Winkler Hopes to Extend Service on Board of Education

Amy Winkler has learned a lot about the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District over the past few months, so she doesn't want to slow down now.

"I feel like I'm just now in the swing of it," she said of her term on the Board of Education. "I spent a lot of time catching up, getting ready."

Last October, the Board of Education selected Winkler to fill the Fanwood seat left vacant by Sacha Slocum. Now nearly six months later, the Fanwood mom says she's enjoyed the experience so far and is excited to continue her service.

"It's as much as you make out of it," she said. "I tend to be one of those people who dives right in. I'm not half-hearted."

Winkler will compete to keep her seat on the board in the April 20 election. Fanwood dad Michael Lewis and recent Scotch Plains-Fanwood High alum Chris Pflaum are the other candidates for the 3-year Fanwood term, the only contested race this spring.

Since coming on board, Winkler has taken a number of steps to educate herself about the district, including reading the policy manual and researching state issues related to QSAC. She's also attended Garden State Coalition and Union County School Board meetings. On the board, she serves on the curriculum and community relations committees. While she admits that serving on the BOE has involved much more than she imagined going into it, Winkler said it's been valuable to expand her knowledge of the district's issues beyond what's going on at Coles Elementary, where her children go to school and where she's been an active PTA participant.

Winkler is the mother of two children at Coles — a daughter in third grade and a son in kindergarten. A native of Monmouth City, she moved to Fanwood 11 years ago.

"I think once you actually have a child it makes a really big difference," she said of its influence on her service to the board. "From a parent's point of view, you always want what's best for your child. You're also a homeowner and a taxpayer – that's a whole other point of view. You want to make sure the quality of the schools makes up for your large valuation of your home."

Right now, Winkler's getting the ultimate lesson in school finances as she works to help shape the 2010 budget. At last week's board meeting, she was one of four members to vote down the proposed teachers' contract.

"These last two weeks have been really rough," she acknowledged in an e-mail after the vote. "Last week, I was planning on voting for the tentative teachers' contract, but after the governor's announced budget cuts, I really had to rethink it.  On the one hand, both sides have worked so hard and come so far. This was a long and painful process."

Winkler said that she knows concessions were made on both sides and that relations were going well. But after Gov. Chris Christie announced the district would be losing $3.8 million in state aid — creating a $3.4 million deficit in the budget — she and the rest of the board were forced to rethink everything in just a few days.

Winkler said that rather than viewing her vote as a punishment to teachers, she hopes people realize the governor's decision was really a punishment to the entire district — teachers, taxpayers and students alike.

"I don't want the teachers to feel that the failure of this contract to pass was a reflection on how anybody feels about them," she said. "I think that we have a really great team of people teaching our kids and I wouldn't want to lose that. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. Nobody wants the teachers to continue to work under the terms of the existing contract and I agree that they have made real concessions in this process. But given the current financial situation presented by the cut in state funding, it seems fiscally irresponsible to approve a tentative agreement that was formed under better circumstances."

In dealing with the district's $3.4 million deficit, Winkler said she and other members felt it was best to try to spread the burden so that it did not affect any one group of people or category of spending disproportionately. As presented by Business Administrator Anthony Del Sordi last week, the tentative $80,958,048 budget passes $1 million of that $3.4 million shortfall onto taxpayers, cuts about another $1 million through staff and operation reductions, and cuts another $1.2 million through further salary and benefit reductions.

"We tried to get back one-third of the loss through raising taxes, one-third through salaries and benefits (our largest expense), and one-third through cuts to other expenses," Winkler said. "But approving the tentative contract with the teachers would have required us to cut staff in order to maintain that one-third cut (over one million dollars).  It would have been a huge cut in staff, forcing larger class sizes (something our district is prized for keeping low).  And besides the class size issue, there's also the fact that we would lose many talented and highly qualified teachers."

"For the last four years, the district (like all in New Jersey), has been living under the constraints of a 4 percent cap on our budget, even though the cost of many of our largest expenses (health benefits, utilities, out of district tuition) have increased at a higher rate," Winkler continued. "This has forced numerous cuts to our staff and programs. The board has tried to keep these cuts as far from the classrooms as possible, but at this time, there is little left to cut. Someone in the crowd on Monday night mentioned the salaries of several administrators including the assistant superintendent, a position that does not currently exist in our district. It was one of many positions that was cut over the last four years to help keep the budget within the 4 percent cap."

Winkler said that while there are a lot of projects she'd love to work on for the board if elected to a new term, she realizes that right now, the most important thing for to do is maintain what the district already has. During her interview with the board last October, Winkler said the priority should always be the students themselves, and that the district should be focused on improving whatever it can and working to utilize a creative curriculum to keep students engaged and advancing in their learning.

"Looking to the future, we will all need to tighten our belts a bit and work together to try to maintain a high quality of education for our children," she said last week.  "In the end, it's really about them."

Scotch Plains-Fanwood has nine total Board of Education members, split geographically based on population – seven from Scotch Plains and two from Fanwood. Aside from the open 3-year term, there is a remaining 1-year Fanwood term on the ballot, which is being run for by current member Rob O'Connor. In Scotch Plains, two 3-year terms are up for election. Incumbents Nancy Bauer and David Gorbunoff are running for both.

Stay tuned to Patch for profiles of the other two candidates running against Winkler — Michael Lewis and Chris Pflaum — in the coming days.

Got an opinion on who you think is right for the job? Send us a letter to the editor at Lindsay@patch.com.