve the district’s flat-tax budget.
YAFET |
There wasn’t much more the candidates — who are grouped into three competing slates and one independent — agreed upon, although several of the 150 people who attended agreed that much of what was said was “usual pablum” and “cliche.”
ISAAC |
Richard Samiec, who’s running with Salonia Saxton and Jamar Cherry on the Democratic machine-backed slate, opened with this insight:
“When I ran five years ago our team was the ‘Children FIRST Committee.’ This year we’re the ‘Committee for Sensible School Spending.’ Put them together and you have the Committee for Children FIRST and Sensible School Spending.”
Incumbent Nathalie Yafet, however, pointedly slammed the political machine and stopped short of calling her opponents puppets.
KORZENESKI |
“I am passionate about education and about the taxpayers,” Yafet said in her closing statement. “But I’m also passionate about not yielding control to the political machine. I have fought them for the twelve years that I’ve been on the school board and as long as the voters are behind me and I have a breath left, I will continue to represent this community in the best interests of the taxpayers and the students, not the political bosses!”
Yafet is running with Tori Isaac, a college student, and incumbent June Korzeneski, a former high school teacher, guidance counselor and teachers union leader.
The crowd cheered Yafet and solo candidate Shelby Robinson’s comments about being independent, but the politicos’ hatred of Yafet was evident in the peanut gallery.
As Yafet spoke, board member Elbert Smith — who’s backing Saxton-Samiec-Cherry — said: “She’s psychotic as hell.” To which political hanger-on Arthur Kobitz replied: “From the Twilight Zone.”
Speaking of the Twilight Zone, perhaps the weirdest moment came when the candidates were asked about their own education — as in, do they have any.
Cherry, who introduced himself as “the best candidate for the Board of Education,” hotly blurted out: “I won’t answer that question!” Then the Union County public works laborer went on to say: “I don’t have any degrees. I’m a coach and I can represent the rest of you.”
CHERRY |
On the topic of drugs and violence in the schools, George L. Cook III said the effort “must start in the home so that teachers can spend more time teaching.” Cook is running with Antoinette “Toni” Parker and Jose Betances and they’re backed by school board member Andre Daniels and activist Jeffrey Dykes.
Robinson, the W.O. Krumbeigel Middle School PTA president, said that a police officer should be in the schools.
SAMIEC |
Samiec suggested “cameras in the schools,” but Yafet corrected him: “We already have cameras in our schools.”
On the topic of school regionalization, which Gov. Jon Corzine has suggested as a way to save money, Cherry said he is “60-40″ in favor of it “until we get our house in order.” Saxon is “against it for now” but “willing to take a look at it later.” All others were fully against it.
SAXTON |
When asked for areas where the budget can be cut if it is turned down by the voters, Issac said academics should not be cut but suggested looking into athletics. Robinson suggested finding savings in building usage. Other candidates avoided the question.
Yafet said that it is unreasonable to believe that the public would vote down this budget, which won’t raise school taxes, and ran off a list of items that have been put off for years that need to be addressed, including heating, ventilation and window replacement.
* * * *
After the forum, Kobitz — who’s the brother of former school board member and county election administrator Dennis Kobitz — was telling people that the campaign “was going to get nasty.” Read: expect slime targeting Yafet.
* * * *
Fourth Ward Councilman Gerald “Pateesh” Freedman, who’s backing Yafet-Isaac-Korzeneski, and 2nd Ward Councilwoman Shelley-Ann Bates, were the only council members at the forum. The mayor was also absent.
From the school board were: Smith, Angela Menza, Andre Daniels, Nagy Sileem and Angela Garretson.
Also: Joseph Menza, and community organizers Tonia Hobbs and Rayba Watson.
Posted in In the Schools | No Comments »
School board member John O’Shea made an emotional farewell at Wednesday’s school board meeting.
O’Shea was re-elected to the board in 2005 after being appointed to fill the unexpired term of Bryan Scipio, who resigned to move out of town.
It’s been a wild ride for O’Shea these past three years. In 2005, the county superintendent, with the full backing of Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo, picked O’Shea after the school board deadlocked on who to appoint. His appointment was protested by board member Nathalie Yafet.
But not long after the April election, Yafet and O’Shea went from being bitter political opponents to becoming allies, as the two often voted along the same lines on issues of appointments, contracts and policy.
O’Shea’s insubordination after serving the Democratic machine for two previous board terms, including a stint as board president in 2001-02, cost him his management job at the Union County public works department.
Last year, O’Shea returned the favor by running on Joseph Menza’s ward council slate against DeFilippo’s incumbents. O’Shea was unsuccessful and is not seeking another term on the school board.
While board farewells are usually amicable in spite of the politics, the mood of O’Shea’s goodbye Thursday was partially ruined by board member Nagy Sileem’s crass remark that he “won’t say goodbye just yet to Mrs. Yafet and Mrs. [June] Korzeneski” — who’re running for re-election.
Also at the budget hearing were community organizer Tonia Hobbs and school board candidate Shelby Robinson with few other residents.
Posted in In the Schools, News | No Comments »
A high school English teacher would (hopefully) fail this school board member’s “report” on a conference he attended. But former School Board President Nagy Sileem no doubt thinks he deserves at least an “A” for affort.
In a badly misspelled, ungrammatical, wrongly punctuated, unformatted report — which appears to be largely plagiarized — Sileem attempts to share a “brief review of the proceedings, and results” of his trip to New Jersey’s Sin City.
In the report obtained by The Hillsider, Sileem declares: “A global marketplace, using simulated business program that provides with a project-based entreprogram (sic) experience in a global context.”
As well as: “Engage the student learner in a unique and interesting interdisciplinary learning environment, interacting the NJ Core Curriculum standars.discuss (sic). . .”
And what does this all mean to taxpayers who footed the bill — which can range from $250 single to $1,500 at group rate (not including travel) — for the trip to the New Jersey School Board Association Conference in October? Sileem doesn’t say.
But he does say: “Ex amine (sic) strategies for teachers and school districts that can be used to create settings in which emotional/social intelligence of both teachers and students will grow, improving achievement.”
Alrighty then.
A report is required of all board members who attend conferences and conventions. Its purpose is to demonstrate what the board member learned that can be used in the district.
Sileem happens to be the president of the Union County chapter of the School Board Association.
—STORY CONTINUES BELOW —
THE FULL TEXT OF NAGY SILEEM’S REPORT:
Hillside Board of Education Conference/Workshop/Seminar Report
This report is a brief review of the proceedings, and results of New Jersey School Board Association Conference, held at Atlantic city (sic) October 24-26,2007,
I attend (sic) the Curriculum Fair on October 25,2007
Presenter from Mercer County Community College: Joan Jones, Professor, and Mary McCormick, Administrative Assistant_
Purpose/program Highlight is Curriculum Fair, Connecting Students and business partners. A global marketplace, using simulated business program that provides with a project-based entreprogram (sic) experience in a global context. Engage the student learner in a unique and interesting interdisciplinary learning environment, interacting the NJ Core Curriculum standars.discuss (sic) how teachers, who play the role of mentors, and the students the latest technology to create and run a simulated business that interacts businesses.
Attached document. (Attach conference/description/agenda as available.)
Also I attend at Curriculum Fair Emotional Intelligence Presenter by Eva M. Ogens K-8 Science Supervisor, Jersey City School District
Emotional well-being is increasingly being recognized as a predictor of success in school, family, and work life. Some experts believe it is more reliable than intellectual quotient. Ex amine (sic) strategies for teachers and school districts that can be used to create settings in which emotional/social intelligence of both teachers and students will grow, improving achievement. Discuss characteristics of an emotionally safe school and how to maintain it.
Attached document. (Attach conference/description/agenda as available.)
Finally I attend the County Association Leadership on Friday October 27,07 (sic) for Legislative update, and past Director’s remakes (sic), and selection of nominating committee representatives.
Thanks,
Nagy Sileem. Board Member.
Board of Education member.
Posted in In the Schools | No Comments »
