Englewood School Board Election Pits Change Versus Continuity

The six candidates hoping to claim seats on the Englewood Board of Education in April's school board election have aligned themselves in two separate camps of three, NorthJersey.com reported.

Incumbents Glenn Garrison and board president Stephen Brown, who are running with newcomer Amy Ginsberg, an associate dean at Long Island University in Brooklyn, believe the current board is making strides and want to see that continue.

Garrison, Brown and Ginsberg — whom the two board veterans expect to complement the current board — have been endorsed by Supporters of Education for Englewood Kids, a decade-old non-partisan organization that recruits candidates for the Englewood school board.

"We have a very good board right now," Garrison, a New York hospital administrator, told NorthJersey.com. "We want to keep that momentum going."

The challengers of the status quo — Carol Feinstein, Devry Pazant and Junius "Jeff" Carter III — who have called the current board's treatment of residents "condescending" and "disrespectful," see things differently.

"The district needs a better direction," Pazant, a TD Bank branch manager, told NorthJersey.com

Pazant, Feinstein and Carter held a meet-and-greet Monday night at the Community Baptist Church on First Street to introduce themselves to residents and air their concerns with the current board.

The challengers told prospective voters that, if elected, they would be more receptive to input from community members, NorthJersey.com reported.

Carter and Feinstein, a former city council member and president of the Englewood Teachers Association, criticized the board's 2012 decision to outsource secretarial and classroom aide work to the Delta-T Group, a private staffing firm.

“This group of people, they put walking dead bodies in the classroom,” Carter said, according to NorthJersey.com. “We lost people who’ve been in the district for 25 years."

The challengers for change said if they win election on April 16 they intend to continue holding periodic community forums like the one Monday at Community Baptist.