There are three seats open on the school board this year and two of them — both in Plainsboro — are being contended in the April 21 school board elections.
Two new candidates — Todd Hochman and Shipra Mitra — have filed to run against incumbents Anthony Fleres and Anjani Gharpure.
In West Windsor, John Farrell will run uncontested for the sole seat. Farrell, who was appointed by the board in September to fill the open seat vacated by Stan Katz, will be running to fulfill the remainder of the term.
Plainsboro Contest. Anthony Fleres, of Mifflin Court, and his wife, Maria have lived in Plainsboro since 1993, have a son who is a high school sophomore and daughter who is in middle school in the WW-P school district. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the City College of New York, and an MBA from the University of Connecticut in 1980.
His father was a carpenter and his mother was a seamstress. He and his wife, Marcia, who is the executive director of the WW-P Education Foundation, moved from Old Bridge to Plainsboro because of its reputation as a good school district.
Fleres will be seeking his second term on the board. He says that while he is only one of nine people, “for the last three years, I think we’ve done a successful job with the building referendum and renovating the schools,” including the gymnasium and turf fields at High School South. “I’m also proud of the fact that we’ve kept the budget in line. Our per pupil costs are less than the state average. We’ve kept the rate of increase in the budget to a number that was below inflation and below student enrollment.”
Fleres also points to the process of hiring a new superintendent after former superintendent Robert Loretan left the district. The board chose Victoria Kniewel as the new superintendent, which has turned out to be very successful, Fleres said.
“Moving forward, I want to again keep tight fiscal control in the district and keep spending reasonable,” he said. “These are difficult times ahead.” He said with the work on the 2006 referendum almost complete — the swimming pool bubble still has to be installed at High School South — he is looking forward to the future. In addition to financial issues, Fleres says he is also highly interested in special education services in the district.
Anjani Gharpure, of Blossom Hill Drive, has lived in Plainsboro for 11 years with her husband, Vishwanath, a hematologist and medical oncologist and a partner at Abington Hematolotgy Oncology Associates in Philadelphia.
She will be seeking her second term on the board, where she has served on the finance committee for two years and on the curriculum committee for the past year.
Gharpure said she is proud to see that the students over the last three years have continued to “achieve bigger and better things.”
“A board of education member’s role is taking decisions that help the school district maintain its high quality of education by providing learning opportunities to the diverse groups of students in a safe and supporting school environment,” she said. “We at WW-P have continued to provide this high standard of educational experiences at a reasonable cost.” She said that compared with other neighboring school districts, the cost of education per pupil at WW-P is lower, and compared with the state average, the cost of education per student is less by $300.
Like Fleres, she pointed to the hiring of the superintendent and continuing work on the referendum project as major accomplishments.
Gharpure said that her experience on the board will help her serve more effectively. “I will be able to help the school board achieve all the goals for our school district’s strategic plan,” she said. “Taking into consideration the current financial situation, we will strive to keep the cost of education affordable for the residents of our townships.”
She said that providing a high quality of education at an affordable cost is one of her main goals. “Even when the enrollment is still going up in some of our schools and will level off in couple of years, it is very important to maintain effective student programs by realignment and not by reduction,” she said. “Accomplishing the goals of our district’s strategic plan and providing a safe and nurturing learning atmosphere to all the students in this diverse community of WW-P is very important.”
On the board, Gharpure is a liaison for the WW-P PTA/ PTSA, Community Education Advisory Council, and for Superintendents Advisory Council. She also serves on the negotiations committee for WWPFA. She also serves as a liaison for the district-wide science curriculum review Committee. She also serves as a chair person for the Mini Grants and Reflections committees at High School North and also for North’s Scholarship Committee.
Gharpure, a homemaker, and her husband, Vishwanath, have a daughter, Radhika, 20, who graduated from North in 2006 and is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania. Her son, Anant, is a junior at North.
Gharpure has an undergraduate degree in business, a degree in law, and an MBA in finance from Butler University in Indianapolis. Her father, who received his masters from the University of Wisconsin, worked for a private company, and her mother has a bachelors in psychology and taught in a school.
Before coming to Plainsboro, Gharpure has lived in India, the United Kingdom, Maryland, Georgia, Indiana, and Texas. “We moved to Plainsboro because my husband joined UMDNJ and we liked Plainsboro because it is one of the best school districts in central New Jersey,” she said.
Todd Hochman, who lives on Daisy Court, said he and his family moved to Plainsboro in 1999. One of the main goals he has is to maintain the schools’ quality, “but I think we’d like to do that at a price we can afford,” he says. “I want to make certain that we not only hold the line on taxes, but go into things with eyes open to try to achieve the best we can while maintaining a standard for our children, especially in these trying times.”
He also says he certainly does not want the board to re-district. “It is working well,” he said. However, “I am concerned, though, about the reasons for busing children so far from homes to go to a school. I recognize that it certainly may be historic, but there are kids who live very close to High School North who are going to High School South.”
He added: “Sometimes I wonder why an effort hasn’t been made to adjust these things to have our middle schoolers and high schoolers closer to their schools instead of spending so much time on a school bus.”
Hochman holds a law degree from St. John University, as well as a bachelor of science in applied mathematics and statics and economics from the State University of New York, Stonybrook. Hochman currently works for the retirement division of an insurance company, where he is a director in the compliance sector of the retirement division of an insurance company.
Originally from Long Island, Hochman moved to Plainsboro because of the school district’s reputation and because “we got a lot more house for our money,” he says. Hochman’s father was a school psychologist, and his mother was a homemaker. Hochman’s wife is a substitute teacher in several districts, including WW-P.
He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons — one is a senior at High School South and the other attends Grover Middle School. Hochman is also the vice president of the Walker Gordon Farm Homeowners Association. “I have a good knowledge of how boards work,” Hochman said. “I’d like to help make a difference.”
Shipra Mitra, of Mahogany Court, has been in Plainsboro for five years. She and her husband, Basudeb Pal, who moved to Plainsboro from Edison, have two children — a daughter in fifth grade and a son in third grade, both of whom attend district schools.
Mitra says she wanted to get involved in the district to improve it. “I know the school system is good, but I want to make it better,” she says. She says she would like to see the programs for exceptional students be expanded, so that more students can benefit from them.
“I think all of the kids here are very smart, and I think they would improve if given some more resources, and I think some resources are lacking,” she says.
Because one of her main reasons for moving to Plainsboro was for the school district, she says she is very much interested in it. She has 20 years experience in the corporate world. She earned her MBA as well as her masters in strategic management from the Kelly School of Business. She also holds a certificate in physics, chemistry, and math from St. Xavier’s College in India, and has background in working with computers. Her father was an engineer and her mother spent her whole life educating Mitra and her siblings.
Last year, Mitra decided to focus on her children’s education, and now that she is available, she wants to bring her expertise and experience with her to the board. She also serves as a board member and secretary for her development’s homeowners association. She also serves as her daughter’s troop leader in Girl Scouts.
Mitra says she would also look into additional curriculum programs and is interested in trying to find ways to decrease the student-to-teacher ratio, particularly at the middle school level. “I know the teachers are inundated,” she says.
West Windsor. John Farrell, of Millbrook Drive, grew up in Cape Cod, MA. His mother was a school teacher, and his father ran his own construction business. Farrell attended Notre Dame, where he earned his degree in economics in 1975. He also has his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
He worked in management consulting and business strategies for Ernst & Young for 28 years, until the company was sold in 2000. While working in Washington, D.C., for the company, he met his wife, Kathy, who works in healthcare and hospital administration.
The couple have lived on Millbrook Drive since 1992, with the exception of the three-year period Farrell and his family moved to Italy as a result of his job. They returned to the same home. He and his wife have two children — Connor, a senior, and the quarterback for South’s football team, and Colleen, in eighth grade at Grover Middle School.
At Rider Farrell serves as the assistant dean for graduate programs, overseeing the M.B.A. program and the master’s accounting program. He teaches international management at the graduate level and personal finance at the undergraduate level.
Farrell has been a volunteer boys’ lacrosse coach at High School South and also at Grover Middle School, and his wife has been involved with the parent-teacher associations.
