Colts Neck Team Announces BOE Run To Counter 'Polarization'

COLTS NECK, NJ — Board President Heather Tormey will seek re-election and three new candidates will join her in a run for the four Board of Education seats open in November, the team announced Monday.

That brings to eight the number of candidates seeking election to the board.

There are three full terms open and one two-year unexpired term. Monday was the filing deadline for school board candidates in the state.

The “Collaboration. Communication. Consideration. The Leaders Our Students Deserve” team includes Tormey who will be running alongside Vanessa Dawson and Allison File for the two other full, three-year terms. Audra Carletta filed for the two-year unexpired term, according to the team.

The Leaders Our Students Deserve team says it is "concerned with special interest groups fueling local polarization and eroding the nonpartisan climate of our school board. . . . Three new candidates are joining incumbent Heather Tormey with the hopes of reaffirming the board’s commitment to excellence within our school community," the team said in its announcement.

The candidates would like to "redirect attention to efforts that preserve and enhance our high-quality school system rather than political battles that have recently been waged at our school board meetings," the team said in a statement.

The reference is to the Colts Kids First team, which won three seats (seating two) on the board last November, defeating incumbents.

The Colts Kids First board members brought a policy change to the board regarding parental notification of students who identify as transgender at school. The board in a majority vote tabled the measure June 28, following discrimination lawsuits filed by the state Attorney General against other boards that adopted similar policies.

The Leaders Our Students Deserve team says that it "pledges to abide by the New Jersey School Boards Association’s Code of Ethics."

The ethics code includes a provision that states: “While working with the school board, its members have an ethical obligation to abandon their ‘independent judgment’ to special interest or partisan political groups,” the team cited.

The Leaders Our Students Deserve team candidates "are committed to working alongside their fellow board members keeping the focus on students, innovation, fiscal responsibility, and attaining goals designed to maximize the potential of all students and enhance school operations," the team said.

"This district has a long history of fostering collaborative relationships with parents/caregivers to ensure their child’s (or children’s) needs- academic, social, and/or emotional- are met in a safe and nurturing school environment," the team said. And it criticized what it said was an unsubstantiated and false "narrative as of late that our schools are keeping information from our parents."

Colts Kids First has also filed petitions to run in the election, that team said in its announcement last week. But the team had a change in the candidate lineup, according to John Camera, a current member of the board elected in November on the Colts Kids First slate.

He said candidate Jessica Killick has withdrawn her petition, deciding it was not the right time to run, Camera said. He said Kevin Walsh, a retired Colts Neck police officer, has filed a petition to run in her place.

The other Colts Kids First candidates are Jason Orrico and Vincent Rugnetta for full, three-year terms, and Angelique Volpe for a two-year unexpired term, according to the team. Camera confirmed that Volpe and Walsh are husband and wife.

The current seats expiring this year are currently held by Heather Tormey, now board president; Kevin O'Connor, currently vice-president; Tracey Kramer; and Andrew Rytter, who is serving the unexpired term.