TLS Exclusive - Mission Statement From BOE Candidate Bill Hobday

good morning uh readers of the lakewood scoop my name is bill hobday i've lived in lakewood township for 11 years and i try to get involved in community affairs because i'm retired my wife and i teresa retired in in 1999 and we moved to lakewood in 2000 prior to my retirement retirement i had very little time to get involved in community at ferry because i was working most of the time but since that time i attend all the meetings to understand uh what is happening in lakewood township why are we doing things how are we doing it how efficient are we are we spending our money wisely taxes has always been a problem for everyone and therefore i considered several issues after really gaining that 10-year base of knowledge to serving as a member of the lakewood school district sport of education yeah uh i'm a conservative member or conservative uh thinking about money matters and fiscal responsibility the taxpayers are a very very important aspect of a community life at the same time the students lakewood schools district are our future and we must make every attempt to provide for them at their own efficient education part of that thorough and efficient education is not only classroom but all of the things associated with it we as a community have an obligation to take care of students that have a handicap or a special needs situation you must do that number two you must make sure that their transportation to and from school is safe you must ensure that while they're in school they are safe this is our obligation this is not a need or a wish or anything like this is an absolute obligation and it's one that the district has a absolute uh uh they must provide that now lakewood school district in a public school area has had a failing school district for 10 years that's got to stop because all of those children need and are required to get from the district because a thrown efficient education i had great confidence in the private schools i think that they do a wonderful job however i think that there is an aspect of that community of the public school students that don't have a lot of the wonderful resources and the nurturing from a warm home environment and that means that we need to step in and help a little bit in that aspect because those children didn't uh bring this upon themselves uh it was part of their their their family area that means that we have to do something to help because an educated child becomes a productive adult an uneducated child becomes a problem with society now i see some comments on the uh the lakewood scoop that some members of the orthodox community are concerned about my reaction or actions with the three schools two on uh massachusetts seven and one on cross street and let me tell you the issue here uh the first school was the 1536 massachusetts avenue little white schoolhouse i reacted to that because it didn't go through the planning board it was just a change of use okay by the zoning officer now in my next issue with them was when they put the trailers on we have a beautiful community here and nobody wanted the trailers there however i talked often to uh rabbi eisenberger and uh we agreed to disagree on some things especially the traffic uh the on the parked on the shoulders things like that i believe on any county road they have to have off street facilities for parking because it's a safety issue especially where they are located right over rice where you can't see people coming in and out there and i see that even though there's signage posted that i see violations all the time and residents do report that there are violations i wish that we could wave a magic wand and provide off street parking so it would be safe for everyone the students the staff the residents and the general motoring public the other two schools phoebe over on cross street he's been he's been a model neighbor he keeps his school beautiful they i visited them several times i had the opportunity to take the safety uh belts with me because uh students were saying you know after it uh after uh nightfall and uh it's a safety issue uh do they have a right to walk along the highway certainly but we want them to be safe we want a reflector belt that makes sure that there's no uh no no issue and problem maybe he was was very kind accepting and and thanked me the school at 950 massachusetts avenue rabbi schwaranski it's a it's an absolute beautiful school we had a problem in the beginning because again he didn't go through the planning board but when after several conversations he did take it to the planning board and he did all the things that was asked of him he again he's a wonderful neighbor uh he keeps his school beautiful they obey all of the traffic regulations i support him in my newsletter uh they were going to have a uh a a a function functioning affair one saturday evening after shabbat chavez and they were going to have lights out and all that and i advertised it for three weeks before and up to please don't go in that direction because there's going to be a police presence and lights and there's going to be a large amount of people i support these things you know why they're a good neighbor and they do all the things that a responsible neighbor should do now i've read that i am against blessing and against private schools good heavens i'm the product of a private school i was born and raised in cincinnati ohio and uh my primary education uh was a saint bonifa school it's a a catholic school where the sisters of charity uh taught it was a wonderful education i then went on to a catholic uh boys school at high school uh roger bacon where we had our teachers were priests from the order of saint francis again a wonderful education now we moved in in the meantime and i went to a uh finished my high school career at central high school in cincinnati because it was just too far to commute and i got i felt that i got out of that private education a wonderful education because they drilled us and drilled us and drilled us and it was going the extra mile to make sure that every student at least got the concepts and understood how to learn these are the wonderful things about private schools and sometimes lost in the public schools however i see a new turnaround in the public school in lakewood school district the sixth grade scholars academy is children without the aid of uh busing that are going on saturday to attend classes in english in literature and computer science uh art dance etc and i went and attended last saturday's event not yesterday but the saturday before and i saw hundreds of children enjoying the educational process and taking on education what a wonderful thing i mean it had to take the parents it had to take the students the administration because teachers are working without a contract at less than great wages so everyone is contributing to bringing about better education for the children of lakewood that generally are not getting or had not been getting a good education this is wonderful a rising tide lifts all boats an educated population is what we need is better for all of us and we really need to encourage every bit of education that we can get i can't tell you enough that i'm not against private education i'm a product of it i do support it in all aspects i support everything that is best for that student now because i'm a fiscal conservative i looked at how we were spending money on transportation not a problem with that this is the time where where our economy is in bad shape which is bad but it's good in a way because it makes people come together and decide we have less money how are we going to allocate those resources well the first thing you start doing is looking for waste get rid of the waste when i have three buses pulled up to the same street with 10 children on each bus and the schools are next to each other i think why are we doing this why don't we have one bus have a route that picks up children and delivers those children to the three schools instead of having three buses with ten let's have one bus with 30. this is not for me this is for all of us taxpayers that wish to preserve the transportation system but we have to do it smarter we have i understand that there's about six million dollars a year that could be saved by being more efficient why wouldn't we want to do that let's take nothing away from anyone let's make sure that we get a return on our investment our investment is to safely and efficiently transport children to school but we don't have to spend as much money as we can we have to prudently look at that uh routing system to see see how we can gain savings and we have to employ that that would give us more money to use i'm not saying cut cut cut cut that's not my issue my issue is we have an obligation to deliver a thorough and efficient education and then all the other things that empower that thought or allow that thought are needed and therefore at the same time we have to do it as efficiently and as effectively as possible now teachers uh i see that uh you know teacher benefits are uh are hurting uh i see that teacher salaries are not always that great but the problem is this is a union it's not the teachers the teachers deserve a union that is as good as they are not one that protects teachers that don't teach or teachers that should not be teaching our children the idea here is we must provide a great education without the expense of when we find a teacher that is not doing the job you have there's nothing you can do cost two hundred thousand dollars or more to uh to get rid of that person now i think that concessions are needed all the way around we have to improve education and at the same time lessen our costs i don't think that we have a revenue problem in other words are we getting enough in tax money and grants and state aid and federal aid to run our system yes is how we're using it and therein lies what i would like to help bring into lakewood to scrutinize that budget to understand what is need and what is not needed and how we can get to the efficiencies and at the same time not to rob anything from any child because they are the reason for the education system in the beginning it is our duty to educate them and we will do that right that's my statement