You may know one or more board members in your community personally, at least by name. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best person for the job.

What exactly do board members and the board of education do?

Board members represent all members of the community, which includes all races, religions, sexes, and social statuses.

Your local board of education is the governing body of the district’s school system and has the final authority on:

Legal and policy for the district

Superintendent and other hiring

Textbooks and curriculum

Financial responsibility of the district (including union negotiation)

One of the questions I asked about the BOE candidates is their qualifications; having a child in school is not a qualification. Being able to understand financial budgets, how to allocate Teaneck’s limited financial resources (only $90 million +), an ability to negotiate with unions and understand the legal ramifications of BOE decisions is paramount. The role of a member of the BOE is not to run the school, but to make sure the school is run well and efficiently.

Therefore, I support Martin Ramirez, Yassine Elkaryani and Sebastian Rodriguez for the BOE in 2019.

Martin Ramirez adds a lot of value as a lawyer and financial professional. He believes in looking at a complete cost-benefit analysis regarding cutting services and union negotiations.

Yassine Elkaryani has a master’s in business administration in entrepreneurship; this requires allocations of financial resources and looking at the long term as well as the short-term goals.

Sebastian Rodriquez is someone who has the integrity to vote against the trend specifically regarding nepotism.

Again, I will add that the “A” team initially agreed to answer the questions Teaneck Newsroom put forward and then reneged after seeing the difficult questions posed. Makes me wonder what else are they hiding, and what other items would they renege on…