Guest Column

David Tarver and Dr. Donald Warner

Board should have reached out on superintendent’s hiring

We learned last week that the Red Bank Borough Board of Education has appointed a new Superintendent of Schools. While we certainly hope that the appointee, Dr. John Krewer, will prove to be committed and capable, we are concerned about the way the appointment and introduction of the new superintendent were handled, and we are unhappy about the lack of community participation in the selection. Specifically, we had hoped that the community and especially the Red Bank Education and Development Initiative would play a meaningful role. Unfortunately, we learned about the final selection after the fact, from the newspaper.

This is simply not right and not constructive. Initiative members are teachers, parents, school administrators, board members and leaders of community organizations who have a stake in the success of Red Bank children.

Initiative members have collectively volunteered thousands of hours during the past year to plan improvements in the education and development of Red Bank children. The Initiative’s work during the past year resulted in a 466-page report that details the situation facing Red Bank children and families, schools and community organizations. The report contains many constructive recommendations, the first of which is the appointment of a strong and visionary leader for the district.

In the Initiative-sponsored meeting of community leaders held July 17, the consensus of the attendees was that the Red Bank community must come together to support education of all children, and that no entity — superintendent, board, parents or Initiative — can do it alone.

The Initiative members have done a tremendous amount of work and have produced a body of information and contacts that can be of great help to the board and the new superintendent. The report that we produced on June 24 was a major milestone in the process of improving child education and development in Red Bank, but it is by no means the last milestone. The committed and active participation of the board, superintendent and staff will be required for us to make gains for all Red Bank children.

We have some key questions for the new superintendent at this point, and the answers will go a long way toward determining his potential for success here in Red Bank.

1) Is Dr. Krewer absolutely committed to making the changes required so that all children who attend Red Bank schools — Asian, black, Latino and white — can achieve academic excellence?

2) Will Dr. Krewer, his administration and his staff work enthusiastically with the Red Bank Education and Development Initiative to continue the planning and improvement processes begun one year ago?

3) Is Dr. Krewer committed to producing and documenting a plan to guide the improvement efforts in the district and to being held accountable for the results? If the answer to all three questions is an emphatic yes, then we might dare to hope that things will begin to change for the better.

The appointment of the new superintendent is an important first step. Much hard work will be required by many people, inside and outside the schools, to achieve the required improvements. The current problems facing children in Red Bank are a result of division, lack of communication and lack of planning — by adults.

This is the situation that the Initiative has been working to change. If the new superintendent adds his voice and his leadership to this effort, he can help to usher in a bright new era in Red Bank.

We welcome Dr. Krewer to Red Bank, and we look forward to working with him to achieve our stated mission: to assure that the academic success of all Red Bank children is competitive with the best communities in the country while promoting cultural awareness and healthy social interaction.

David Tarver is president and Dr. Donald Warner is vice president of the Red Bank Education Initiative.