I am writing to express my support for Hemant Marathe for mayor of West Windsor. I have known Hemant for 15 years, including spending a term together on our school board nine years ago, and believe he has the skills and leadership style to be an excellent leader for our township.
A friend recently asked me why someone who is generally agreed to be an excellent school board president would make a good mayor. Certainly there are a range of differences between the needs of a township and those of a school district. Township leaders worry about land use, roads, public service, and public safety, while school leaders focus on education. Yet many of the issues and management skills are the same. Each includes fiscal management, contract negotiations, infrastructure creation and maintenance, long-term planning, working with county and state agencies, and, perhaps key, listening to staff and community members.
Hemant was not an expert on education when he joined the school board, but his background in engineering and experience running his own business provided him the skills to understand budgets, analyze district growth to create facility plans, and ask the hard questions in curriculum reviews to keep our district on the cutting edge academically. As board president, he demonstrated a style of transparency and communication that allowed the board, administration, staff, and community to work together effectively and amicably. If Hemant is elected mayor I am certain he will use these same skills to understand the range of township issues and work to create an environment in which problems can be solved effectively with a long-term vision.
The role of a school board member is to ensure that the schools are well run, not to run the schools. Similarly a mayor needs to ensure that the township is running well, not to do each job himself. Two characteristics that continue to strike me about Hemant are his seemingly limitless energy and interest in networking with others. Years after being on the board together, Hemant will still call me when key questions come up to see what I am hearing; I’m sure he is calling many others to get their impressions. He wants to understand the concerns of the community. Hemant’s management and leadership style is not to make a decision first and then get buy-in for it, but to ask the hard questions, get input from experts and staff, volunteers and community members, and then figure out the best decision.
Hemant is intelligent and analytical, someone who listens and researches, a problem-solver and consensus-builder. A good leader looks at where an organization wants to go and then helps all stakeholders understand their role in getting there. We have seen the role Hemant has played in leading our schools over the past 12 years. I look forward to seeing what West Windsor could be under the leadership of Hemant Marathe as mayor.
Diane Hasling
Jacob Drive
The writer is a former member of the WW-P School Board.
