Candidates Spar In Middletown School Board Forum Monday Night

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — There were a few clashes Monday night, when the seven people running for Middletown school board this November had their first and only forum, held virtually over Zoom.

The forum was organized by the Monmouth County League of Women Voters. Moderator Ann Torre (who lives in Red Bank, not Middletown; the League specifically uses hosts hosts who do not live in the towns for which they are moderating) asked the seven candidates a range of questions submitted by Middletown residents beforehand.

The following is a summary from Patch of what was said Monday night, and some of the clashes that broke out:

In summary, the candidates trying to unseat Jacqueline Tobacco and Frank Capone depicted Capone/Tobacco as letting their political views sway their decisions on the school board.

The most vocal critics were Mark Soporowski, Justin Meehan and Ashley Studd. All three implied that Capone and Tobacco allowed outside politics and political agendas to come into Middletown schools.

"We've lost our way a little bit as far as bringing everyone together," said Meehan. "Moving forward, we want to do (things) with the whole community of Middletown in mind."

Soporowski emphasized he has no "party affiliations influencing my decisions."

"I remember when our Board was non controversial and political affiliations did not divide our community," said Studd.

Capone and Tobacco defended themselves against the criticism; read below.

Question #1 from the Middletown public: What would you do to minimize political influence and bring unity to the board of ed.?

"We all hold personal views on a lot of these hot-button issues," said Kelly Del Sordi. "But the roles of a board are to be a voice for all community stakeholders."

"Keep discussions and decisions to educational things only," said Soporowski. "Board members should put aside personal and political agendas."

"The Board of Education was created as a non-partisan community service role," said Studd. "And I think we need to get back to that ... I really think it's important we stay out of politics."

That prompted Tobacco to respond:

"Those are interesting comments. As someone who has been on this board for three years, the reason why we ran is because our Trenton administrators have brought in politics into our kids' classrooms. And all we seem to have done is continually fight and combat that," she said. "The agenda that everyone seems to be speaking out comes right down from Trenton, and not from our board of Ed. .... We've done our very best to focus on education, which has been difficult when there has been ... constant political agendas from Trenton. So, interesting comments from everyone else, but not really accurate."

Capone then said:

"Knowing exactly how the state, under the guidance of Phil Murphy operates, he brings the politics into our schools. We don't ask him to," he said. "What we do every day is fight tooth and nail against the unfunded mandates and the education that they tried pushing on our children, which is not the proper education. The question is a little sleighted, to be honest with you, because we don't bring politics into the board. The governor and the legislators bring it to us. And we'll never stop fighting for the parents, the children and the taxpayers of Middletown."

Then Meehan said:

"In response to Mr. Capone and Ms. Tobacco's comments, it is a well-known situation that the Republican Party is pushing this agenda, whether it be 5756 or parental rights — which is very misleading as well," he said. "We as a party believe that parents should be involved in education. However, there are situations where we have to be prudent and act in the best interest of our children. It does seem we've gotten a little bit away from ... acting for our young students."

Tobacco responded, looking angry: "Mr. Meehan's statement that 5756 (Middletown's transgender student policy that got the district sued by the state of New Jersey in June) came down from some Republican order. I take extreme offense to that ... It came about because of situations that were going on in our schools, including our teachers and administrators being put in a position to falsify records home to parents. Nothing comes from the Republican party."

The election is Nov. 7 and Middletown residents will be asked to choose three from the seven candidates running.

You can watch Monday night's forum here; it went for just over an hour and many more questions were asked and more topics covered. Every day this week, Patch will run articles summarizing what was said.

• Frank Capone: Putting Children First slate
• Jacqueline Tobacco: Putting Children First slate
• Caterina Skalaski: Putting Children First slate
• Ashley Studd: Be The Change slate
• Justin Meehan: Be The Change slate
• Kelly Del Sordi: Be The Change slate
• Mark Soporowski: Independent, running on his own