Election 2023: Ira Thor, Candidate For Howell Board of Education

HOWELL, NJ — Ira Thor is one of six candidates, including two write-in candidates, seeking three full-term seats on the Howell Board of Education in the Nov. 7 election.

Thor, of Madeline Court, is an incumbent, first elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2020. He has served six years on the school board and is seeking his third term.

You can also learn about him at this link: www.facebook.com/IraThorHowellTownshipBOE.

Other candidates in the race include current Board of Education President Albert Miller and board member Denise M. Lowe.

Also running are Martianne Degliuomini, seeking her first term on the board; and write-in candidates Eleonora Calo and Denise Hirschhorn.

In these profiles, candidates provide voters with background about themselves and their positions on the issues, as they see them.

While Thor sees several issues of importance facing the Board of Education, the establishment of the universal preschool expansion plan is top among them, he said.

"I am committed to seeing the expansion done well and redistricting conducted with the least impact on existing students and families," he said.

Read more from Ira Thor:

Background:

Candidates were asked to provide their professional or volunteer information, school board experience and personal background.

First and foremost, I'm a husband and father of three. That is my greatest accomplishment in life.

I'm 46 years old. My wife Kathryn, who is my college sweetheart, and I have been married for 23 years. We moved to Howell in 2010. We have a son and two daughters.

All three of our children are proud products of the Howell Township Public Schools. Our oldest son, Gavin, is a junior at Seton Hall University, studying Interprofessional Health Sciences and will go to P.T. school upon graduation. Our oldest daughter, Kendra, who many might know from her volleyball success, is a junior at Colts Neck High School where she is soon-to-be a National Honor Society inductee. She plans to study Pre-Med in college. Our youngest daughter, Julia, is a fourth-grader at Ardena School and a member of the two-time national champion Howell Rebels Super Surge cheerleading program. Go Super Surge!

Professionally, I am a 24-year veteran of higher education with a demonstrated history as an athletics, communications, and marketing administrator and professional, and an award-winning national collegiate athletics communications leader.

I have had progressively increased and expanded roles and scopes of responsibility throughout my career, leading a number of organizations and recognized for my work in crisis management. I also am well known as a professional sports broadcaster and public address announcer, both regionally and nationally.

Giving back to my community has always been a passion.

I am completing my second term and sixth year as a member of the Howell Township Board of Education. I was first elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2020. During my six years, I have chaired the Finance Committee, Policy Committee and Community Interaction Committee. I currently chair the Finance committee and sit on the Community Interaction Committee. I have also served on the Labor Committee and Legislative Advocacy Committee.

Prior to being elected, I was also a citizen member of the Community Interaction and Technology Committees. My care for the community does not stop at education. I am one of five founding members of Howell NJ First (https://howellnjfirst.com/about-us).

In 2021, our grassroots organization was formed to fight for quality of life issues in Howell Township, including organized efforts to stop warehouse overdevelopment in Howell, and protect our children and families from truck traffic threatening the lives of our residents. I spoke to our town council about this as recently as this spring (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDKBTozOMa0) and our group is working to find common sense solutions to working with the town to fight warehouse sprawl.

In 2018, I nearly lost my life at the intersection of Squankum-Yellowbrook and West Farms roads with my then 4-year-old daughter in the car, when a vehicle disobeyed a stop sign at a flashing yellow light. If I had arrived at the intersection one second earlier, I would be dead today.

When I learned that seven people had died at this intersection since its opening decades ago, and armed with the dashcam footage from my devastating accident, I worked with the county to install a permanent light at this intersection. I know it has saved lives. (See https://centraljersey.com/2021/10/08/intersection-of-squankum-yellowbrook-and-west-farms-finally-gets-a-light/).

My other volunteer interests include coaching. I have previously served as a head coach and assistant coach for the Howell United Soccer Club, Howell Basketball Club, Colts Neck Thunder Herd Girls Soccer program, Pinelanders Soccer Club, and as a volleyball coach. I am a member of the Howell Township Lake Restoration & Wildlife Management Committee and the Fair Lawn High School Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.

Professionally, I am also a past president of the NCAA Division III College Sports Information Directors of America (D3SIDA), a 10-year member of the D3SIDA Board of Directors (2009-2019), a member of the College Sports Communicators Board of Directors (2014-17), and former national chair of the College Division Management Advisory Council (2017-2020).

I first ran for the board in 2015 as write-in candidate alongside my dear friend Cristy Mangano, because we did not feel the vast majority of parents in town were being heard during the reconfiguration from K-5 to K-2/3-5.

I have always been a parental rights advocate, understanding that no one will care more about children than their own parents. My history in this area is not new; in fact, it's something I have always been passionate about.

Top issues:

Candidates were asked about the important issues in their district, and how the school board can address them.

The biggest issues facing our schools are:

• The remaining cuts expected by S2 legislation in the next few years and the impact on taxpayers.
• Continued education loss as a result of the pandemic including concerning test scores.
• Labor shortages for bus drivers, substitutes and aides.
• The rebalancing of our schools after the pre-school expansion approval.
• The nationwide erosion of parental rights in the education of our children.

As the chair of our Finance Committee, we are going to lose some of the funding returned to us in FY2024 for FY2025, in addition to the remaining cuts the state has announced it will make to our district. So far, we have successfully found ways to limit the impact on our schools while also keeping tax increases at the bare minimum.

But I mostly want to spend time discussing the universal preschool expansion plan.

How important is this preschool expansion? This expansion will be one of the greatest benefits ever for the children in Howell and their parents, and will have one of the most positive impacts on the economy and the attractiveness of living in Howell in generations. Period. This is that ambitious and that important of an undertaking.

I am committed to seeing the expansion done well and redistricting conducted with the least impact on existing students and families. We cannot overstate how huge of an accomplishment adding universal pre-K to our school district is. I predict it will be remembered as one of the greatest benefits added to our school system in the history of Howell Township.

The notable educational benefits of having our 3-and-4-year-old children learning from dedicated teaching professionals — regardless of a family’s ability to afford what is often out of reach for many families because of the exorbitant costs of preschool and child care — will be lifechanging.

Think about how far we have come since I moved to Howell in 2010. We didn’t even have full-day kindergarten! Let me use my personal example. My wife and I both work full time and as such, part-time pre-school and part-time kindergarten were not options for us. So, we had to find a way to pay for full-time care and school.

We have two older children and our youngest, Julia, is the only one of our children to attend full-day kindergarten in Howell Township - and that was halted by the pandemic in 2020. We started preschool at age two with our children (and daycare before that). For my wife and I to put our three children through a combined 10 years of preschool and kindergarten cost us well in excess of $100,000, and closer to $125,000. Think about that for a second.

Think about not only the educational benefits for our children, but also the economic benefits to our families. Families that may have had to choose to have one parent stay home with their children, now have the option to add a second adult to the workforce and a second income to the household. This decision will forever improve the economic opportunities for families as well as the benefits to our children.

While we are implementing the preschool program, I also want to hear from preschool teachers in the trenches about the challenges they're encountering. Because while I can make a difference as a school board member, the information we get from those actually doing the work is critical.

Ultimately, if we do this properly, Howell will be the case study for other districts like ours statewide for how to properly implement this curriculum.

Policy 5756:

Candidates were asked if they wanted to comment on state Policy 5756, which provides guidance regarding transgender students, including communication with parents. Some districts (such as Howell) are repealing or amending the policy.

As I stated earlier, I have consistently been an advocate for parental rights and parental involvement in their children’s lives. I voted along with five other Board members to repeal Policy 5756, as the state concluded it was a non-mandatory policy.

My issue with the policy has always been the potential to keep important information about a child from their parents. While there are no cases of this happening in Howell Township, thanks to the tremendous partnership between our superintendent, schools and parents, without the ability to amend 5756, there was the possibility this could happen in the future.

Ultimately, the state is trying to make an example out of other districts that attempted to edit the parental notification portion of the policy, so that was not an option for our district because we do not have the appetite to waste taxpayer funds on a frivolous lawsuit against our actions on this policy at a time where we desperately need to protect our existing funds that we’ve lost from S2.

While we may have abolished the policy, our previous existing policies, such as 5755, coupled with anti-discriminatory laws in place in the state, will protect all of our children. As a board member, I am committed to protect all of our children and am proud to work with a superintendent who makes that a vital part of his mission every day.

Candidates for Howell Board of Education: (Full term, vote for three):

• Ira Thor: Experienced. Parent. Advocate.
• Martianne Degliuomini: Putting Children First
• Denise M. Lowe
• Albert "Al" Miller
• Eleonora Calo: Write-in candidate
• Denise Hirschhorn: Write-in candidate

There are no open spots for the Freehold Regional Board of Education from Howell this election year.