Election 2023: Sue Bliesath For West Morris Regional School Board

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Election Day is nearing, and Long Valley voters will soon head to the polls to cast their votes for a seat on the regional high school board.

Patch sent questionnaires to all candidates, seeking their responses. Here is the response from candidate Sue Bliesath.

Editor's Note: Patch emailed all candidates at the email addresses listed for their campaigns in the clerk's office. The responses will be revealed between now and the general election on November 7. These comments will be published with just minor stylistic changes. Candidates who wish to participate but did not receive an invitation should email vianella.burns@patch.com.

Name: Sue Bliesath

Age: 52

Town of residence: Long Valley since 2002

Position sought: Board of Education West Morris Regional High School District to represent Washington Township

Family: My husband and I have been married for 29 years. We have three children, all three of whom are West Morris Central High School alumnae. All three were educated in town from kindergarten through 12th grade. Courtney, our oldest, is 25 years old, received a Masters in Education from Rutgers University and is engaged to be married in June 2024. Ryan, our middle child, is 23 years old, a junior at Rutgers University and is active in the Rutgers Marching Band. Adam, our youngest, is 19 years old, a sophomore at Rutgers University, and runs in the Club Running Program for Rutgers.

Education: I graduated from Lenape Valley Regional High School, received my Bachelor of Arts from William Paterson College and my Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Occupation: I am a veterinarian at Black River Veterinary Hospital.

Previous or current elected appointed office: I was elected to the West Morris Regional Board of Education in November 2020 and I am running for re-election for this position.

Why are you seeking to run for school board?

I am running for re-election to the West Morris Regional High School District Board of Education to continue to give back to the community. When my children were younger, I was a room mom, and my husband and I were soccer and softball coaches.

I am very grateful for the experiences my three children had at West Morris Central but I also saw areas where we could make the experience for current and future students even better. I was raised to give back to my community and felt that being a board member was an area where I could make an impact.

The district has set multiple goals for the upcoming year, and I want to be a part of making those goals come to fruition.

Our Board of Education has nine members, four of whom represent Washington Township. It is important to have strong representation for the interests of Washington Township on the Board and if re-elected, I pledge to continue to advocate for the students, families and taxpayers of Washington Township.

I will also continue to work together with my fellow board members from Chester and Mendham for the benefit of the entire district. I love our community and am passionate about our schools!

What, in your opinion, is the most pressing issue in the school district?

The biggest challenge I see for the district is to be able to maintain our excellent academic programs and extracurricular activities in the face of steeply rising costs. I know that many board members share the same concern.

While the 2% Tax Levy Cap for school districts in New Jersey helps keep our local taxes under control, the cost to educate our students continues to rise much faster. Transportation, health insurance, prescription drug benefits, special education placements, and almost all other costs continue to increase well above 2%, making it much more challenging to create an annual budget.

Over the past several years, the board has worked very diligently to identify areas for savings, such as the purchase of district buses to take back costly special education and extracurricular bus routes and the refinancing of district debt. These cost-saving measures, along with smart, conservative budgets, have allowed the board to continue all our excellent educational and extracurricular programs!

As stated above, I feel rising costs are the most immediate concern facing the board of education. But, it is equally important that the voice of the community be heard. Just this past year, there was community concern regarding a book taught in some of the 12th-grade International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.

As a member of the education committee, I was involved in the creation of our current policy for approval of curricular materials and also the procedure to voice community concerns regarding those materials. As a board member, I not only read the book in question but also read the emails and petitions from all the parents and community members. I listened to all who spoke at our board of education meetings. It became apparent that our community was very evenly divided on this issue. Many wanted the book to be removed from the curriculum but remain in the library for those who choose to read it, while others wanted their children to have the choice to read this book in their classes.

To me, this issue did not have a “black or white” answer. Through working with other members of the board, a compromise solution of allowing this book to remain in the curriculum but with the stipulation that it would be taught as a choice of two or more books, was a compromise that tried to best take the community’s views as a whole into account.

As future issues and concerns come before the board, I feel very strongly that the voice of the community should be heard, and only through that input can an educated decision be made that best represents the community as a whole.

What sets you apart from the other candidates?

The main difference between myself and my opponent, Melanie Bratton, is that I have experience raising three high school graduates and a great familiarity with the high school and the current programs. I understand the importance of collaboration between the K-8 district and our regional high school. I have been a strong advocate for addressing 9th-grade readiness and parent communication, both of which are reflected in the West Morris Regional District Goals for this year.

I have been serving on the board of education for the past 3 years and am on the Education and Negotiations Committees. While I have had multiple accomplishments, I feel my most significant accomplishment thus far is the hiring of our new superintendent. This is often considered the most important job of a board of education.

When Mr. BenDavid resigned last spring, the strong reputation of our schools left us in a position to have several excellent candidates to interview. One of the attributes I was looking for in a new superintendent was to find an excellent educator who focused on communication and community outreach. I wanted someone who would partner with our sending districts, making sure our students were prepared to enter high school.

Once in high school, it is important to cultivate an environment of academic excellence to benefit all students. Equally important was to find someone who listens to the community, families, teachers and students to make sure that the direction of schools best reflects our community and continued academic excellence.

By listening to many different stakeholders, Dr. Sargent proposed a comprehensive set of district goals that embody excellence. I strongly believe that Dr. Sargent is the best choice to lead our schools!

What special qualifications do you bring to help meet the challenge?

As a veterinarian, I am challenged daily with coming up with creative, cost-conscious solutions to my patient’s problems. It is often by thinking outside the box that I can best treat a patient. Those skills can be used to tackle the fiscal challenges facing our school board. Being able to do more with less, is essential.

Through my experiences with my own children, I am very knowledgeable regarding special education responsibilities for the district. Once again, although many of those costs are beyond district control, there are often ways that we can still deliver superior programs in a more cost-effective manner. One example of this is the creation of the Aspire program, which not only keeps those students in the district but is also an excellent program for students to acquire skills to transition to the workforce.

Should the district face a public health challenge in the future, my training in disease transmission, disinfection protocols and public health can also be of benefit.

What else would you like to share about yourself or your campaign?

My campaign slogan is Putting Students First. The primary focus of the district should first and foremost be for the benefit of the students. School board elections are non-partisan, and board members represent all stakeholders in the community.

I strongly feel that politics has no place in our schools and all decisions I have made while on the board have been with the sole purpose of serving the interests of the students, families and Washington Township community.

It is my goal that all students have a unique and exceptional high school experience that prepares them for the future. All my decisions are made with that main goal in mind. I hope I can count on your vote, so I can continue to work for you, the Washington Township Community, to continue to make West Morris Central a pillar of the community and the pride of Long Valley, for years to come!