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BRICK, NJ — Patch is again publishing profiles of local candidates in the 2024 election, set for Tuesday, Nov. 5.
In Brick Township, the only local election is for the Board of Education. There are three, three-year terms up for election, and there are six candidates seeking those seats.
Incumbent Victoria Pakala is seeking re-election and running with John Henry and Nancy Ellson on the slogan Believe in Brick.
Challenging for the three seats, on the slogan Common Sense 4Education, are George Malgeri, Gregory J. Cohen and Georgia Lane-Hansen. Cohen sought election to the school board in 2023 but was defeated.
The candidates received the same questions. Here is the response from George Malgeri.
Family: Single
Education: Brick Township High School (Diploma issued in 2017), Ocean County College (Associate’s issued in 2021), Georgian Court University (Bachelor’s in Political Science issued in 2023), Georgian Court School of Business and Digital Media (Master’s in Business Administration to be issued in 2025).
Occupation: Food server, real estate agent (anticipated start date: Jan. 1, 2025).
Any previous elected office or appointments in local government?
No elected office yet; interned for our State Senator and our members of State Assembly when studying for political science degree in pursuit of an eventual law school education.
Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you’re running for.
My parents do not work in politics or government as elected officials, but do work as public employees. My mother works as a teacher for Lakewood Township Public Schools; my father works as an equipment trainer for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
Why are you running for office?
I am running for office as I have had an interest in politics and government from a very young age. Having grown up and continuing to be part of a church community, originally The Church of Grace and Peace in Toms River and now New Beginnings Church here in Brick, I have been instilled with a desire to help others to satisfy their needs and achieve their goals however I may be able to do so. I am hoping to be able to do whatever I can to best serve my fellow residents of Brick who would like to see the children of our town receive a high-quality education to make themselves fulfilled and productive members of society but would also like and deserve to know how exactly our and how many of our tax dollars are being spent for educating children for their future in our present, uncertain economic climate marked by inflation in conjunction with higher local property tax bills and shrinking education-related aid from the state to many desirable, middle-income, suburban school districts such as Brick to send more of our tax dollars to chronically underperforming, low-income, urban school districts such as Newark, Paterson, Elizabeth, among others that benefit financially at our expense, both financially and in terms of the quality of education that can be afforded to the children in our town.
What do you see as the biggest issue facing the Brick Township School District right now and how would you address it?
I strongly believe the most significant issue confronting the Brick Township School District at present is a funding crisis instigated by acts of the State Legislature executed by the Governor. Residents, parents, teachers, and ultimately taxpayers can clearly see that Brick and many other towns at the Shore and across the state with a similar demographic and economic profile as ours have been placed on the back burner with regard to education-related aid from the state. Brick residents pay local property taxes, state income taxes, among other taxes to contribute to a “thorough and efficient education” as mandated by our State Constitution, and yet schools in Brick have encountered increasing difficultly in the last number of years with ensuring sufficient staffing to avert class overcrowding, obtaining full access to all facts and statistics from the Central Administration of the district and the State Department of Education to better understand the issues confronting our district, and a recent property tax increase approved primarily to fill an ever-increasing education funding gap from the state; more than half of every $1.00 Brick residents pay in property taxes are sent to the school district.
At the same time, emphasized with the passing of Senate Bill 2 in Trenton being executed into law by the Governor’s Office, the state has taken tax dollars meant to ensure a constitutionally mandated “throughout and efficient” education for all children in all schools in New Jersey and has, in the pursuit of equity, continuously taken more dollars away from middle-income suburban towns such as Brick and many others at the Shore and elsewhere across the state and has given tax dollars that otherwise would have gone to towns such as ours to lower-income cities benefitting from Schools Development Authority District, or SDA (formerly Abbott District) status granted by the state; 60% or educated-related state aid is sent to the approximately 30 SDA districts across New Jersey, taking into consideration that New Jersey has approximately 600 school districts. Not only has this impacted districts such as Brick in more negative manners than one (i.e.; larger class sizes, higher property taxes, shrinking resources to manage ever-changing needs for each student as demographics shift in Brick as they have in other districts across the state and across the nation in recent years for various reasons), but also appears to have been done in vain by the state as the districts that have been benefitting the most, financially speaking, from our financial issues instigates by the state has not demonstrated tangible improvements with ever-increasing funding at our ever-increasing expense, both financially and otherwise.
If I am fortunate enough to be elected to the Brick Township Board of Education, I would work as effectively as I can with fellow Board members, taking into consideration that a number of Board members already share in my aforementioned viewpoints and frustration, to send a message to the state that our children, teachers, fellow residents and taxpayers in Brick deserves equity just as much as any other district in New Jersey, even if we do not qualify for some sort of special status that has allowed for districts such as Brick to have treated as a sort of piggy bank by the state with more of our tax dollars leaving our districts to go to others with no improvement on our part nor on the part of the districts that have e received the money that would originally gone to our children; I would serve as a cheerleader for a quality education for all of our children to make for a better future for all of us and a cheerleader for taxpayers who deserves a good return on investment for all the tax dollars that they pay.
Name one thing about the Brick Township School District that always makes you smile.
As someone who has lived on the autism spectrum for as long as he has had memory, in the present day as a college graduate pursuing a graduate degree and hoping to pursue a law degree afterwards, I am reminded of my time as a student in the Brick Township School District from kindergarten to 12th grade, having received a quality level of special services for which the district came to be well-known and highly valued over the years. From compassionate teachers and teacher’s aides to understanding principals and therapists, I was able to experience all types of school and district employees at all levels worked in one fashion or another for the benefit of students with special needs such as myself who just needed some extra help to learn and succeed in school and in life alongside mainstreamed friends and peers; I feel very blessed and I am very appreciative of my individualized education experience in the Brick Township School District and I would do whatever I can to ensure that children in our town with any and all types of special needs receive the services they need and deserve through our district if fortunate enough to be elected to the Board of Education.