Election Profile: Terence Wall For Holmdel BOE

HOLMDEL, NJ — Three seats are open for the Holmdel Township Board of Education and six candidates are in the run.

Terence M. Wall, Surekha Collur, Kimberly Tuccillo, Weiping Wang, Jill Perez and Kristy O'Connor are all vying for a seat.

Wall, 54, is a business administrator for Jackson Township who has previously served as a three-term Holmdel Township committeeman, as a Holmdel First Aid Squad member and in multiple other committees and sub-committees.

He's also a father of four, has a master's degree in public administration and is a qualified emergency medical technician.

Are you running for local office in 2021? Contact Catarina Moura at catarina.moura@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Patch.

READ MORE: Holmdel 2021 Election: Who's Running, All The Ways To Vote

Why are you seeking reelection?

To continue to provide seamless, sound, open, honest, transparent and experienced leadership that empowers all Holmdel stakeholders. Holmdel schools navigate complex systems in finance, buildings and grounds, labor, curriculum and community relations. Experienced leadership is critical to move forward in a positive way for students, parents, teachers and taxpayers. Voters also need to determine whether or not they want unions politically involved with their local Boards of Education. Parents need to be respected as the primary voice of their children, not the unions or government. I am seeking reelection to keep schools safe, open full-day, in-person and free from NJEA politics. I’m a tax cutter and want to preserve Holmdel’s way of life, our top school rankings and always ensure the best in Academics, the Arts and Athletics. Important decisions are made on a regular basis in our schools and, as the only experienced candidate running, voters can be confident on positive outcomes.

What is the single most important issue the Holmdel School District is facing and what do you intend to do about it?

The number one priority is keeping our schools safe, open full-day and in-person empowering both teachers and students to work together normally as we move beyond the worldwide pandemic. We need to free ourselves from fear and focus on the educational, physical, social and emotional well-being of our students. This transcends all other issues.

On the personnel level, the seven-month-old process of securing a competent, qualified new superintendent is moving along and I’m gratified to see nearly 1000 community members engage in the process. We should have a fantastic new leader on board in the next few months. This is one of the more important personnel decisions at the moment but no personnel decision is more critical than the hiring and training of top-notch new teachers. Teachers are the lifeblood of our organization, closest to our children and our priority must always be focused on hiring and offering tenure to only the best in class.

Why should you be elected over other candidates?

I provide multi-discipline, experienced, public sector leadership and the ability to make timely, commonsense decisions utilizing complicated information. I don’t need a training manual. I have no union conflicts and can participate fully in all matters. An example would be the lightning-fast turnaround during the pandemic of $1.3 million in safety improvements to open schools. We were the first in the state for full-day, in-person public school reopening. This is precisely what parents should demand. Another example is initiating the modifications to the Health Benefit plans to save hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars while providing our teachers and support staff a plan that meets contractual obligations. My opponents screened in the hopes of an endorsement by the union. After exposure, they are running away from it. I have no divided loyalties in my conduct as an elected member of the Holmdel Board of Education.

READ MORE: Holmdel BOE Candidates File Ethics Complaint Against Incumbent

What are other important issues you are running on?

Organizational management of meetings is an issue that matters. I do think the committee of the whole format is better than the subcommittee format. I would suggest two public meetings per month to replace the subcommittee format. They would be open to the public (except personnel which legally confidential) and be streaming live with an updated website and better interactivity. This provides double the opportunity for the public to visit a board meeting and allows more flexibility in taking action or publicly addressing urgent matters on behalf of the public.

The use of technology, artificial intelligence and augmented reality is another ‘next phase’ in reimagining education. On the management side, teachers need to educate, not indoctrinate, tutoring should be a last resort and not a common need. Our guidance department must fully engage earlier in our children’s educational lives. We need to reassess our athletics fields and logistics to stay current on trends in sports such as lacrosse. Bus transportation needs a public bidding overhaul with maximized route efficiency to reduce travel time and we need a hard look at later High School start times. These are samples. There is so much more in a holistic review of educational operations.

What accomplishments would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

My life experience has touched on many industries that I pull from in this role. I served or serve as a chief executive officer or chief administrative officer of four New Jersey municipalities. I manage multi-million dollar budgets and oversee key departments including finance, engineering, police, public works, building and code enforcement and more. My skills range from personnel management to infrastructure projects to safety, financing, legal and purchasing. I’m in the business of delivering public services, shared services, labor, grants and financial know-how for municipalities which translates naturally to the educational environment. Importantly and timely, I directly negotiate contracts with major unions such as PBA, Teamsters, AFL-CIO and others that naturally extends into the NJEA negotiations with which I am currently the lead for HBOE. Professionally, I’ve taught continuing educational courses in my fields of endeavor and I am comfortable in the boardroom or the classroom.

Is there anything else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I grew up in Holmdel and care deeply about it. I want to share my gratitude and love for my biggest supporters – my wife Jeanne and children Gigi, Charlotte, Maria and Teddy. Without their support, this isn’t happening. I think that any member of the Board of Education is lucky to serve. They are one of nine people who have the honor to serve their community for a very short period of time. it’s a privilege to be able to serve as an elected official, whether you were on a Board of Education or Township Committee or other office. More importantly, I applaud their families who have to manage the positive and negative aspects of public service.

I believe that the next generation of leaders need to be discovered, encouraged, empowered and engaged to run for office. I’m interested in hearing from folks who would like to serve so we can get them involved in their community and help encourage them so they can engage in public service for the betterment of all.

The support of the voters next Tuesday is appreciated. We can do all things well and Holmdel voters have my continuing commitment in this regard.