South Brunswick Board Of Education General Election 2025: Magesh Kamalakannan

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Candidate Magesh Kamalakannan is seeking a two-year unexpired term on the South Brunswick Board of Education.

Kamalakannan says he moved to the township for the school system and now wants to contribute to make it better.

Patch sent out a questionnaire to all candidates seeking a seat on the BOE. The profiles will be published as received.

Magesh Kamalakannan

Age: 57

Town of residence: South Brunswick

Family: Neeraja (wife), Navina (doing her final year Med School/MD program in Rutgers), Adityaa (Finished BS/MS in CS at Georgia Tech and working in NY). Both my kids did almost their entire schooling in SB. My special thanks to the all the educators and teachers of SB who helped in molding my kids to what they are now.

Education: Bachelor of Engineering & MBA in Finance

Occupation: IT Architect (Designs and implements worldwide SAP systems for big corporations)

Previous or current elected or appointed office: Member of the SB Park & Recreation Advisory Board appointed by the Mayor & Township Council

Why are you seeking a seat on the BOE?

I came to South Brunswick because it was a very good school district and offered a lot of opportunities to develop in Academics, Sports/clubs and other extracurricular activities.

But I see in the last few years they have been greatly curtailed & compromised. I remember those days when my son and many other SB kids were practicing for their USTA or GMC tournaments before 2017, under the floodlights on even a November night at 7 p.m. Unfortunately, this is not a possibility in SB anymore for those tennis-loving kids. It is very sad. The school district is spending millions on a wellness center, but is not willing to spend less than 10k to keep the courts open for the kids to practice after school.

In 2017, the lights were switched off, and now, after COVID, the courts are permanently locked after school hours. How in the world can our country produce great tennis champions at the national level if all schools did like our SB administration? Unfortunately, SB is the only school district that locks its tennis courts and tracks after school hours. In fact, I once saw a mom giving running practice for her small kids on the pavements of SB, which is not safe for those kids.

Many school districts, like Monroe HS tennis courts that are open till late at the night, around 10 p.m. , with the lights on. Our kids have to go and use the Monroe HS courts in the evening. It is a very sad state of affairs in SB.

The above was just one example. Then we have the $15.5 million (over 5 years - 2.5 million capex & 2.6 million opex every year), which was signed by the BOE without involving the SB community a few years back. Ideally, a town hall should have been held on this project, and financial experts from the community should have been welcomed to review and analyze the project. They should have left it to the financial experts in the community through a committee & town hall meeting to update and get feedback from residents. Currently, the lack of advanced planning for the influx of 1500+ new students to our school district and last-minute scrambling in redistricting shows the lack of proper planning in the school district.

The school's and BOE members’ priority should be the students, and their interests should never be sacrificed. But unfortunately, that is what has been sacrificed in the last few years.

That is the reason I decided to run for the BOE to speak for the students, as the majority of Board members are ignoring them totally, including the incumbents who are running for reelection.

So, parents and residents think of your children/SB children before you vote. Thanks to the excellent teachers and great BOE members before, like Harry J. Delgado, Arthur L. Robinson, and Dr. Stephen Parker, and many more well-meaning Board Members from their time, my children got a great education, and I want every child of SB to get the same in the future. And the election is not only important to the residents with kids in school but also for every resident as all our taxes are raised by 8.9 percent last year and 7 percent this year due to inefficient budget management of its 170+ million school budget!!

What , according to you, is the biggest issue facing the school district?

The biggest issue facing the school district is managing its 170+ million budget more efficiently. And we know the budget cuts are coming from the state because of falling enrollment numbers for the last many years (one of the key metrics for budgets for school districts). What should the BOE and administration have done to correct this situation? They should have worked with the lawmakers of the state to correct the S2 formula as during my discussion with state Senator Zwicker, he agreed the S2 formula needs to be fixed. But what the BOE did - supported a petition to remove the 2 percent cap that was there on property taxes and voted to increase our property taxes for school by 8.9 percent last year and again 7 percent this year (although they mentioned last year that it would be only one time). Instead of correcting the source of the issue, they took the easy way out by raising taxes on residents for no fault of the residents of SB. This will change now with enrollment increasing in the coming years. The BOE members should work with lawmakers on the transparency of the S2 formula and correct it. They should analyze and see how the increasing enrollment numbers will impact our budget and plan ahead effectively, rather than doing firefighting every year when it is announced, and increasing taxes on the residents.

Again, the $15.5 million wellness center project is not needed at this budget cut time, when no school district has completed 3-5 years with that project to do a meaningful ROI analysis on that. No one knows how the project is performing on its ROI, as no data has been shared so far on that publicly. So, we need qualified BOE members who, with their education and decades of financial/ system expertise in the corporate world, can make very good decisions regarding our budget, taxes, and infrastructure needs of our schools/students. Learning to manage its budget efficiently and avoiding unnecessary huge projects is the key that the BOE must focus right now.

As new housing comes in and enrollment grows, the school district is grappling with redistricting. Do you have any suggestions on how the district could handle this?

The district's current enrollment of around 7,600 students could exceed its historical peak of 9,036 students, recorded during the 2011-12 school year. The construction of new developments and influx of new students were known almost 2 years as these projects were approved by township much earlier. Better coordination is required from the BOE with the township officials to understand them and plan ahead rather than scrambling at the last minute and putting parents and kids under lot of tension/worry. In fact in one of the articles released by school it was mentioned that they cannot guess/estimate the number of kids from these developments. Now we live in the world of data - with effective AI tools and with Board members knowledgeable in these areas they can guide the administration to take the right decision instead of rushing things in the last minute. If redistricting is inevitable it can be done but needs to planned ahead and not in last minute putting the parents and small children into too much of tension/hardships!! And having parent town hall meetings and explaining them ahead also helps in reducing their anxiety.

Are you happy with the way the district has handled state aid cuts and budget issues? What would be your approach?

Absolutely not. They could have handled it much better. The following are the areas they should have focused on: - Correcting the source of the issue (S2 formula) rather than correcting the symptoms (shortage of funds) by raising taxes on innocent residents for no fault of theirs. - Work with lawmakers to correct the issue - correct S2 formula. No major work has been done in this for the last many years. Instead, they worked with the lawmakers to remove the 2 percent cap on property taxes and increase the taxes by 8.9 percent last year and 7 percent this year for the residents. My approach would be to closely work with our lawmakers - Assemblymen/women and Senators and correct the S2 funding formula at the earliest. In fact, during a discussion with Zwicker in 2023 during his election campaign, he agreed the funding formula needs to be corrected, but unfortunately, no significant effort has been made by the BOE. This will be my first priority.

What other issues do you feel need to be tackled in the school district?

There are quite a few issues that need to be tackled in our school district. I will list them all and a couple of them have been discussed in detail above.

• Highest priority is our funding issue. Solution - Work closely with lawmakers to correct the S2 funding formula.

• Next is effective planning to tackle the increasing enrollment in the coming years, from approximately 7500 students to 9,000+ students in our school district.

• Drug & vaping issue in our schools. I hear many versions of the restrooms in schools used for this purpose. Need an effective strategy to control it. Whatever strategy is being followed has failed & is not working, as the drug & vaping issue has been very much there for the last many years and is increasing.

• Mental health issues & bullying is schools. Last year, there was a major fight that broke out in our school hallways, and I happened to see the video on social media. And it was very horrible to see some students being beaten by a group of others. These kinds of issues should not be tolerated , and severe action needs to be taken.

• More focus and support for special needs children. I know quite a few parents who left our school district or are thinking of leaving as they feel that our school district is not doing enough in this area.

• Effective budget management and avoiding high taxes on the residents. I support effective utilization of our 175+ million $ budget and lower / reasonable taxes on our residents who support our schools.

• Detailed financial analysis of big item projects like wellness centers that cost millions per year in running/operating them and wasting taxpayers' money.

What sets you apart from the challenging candidates?

I have been living here for close to two decades and know a good deal of how our schools were five years back and how they are now. To me, it has come down a lot, and this impacts our school ranking and also our property values in the long run.

I have excellent expertise in the financial area and system/process implementation, both of which is needed for a BOE position that needs lot of financial knowledge at a time like this when there are significant budget cuts. The current incumbent has served our board for 23+ years, and I very much appreciate that service. But he is from the era of past era, and it is time he retires gracefully rather than running and being unable to contribute to taking our schools to the futuristic world. People should not get attached to the position/power they hold long after the time they can contribute effectively to that position. I have around three decades of experience working with Fortune 500 companies in the areas of finance and system/process implementation, all across the world with different cultures , and can bring valuable experience to the school Board.

I would like to focus on the following key areas:

• Excellence: Excellence of our school district, teachers & students and in the process improve our ranking and not remain status quo/ down for the last many years.
• Transparency: There is very little transparency with the current BOE. I will ensure there is total transparency from the school administration to the parents & residents.
• Empowerment: Empower our parents & residents so they also get involved in major issues like Funding issue, redistricting & projects like wellness center and their inputs received and analyzed.

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your campaign?

• Parent advocate: Speaking at BOE and with School Superintendent for issues impacting School kids from 2017-time frame.
• Safety: Organized with a team of parents the "March for our Lives" event in South Brunswick in 2018 to create awareness for school safety. Attended by 450+ adults/kids. In 2023 organized the " March for Busses" to mobilize all the impacted parents and highlight to the school administration the safety issues for children.
• Perseverance: Working with the school administration on getting back the tennis courts & tracks for the benefit of the SB kids practice after school and during weekends. One day we will have them back like all other school districts in NJ.

SB Community:

• Big supporter of SB small businesses & organized regular monthly meetings. Working with township to create a formal organization in South Brunswick.

• Advocate for better maintenance of parks/ park facilities. Currently a member of SB Parks & Recreation Advisory Board appointed by the Mayor and the SB Township council.

• Trained caregiver of JRCC program to support people coping with physical or emotional distress or mental illness.

• Part of the leadership team of BNI (Business networking international) a worldwide organization in the SB Chapter.

• Running a FB group with 4.5k+ members for SB Residents to discuss issues affecting SB Community & schools. Please Join us @ Residents of South Brunswick, NJ

• Running a WhatsApp group for SB Residents with around 1500 members and providing them with an opportunity to come together as a community by having various sub groups - Pickleball / tennis / Cricket / Golf / Health - Walking & Hiking / Marketplace / Gardening / Cycling / Swimming / Kayaking / SB Food pantry support / Upcycle / Investment / Carpooling / Karaoke / Travel / Gym & some more.

SBSD has great challenges in front of it. But with a creative and fresh mind, these challenges can be converted into great opportunities.

Think deeply on the above and please vote for Magesh Kamalakannan (Line 1 - Two-year term) & make a difference to our schools and our SB Community.