Politics & Government

Three Candidates Compete for Two Warren Seats on Watchung Hills HS Board

Anthony Sardis, Bob Morrison and Peter Fallon are competing for two seats on the Watchung Hills HS Board of Education.

The Watchung Hills Regional Board of Education has two, three-year openings for Warren representatives in this election and three candidates are running for those spots.

The candidates are Robert Morrison, Peter Fallon and Anthony Sardis.

The two incumbents holding those seats on the board, Laura Mandell and Harold Grossnickle, did not file to seek re-election.

Peter Fallon

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Peter Fallon has served on both the Warren Township K-8 district (from 2000 to 2006) and has only been away briefly from the Watchung Hills Regional High School, on which he served from 2006 to 2012.

If elected again as a Warren representative to the regional board, he said he would like to continue working to improve the schools and, at the same time, to "restore some of the fiscal responsibility that I believe the board got away from in 2013," after he declined to seek re-election in November 2012.

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For example, Fallon said that he disagrees with about $1.5 million being "chopped" from the $2.4 million initially set aside for larger capital projects in this year's budget.

While Fallon said he supports some items in the $12 million referendum just approved by voters — such as the needed and expensive replacement of old steam pipes — he said he would have like to have had capital improvements funding set aside in each year's budget rather than including all of the items listed in the referendum.

However, he said other items could have been funded out of the annual budget. And he said he doesn't believe the repaving of the parking lot to have been "urgent."

Fallon said that part of his professional experience was in acting as attorney for other school boards.

He said he spent four years coaching youth league soccer and was a member of Friends of Somerset Youth.

"I have proven in over twelve years on two board of Education in Warren Township that I know how to balance improving the schools with fiscal responsibility and oversight," Fallon said.

Robert Morrison

Morrison said he has made it clear throughout the campaign that his goal has been a high quality and well-rounded education for students.

That goal must be balanced against the need for fiscal responsibility and board integrity, he said.

He added that communication with the public also is important, and a top priority is curriculum offerings for students. 

Morrison has been attending Watchung Hills school board meetings already.

He noted that the board school needs to address such issues as scheduling, since many students seemed to begin this school with what appeared to be an unusually large number of study halls.

At Monday night's Watchung Hills board meeting, he suggested to school officials that rather than including the grades of new state-required assessment tests at the beginning of the school year in grade point averages, perhaps the school should consider this to be a "pilot year" for the program, and results not counted.

Morrison said he has have been a resident of Warren for nearly twelve years and has been an active volunteer. 

He said for six years he served as a volunteer youth baseball coach, including taking the 12 year-old WBSI travel team to Myrtle Beach in 2012 for the culminating youth league baseball experience.

During Hurricane Sandy last year, Morrison said he helped organize the response. He also served as an administrator of the Warren Township Community Forum on Facebook. He noted that online community now engages more than 1,500 residents on issues from the mundane (lost pet) to the very serious, such as raising funds and offering assistance for residents in need.

Aafter Hurricane Sandy, he volunteered to serve on the Warren Township Utility Advisory Committee where he currently the co-chair. 

The Utility Committee has just completed a township-wide inventory of all the utility hazards with the goal of holding both JCP&L and PSEG accountable for the proper maintenance of our electrical infrastructure to help reduce future outages for our residents, he said.

He said he currently is the CEO of own company, Quadrant Research, and has been a CEO of companies for nearly 25 years.

His own educational experince including time as a Trustee for the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. 

He added he was chairman of the board of a public company. "I have been chairman of several non-profit organizations and I served on the boards of several trade associations in the music, entertainment and telecommunications industries."

He said he served on various board committees including audit, governance, compensation, presidential search, and strategic planning. "My background, experience and knowledge about proper board governance procedures would be an asset to my board service at Watchung Hills," Morrison said.

He said more information on his background is at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bob-morrison/1/517/263

Anthony (Tony) Sardis

Anthony Sardis, who said he has lived in the township for about 12 years, said he doesn't have a big campaign speech or political agenda in seeking election to the regional school board.

But he said he does have six years of school board experience, having served on the Warren Township K-8 board from 2008-2011, and also on the Somerset County Educational Services board for children with special needs.

Within the township, Sardis said he was part of one of "what I believe to be the most productive boards in Warren’s history." 

During his tenure on the Warren K-8 Board, Sardis said all board members worked cooperatively to expand academic offerings; sports activities; and safety procedures for for children.

At the same time, the school board during that time spent less than anticipated and, he said, "returned money to Warren taxpayers." 

"The issue is always to run the schools most efficiently and [at the same time] have a good school system," Sardis said.

Sardis, a tax adviser and tax attorney, said there always are ways to achieve greater efficiency in spending."

He said he is careful not to criticize sitting board members because they may have information that he doesn't.

Sardis said he has four children, the oldest at Watchung Hills Regional High School, one in the middle school and two in elementary school.




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