BOE Candidates Participate In SCA Forum

The four candidates running in this November’s Board of Education election — Timothy Alworth, Pamela J. Priscoe, the current BOE President John Quattrocchi, and David Rullo — converged on the Verona High School Learning Commons on Tuesday night for a forum sponsored by the Verona Conference of SCAs.

The evening was moderated by the League of Women Voters. Questions were drawn from those submitted to the SCAs in advance and at the event. The candidates had two minutes for their opening and closing statements and 90 seconds for their answer to each question.

If a rebuttal was needed, candidates could take 30 seconds. Quattrocchi, who is the current BOE president, twice used a rebuttal to clarify the district’s spending on administration. He noted that not only is Verona among the lowest districts for such spending, but that Verona eliminated two administrative positions in the last year. One was the director of buildings and grounds, a function that Superintendent Dr. Rui Dionisio now handles; the other was the director of guidance, a role replaced with a lead counselor position. The total savings on those two positions was more than $150,000.

The full video of the even is below. You can watch it in its entirety, or zero in on the aspects that most interest you by clicking on the appropriate section:

Opening Statements
Question 1–Candidate Strengths and Weaknesses
Question 2–Creative Ideas to Increase Revenue or Decrease Spending
Question 3–Should Verona Implement Activity Fees or Pay-to-Play?
Question 4–Board Member Usage of Social Media
Question 5–Candidate Views on Full-Day Kindergarten Ballot Question
Question 6–Funding Elementary School Technology Training
Question 7–Their Skills for Dealing with Controversy
Question 8–Candidate Involvement with District Strategic Plan
Question 9–What is the Mental Health Ballot Question
Question 10–Where Should we Spend More? Where Should we Spend Less?
Question 11–Your Unique Skills
Closing Statements