I have had an overwhelming influx of phone calls and e-mails since I have announced candidacy and I could not be more humbled. Please feel free to reach out and let me know what you feel the focus of our district should be, as well as anything you want to say that you feel someone in a Board of Ed position needs to know. I want to hear it all; the good the bad and the ugly.
A Little About Myself
Hi, my name is Joe Canova and I am running for the position of Board of Education (BOE) commissioner. For those who don’t know, the Board of Education consists of a group of 9 unpaid volunteers, who collectively oversee 3 main areas (see below) by expressing their concerns and voting on issues, with the help of a lawyer to guide them through what is needed to:
Create/implement policies
Allocate spending (Control the money)
Appoint and Evaluate the Superintendent
By regulation, the Board of Education is unable to meddle in the daily operations of the school and needs to rely purely on the superintendent to make the changes necessary. With our super leaving and Clifton being such a large district with many buildings, this is a very tall order and requires a strong leader equipped with new ideas and a passion for Clifton's educational system.
For the past 2 years, I have attended the majority of BOE meetings, typically participating in the public portion, and I felt that it was time to run for election, in hopes to help make a positive difference in Clifton's Educational program.
The majority of my family has lived in Clifton, some all of our lives. As for me, I grew up in Botany Village, then moved to the Lakeview section, and now own my home in Dutch Hill. Being a “Clifton kid”, I have a great perspective on many different areas and needs in our town. I have a beautiful wife and 2 beautiful daughters, one attending School 3, with the other due to join her for Kindergarten in September of 2019. Thus, there is a lot at stake for my family, and we are invested in ensuring the success of this district. It has been proven that a successful educational system drives up home values, while producing educated adults, who will continue to take on the task of contributing to the successful future of the city.
I am sure you have seen posts from me on the Clifton social media pages, heard me speak at the Board of Ed meetings, or have seen/participated in my SupportClifton.com website, which successfully gained Clifton $3.4M last year and another $5M this year. This year, in alliance with the Fair Funding Action Committee (FFAC), we helped to push a bill, which was just signed, to redistribute the $50M in funding (over the next 6 years), that Clifton had been lacking over the last DECADE!
I have a degree in Electronic Engineering and am currently a Senior Director in the IT department of a College, so I understand the technological needs for our students, faculty and staff. Dealing with students 17 and older, I realize these challenges may be different in the K-12 sector, and I look forward to assisting where I can to make recommendations that can improve our district and streamline services for our population.
I am centered on empowering students to succeed. My belief is that everyone has talents that they were born with and it is our job to bring them out and allow them to flourish into successful individuals. I am sure that any teacher will tell you the same about why they went into their profession and if they are not there for that reason, they shouldn’t be there at all.
These next few years will be paramount in Clifton’s educational success, as funding will be redistributed, and a new Superintendent will be hired to help us travel down the new path that lies ahead. Some even say that the BOE is the most important entity, since it is so closely tied to home values and the desire of people to want to live and raise a family here. I would like to help us to get there, but I need your support in order to do so. If you care about this city, your family, and your community, please spread the word and cast your vote for me this November.
Create/implement policies
Allocate spending (Control the money)
Appoint and Evaluate the Superintendent
By regulation, the Board of Education is unable to meddle in the daily operations of the school and needs to rely purely on the superintendent to make the changes necessary. With our super leaving and Clifton being such a large district with many buildings, this is a very tall order and requires a strong leader equipped with new ideas and a passion for Clifton's educational system.
For the past 2 years, I have attended the majority of BOE meetings, typically participating in the public portion, and I felt that it was time to run for election, in hopes to help make a positive difference in Clifton's Educational program.
The majority of my family has lived in Clifton, some all of our lives. As for me, I grew up in Botany Village, then moved to the Lakeview section, and now own my home in Dutch Hill. Being a “Clifton kid”, I have a great perspective on many different areas and needs in our town. I have a beautiful wife and 2 beautiful daughters, one attending School 3, with the other due to join her for Kindergarten in September of 2019. Thus, there is a lot at stake for my family, and we are invested in ensuring the success of this district. It has been proven that a successful educational system drives up home values, while producing educated adults, who will continue to take on the task of contributing to the successful future of the city.
I am sure you have seen posts from me on the Clifton social media pages, heard me speak at the Board of Ed meetings, or have seen/participated in my SupportClifton.com website, which successfully gained Clifton $3.4M last year and another $5M this year. This year, in alliance with the Fair Funding Action Committee (FFAC), we helped to push a bill, which was just signed, to redistribute the $50M in funding (over the next 6 years), that Clifton had been lacking over the last DECADE!
I have a degree in Electronic Engineering and am currently a Senior Director in the IT department of a College, so I understand the technological needs for our students, faculty and staff. Dealing with students 17 and older, I realize these challenges may be different in the K-12 sector, and I look forward to assisting where I can to make recommendations that can improve our district and streamline services for our population.
I am centered on empowering students to succeed. My belief is that everyone has talents that they were born with and it is our job to bring them out and allow them to flourish into successful individuals. I am sure that any teacher will tell you the same about why they went into their profession and if they are not there for that reason, they shouldn’t be there at all.
These next few years will be paramount in Clifton’s educational success, as funding will be redistributed, and a new Superintendent will be hired to help us travel down the new path that lies ahead. Some even say that the BOE is the most important entity, since it is so closely tied to home values and the desire of people to want to live and raise a family here. I would like to help us to get there, but I need your support in order to do so. If you care about this city, your family, and your community, please spread the word and cast your vote for me this November.
My Position on Topics
- Technology - integrating STEAM into our curriculum is crucial to our continued success. Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Math are the jobs that will be waiting for the kids that come out of school. Now, more than ever, we rely on technology and these students need to be at the forefront of it all.
- Security - Steps should be taken to completely secure our schools. It is an unfortunate reality that we need to do this, but it is a top concern.
- Student/Parent Involvement is at an all time-low. Many students and parents are not involved in the community and in their children’s lives. This needs to change for us to become successful. Programs and initiatives need to be focus on bringing the community together, showing both parents and students the steps they need to take for to become successful citizens.
- Anonymous surveys of parents, students, faculty, staff and taxpayers should be done to allow for an understanding of where our gaps are, and put solutions in place to overcome these issues.
- Tapping our own resources - Allowing student volunteer programs for tasks at the school can be a huge win. There are many talented individuals in our district, and if we can identify those skills, these students can help us, while building their resumé for the colleges and jobs they are applying for. Allowing students to be heard and providing them representation at the table is basically an internship and I support this fully. These students need to be able to get the hands on experience they need to be successful.
- Return On Investment (ROI) stats on systems, projects, software and hardware. If students aren’t using software that we pay for, is it really worth continuing to renew it? If things are not being utilized to their full potential, training sessions should be held to train people on how to use them effectively.
- Transparency - Minutes, Attachments and Drafts should be posted to the website for all to see.
- Bi-weekly planning meetings followed by Bi-weekly voting meetings to allow the public to participate in conversations. Possibly even a social media presence on Yammer or Facebook, to discuss topics that come up and allow for collaboration outside of meetings, while satisfying the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
- New technology to film and stream meetings, as it is extremely outdated. There should be a TV in the hallway of School 6 for the overflow of attendees to be able to see and hear what is going on. Or instead, a new location for meetings should be considered, such as the brand new renovated CHS Auditorium, to provide adequate seating for all that wish to attend.
- Electric Upgrades/Air Conditioning - All schools should have air conditioning. With all of the holidays and extended school year we need to provide an adequate learning space for educating our students. While people can teach and learn in a hot environment, we all know that no one is doing their best work under these conditions, and why would we want anything less than the best results from our program(s)? This could also open up the door to allow others to rent out our facilities and classrooms in the summer or to host summer programs/camps. A way to monitor the usage and turn off units when areas are not being used should also be implemented so that we are not spending tax payer money for keeping a room cool that is not being used.
- Building Upgrades - our buildings are in dire need of TLC. A building inspector should be hired to assess the buildings from top to bottom and provide us the report we need to prioritize. After the board picks the items they feel are the top issues, if possible, a ranking should be made available to the public to decide on what they see as priority as well.
- Streamlining processes - burdensome tasks and other issues should be identified and solutions found to streamline these tasks taking a 3 hour task down to a few minutes by providing an easier way to do it. This will allow them to work on bettering the students experience and providing better services to our students.
- Homework - homework should be supplementary if needed and should not take hours to do. If a student can show mastery of the concept, they should be able to move on. Nothing should be due on Monday if it can be avoided.
- Uniforms - I am not in favor of requiring students to wear uniforms. As the policy currently exists, students can all dress the same if they choose, so for the students that want this, they can do that now. I don’t think a mandate should be pushed at all for this, especially since taxpayers will need to foot the bill for students that have a low income and can’t adhere to this policy financially. Only in the case of a cohort am I on board with this. For example, if all students in a health program need to wear scrubs for a week or if all ROTC students need to wear Army fatigue.
- Teachers - Teachers are actually seeing less in their pay due to cuts and new insurance changes. The core of our product is our teachers and the skills that they bring to educate our students. We need to provide them with what they need to do this.
- Maintenance/Facilities - Workers that are skilled in trades should be hired so that we can do as many of our projects in district that we can. This allows us to keep project costs low and to understand how to fix/repair issues when they arise as we were the ones to do the work.
- College Credits - more articulation agreements and dual enrollment agreements should be made with colleges, similar to the Bergen Community contract which allows a student to take courses that will provide them a college degree when they graduate High School.
- Learning Management System (LMS) - An LMS should be used to house the project, class outlines, objectives, weekly requirements and allow for parents to see what the student is learning and how they are doing so that they can reinforce it at home. It can also serve as the mechanism for make-up work and a portal for information.
- Helping struggling students - measures should be put in place to identify student learning styles and assist students who are struggling so that they can succeed.
- Praising successful students - when students are doing well they should be given the chance to take on new concepts and move ahead in the curriculum. They should also be praised for their successes and possibly given the opportunity to tutor others as a resumé builder.
- Aspire program – there are talks that this will be phased out. If that happens, as these students drop, it will cause our overall graduation numbers to drop. This program should remain intact to allow for a higher graduation rate for the district.
- Class size - we should keep a smaller class size to allow for a better learning environment. The Aspire program already adheres to these ratios, why not the rest of the population as well?
Get In Touch.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have. If elected I will need to refer future questions to the superintendant or discuss in public meetings.