Board of Education Candidate Profile: Michael Byrne

This is the third in a series of profiles of the four Board of Education members seeking three available seats in the April 20 school board elections.

The same questions were provided to all four candidates for the Board of Education and these answers are in their own words. Space limits were provided on each question. Editing was done for grammar and style but not substance. The questions and answers are provided to allow you the voter to hear directly from the candidates on the key issues impacting the public schools.

Name: Michael Byrne

Address: 18 Tanglewood Lane

Length of Time in Town: 45 years

Family: Wife, Angela Byrne, former district teacher; five children, all graduates of Ridge High School and college

Education: BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame; MS Management Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Professional: Retired from Ethicon, Inc. – Johnson & Johnson, licensed NJ Professional Engineer

Community Service/Activities/Experience:

• Member of St. James Catholic Church
• Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, Pee Wee Wrestling, POP Warner Football, CYO Basketball volunteer
• Twenty-one years of service on the Bernards Township Board of Education, 1985-1997 and 2001-present
• Adjunct Professor: Graduate and Undergraduate School of Business, Farleigh Dickinson University; Graduate and Undergraduate School of Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Questions:

1)    What do you think are the three biggest issues currently facing the Bernards school district?

1. Spending and Fiscal Controls
2. Continued Improvement of Academic Program For All Students
3. Analysis of All Performance Areas, Identifying Strengths & Weaknesses With Full Public Disclosure

2)    Please explain your positions on these issues: (Please limit your answers to 175 words per issue)

1. Budget caps, state aid reductions and the need to stop run away property tax increases will require a much greater attention to all spending, new salary contracts, fiscal controls and the need to identify non-educational cost reduction opportunities.
2. Ed Hirsch Jr. in his book, "Cultural Literacy, What Every American Needs To Know" argues there is a body of knowledge an individual must have to be literate and this body of knowledge is rapidly expanding. In this modern world, our schools must keep up with this information and knowledge explosion.
3. We have done a poor job of openly reviewing all areas of district performance and identifying strengths and weaknesses for the board and the public. We do have a great school district, but it is not perfect and can be made better. Few, if any, board members or members of our public can identify what specific strengths and weaknesses in district performance. Public awareness and program performance are not improved by invoking the general claim, "We are a great district." We have an obligation to do a better job of performance evaluation and communicating to the public.

3)    What is your position on Gov. Chris Christie's proposed constitutional amendment to implement a 2.5% cap on property tax increases? What impact would this impact have on the Bernards public schools? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

I support Gov. Christie's 2.5 percent cap on property taxes. Our school district will have to do a better job of keeping our costs below this cap. Until our enrollment declines reach the high school in three to four years, we will have to work harder to find ways to control costs without damaging our academic programs.

4)    If this year's school budget is passed, early predictions for the 2011-12 school year call for a $1.3 million budget shortfall. How would you recommend that the district face the coming funding challenges (i.e. program cuts, tax increases, etc)? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

The administration has already initiated a complete review of all district programs, which includes bench marking with other top performance districts in the state. The superintendent, as academic leader of the district, will present her findings and recommendations to the board and public. The board's job is not to micro-manage the district and dictate to the administration the areas to be cut. The public and the board will have a voice in the process and hopefully, we will find a way to minimize the impact on the academic program as we have in the past two years.

5)    What skills do you bring to this position? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

Along with my 21 years of experience and the related knowledge I have acquired, I promise to continue to honestly speak out and vote my conscience, even if I vote as a minority of one.

6)    Why are you running for the Board of Education? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

The showing of the offensive film, "The Crime of Father Amaro," the 5-4 board rejection of the administration recommended random drug testing and my questions concerning the level and improvement in performance of the average or middle student, which have not been answered to my satisfaction. It is my intent to continue to seek answers and/or acceptable solutions to these issues.

7)    How do you intend on balancing the responsibilities of elected office with your personal and professional obligations? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

I have been a board member for 21 years. I would plan to continue as I have been doing.

8)    Are the Bernards public schools better off now than where they were three years ago? (Please limit your answer to 250 words)

The schools are much better today than they were 24 years ago when I first joined the board. I have served with some giants in the community and a number of excellent administrators. I believe the teaching staff, the administration, the curriculum and our student academic base have been constantly improving and upgrading. Moving algebra down to the eighth grade only took a few years to show dramatic improvement in the high school math test scores. However, changes often require years to show positive results at the high school level. Also, year-to-year variations in scores in individual classes can have measurable impact. Most recently our mean verbal and math SAT scores have been relatively constant, but below the scores achieved during the 2004-05 school year. While the scores are still excellent, they are not as good as they have been. The devil is in the details and the details reflect a slippage in mean SAT scores as well as a  drop in our relative ranking within the top state high schools.

Editor's Note: In an earlier version of this article, the candidate's answer No. 8 was misprinted. The sentence beginning, "Also year-to-year variations..." was mistakenly combined with a following sentence. The answer now reads correctly.