John Talty
The following was submitted to Shorebeat by John Talty, a longtime member of the Brick Township Board of Education:
It is my pleasure to highly recommend Walter Campbell for the Brick Board of Education.
This is a man of honesty, dedication, and a man of the highest integrity. It has been said by members of the present board and certain candidates that Mr. Campbell has cost the tax payers about $1.3 million dollars on “wrong size windows” in the district. This statement is absolutely untrue!
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I served on the facilities committee with Mr. Campbell when he graciously remained involved with the committee as a citizen volunteer after his term. His knowledge of the many projects underway was tremendous and he was still willing to give his time to help see them through to completion. When the committee was given the choice of two different types of windows to be used in the project, he shared with us the pros and cons of both types. The committee investigated and made a recommendation to the rest of the board. To characterize what happened as anything else is completely dishonest to the public! All you have to do is read the meeting minutes of these facilities committee meetings to see the truth. Also, board members (who are volunteers) do not oversee the employees of the district. That is not legal or the responsibility of a board member. That is why we have paid administrators and employees. There is a facilities director who reports to the business administrator in the case of our facilities.
This present board blames the previous board or boards for everything that they can’t get right and then gave the taxpayers of Brick a 3.51% increase on their property taxes. As a point of reference, in the three years before this present BOE was elected, the property taxes were raised 0%, .18% and 0 %, by the previous boards. I believe this shows efficiency, productivity, and concern for the taxpayers and students.
Mr. Campbell has tirelessly overseen the multiple facilities repairs and upgrades that have taken place. His unmatched diligence and effort have helped bring to fruition long needed projects such as eleven state of the art science labs, energy efficient windows throughout our schools, new stadium seating after the old stadium was condemned, new seating at the Brick Memorial High School Auditorium, and the new outdoor track and improvements to the indoor gymnasium, just to name a few. He made sure that fiscally responsible energy saving projects were being accomplished at every school.
All of these projects were being done without additional cost to the taxpayers of Brick and working within the limits of our budget. Almost all of the projects were also offset by state aid that was available at the time. Walter Campbell had great input in our BOE receiving this state aid.
In closing, I highly recommend Walter Campbell #1 on the ballot, for our Brick Board of Education.
Brick Life
The Other Shoe
