Victoria Pakala
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2015 - Present
10
Victoria Pakala is an at-large representative on the Brick Township Board of Education in New Jersey. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] Victoria Pakala won the general election on November 3, 2015.
Elections
2015
Opposition
The Brick Township Board of Education consists of seven nonpartisan members who are elected at large to three-year terms. Four seats on the Brick Township Public Schools advisory board were up for general election on November 3, 2015. The at-large seats of incumbents Michael Conti, Frank Pannucci Jr. and Susan Suter were on the ballot for three-year terms. A fourth one-year term was on the ballot due to a resignation on the board.[1]
Newcomers Victoria Pakala, Stephanie Wohlrab and John Lamela won election to three-year terms, while George White defeated former board member John Talty for a one-year term.
None of the three incumbents filed to run for re-election, though Talty, the member who resigned from the board in April 2015, ran for his former seat. He left the board to recover from heart surgery and he faced challenger White in his bid to return. The race for the three three-year term seats attracted a total of 10 candidates: Walter Campbell, Madeline Colagiovanni-Iannarone, Leonard Figula, Victor Finamore, David Fischer, Lamela, Pakala, Lawrence Reid, Lois Turner and Wohlrab.[2][3] Campbell, Reid, Turner and Talty were running as part of a slate called Progress Not Politics.[4]
Results
| Brick Township Board of Education, At-large (3-year term), General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Victoria Pakala |
16.6% | 4,006 |
| Stephanie Wohlrab |
15.9% | 3,831 |
| John Lamela |
14.5% | 3,491 |
| Lois Turner | 10.1% | 2,427 |
| Madeline Colagiovanni-Iannarone | 9.7% | 2,338 |
| Walter Campbell | 9.1% | 2,194 |
| Lawrence Reid | 7.3% | 1,771 |
| David Fischer | 6.6% | 1,591 |
| Leonard Figula | 5.8% | 1,388 |
| Victor Finamore | 4.1% | 993 |
| Write-in votes | 0.33% | 79 |
| Total Votes | 24,109 | |
| Source: Ocean County, "2015 General Election November 3, 2015, Official Results," accessed November 20, 2015 | ||
Funding
Pakala reported no contributions or expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission as of October 27, 2015.[5]
Endorsements
Pakala did not receive any official endorsements in this election.
Campaign themes
2015
Pakala answered the following questions from Brick Shorebeat about issues in the district:
| “ |
Do you currently receive any public salary compensation? If so, from what public agency? I currently work as a substitute teacher and home instructor in the Freehold Regional High School District. Have you ever previously held an elected office in Brick or elsewhere? N/A As it presently stands, the administration of the Brick school district remains in flux. What should the academic priorities of our administrators be over the next three years? Setting academic priorities is critical to advancing the school district mission in the short and long term and is important to making budget allocation decisions. First, the district should focus on the importance of a good, research-based early literacy curriculum program. A new program should include teacher training, parent education workshops and consistent use of specific student intervention strategies for success. Another priority is to recognize that strong and effective teachers require expert support to constantly improve their content area knowledge and instructional skills. Teacher morale will improve when specific support such as a ‘new teachers academy’ as well as a teacher coaching program are put in place. Many resources for professional development are already in place in the district but a more concentrated district-wide effort specific to the teacher’s knowledge, instructional practice, meaningful assessments, data management and successful co-teaching relationships can be honed by a coaching program. Finally, there are many additional economic resources available in public education that are currently off the radar in Brick Schools. We need a new superintendent with a vision and knowledge of how to bring ‘free money’ to innovative programs for our students. For instance, the district should hire a Grant Writer and establish an Educational Foundation to bring large sums of private and government funds to Brick teachers and students. At its core, a public school district will always be judged based on the achievement of its students. Though Brick’s performance has improved in some areas in recent years based on state data, that same data has repeatedly shown that the Brick district lags in the category of college and career readiness. In a competitive state like New Jersey, what specific initiatives should be put into place to ensure that Brick students will be able to compete in both college and the marketplace with their peers who reside in the state’s highest-performing districts? What is the mission of the Brick Township school district and strategic plan for improving student knowledge and achievement? We need a well-articulated strategic plan in place to raise student achievement in Brick. This strategic plan must be created with input from administrators, teachers, students, parents and the community. I would like to lead a district effort to create a plan that takes into consideration current strengths and weaknesses, defines critical issues and prioritizes and implements annual goals and objectives for our students. The plan will foster monitoring and aid in assessing progress. The NJSBA offers free programs to school districts to complete such a plan. Also, I’m not a current member of the Brick BOE but I would like to see a re-commitment by the administration and school board to implement and follow NJ laws that govern all schools in New Jersey. Finally, working with staff and students I believe it is critical to review the testing process and work toward more meaningful assessments, teaching all students intervention strategies that focus on problem solving and higher order thinking skills. These efforts would put the district on course to improve academic achievement for all students and help them be more successful in post-secondary pursuits. Most Board of Education meetings are extremely lightly attended. On some occasions, concern has been expressed that not enough parents are engaged in the academic aspects of the school experience. What specific ways can the district better engage parents and members of the community with the aim of bringing them into discussions on academic achievement? Two specific suggestions I have to better engage parents in the academic aspects of student education are called ‘collaborative homework’ and the second is improved communication methods. Collaborative homework involves a conversation and practice activities between parent and child. This has been shown to make the biggest impact on parent involvement in the academic process for students in elementary school because it draws parents into daily learning activities. Improved communication methods between parents and the school can begin with a change to in the back-to-school-night program to incorporate parent training on the mechanics of using technology to access student assignments, monitor progress and grades that are currently available on the school district web-site. If parents know how to access student assignments, progress and grades they will be more engaged in student academic programs in all grade levels. Let’s just show them how! Other improved methods of communication can include a new parent welcome packet and such regular and consistent feedback as provided in a ‘Friday Folder’ in the elementary schools. In recent years, some long-sought facilities improvements have been completed in various school buildings. With the condition and age of the district’s facilities continuing to be a chief concern among Brick residents, which improvements and/or upgrades would you prioritize, and which funding mechanism would you favor to finance those projects? It is my understanding that there is no one currently in the Brick School District whose job it is to coordinate and prioritize facility repairs and improvements. An analysis of the current condition of facilities, as well an energy audit, are crucial to creating a long term plan for remediation and improvement of facilities. This analysis could be performed by an outside agency or by training current employees to complete the task. Upon completion the report would inform the board as to creating financial priorities and allocation of funds. Any facilities that are necessary to repair or build in order to advance district curriculum priorities may require a public referendum. The future success of our students is at stake. |
” |
| —Victoria Pakala (2015), [7] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Victoria Pakala' 'Brick Township Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Brick Township Public Schools, New Jersey
- Brick Township Public Schools elections (2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 App.com, "Embattled Brick BOE faces flurry of candidates," July 29, 2015
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedapp - ↑ Ocean County Clerk's Office, "2015 School Board Candidate List November 3rd General Election," accessed August 4, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Progress Not Politics," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "View a Candidate or Election Related Committee Report," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Brick Shorebeat, "Brick BOE Candidate Profile: Victoria Pakala," October 28, 2015
| 2015 Brick Township Public Schools Elections | |
| Ocean County, New Jersey | |
| Election date: | November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large three-year terms: • Walter Campbell • Madeline Colagiovanni-Iannarone • Leonard Figula • Victor Finamore • David Fischer • John Lamela • Victoria Pakala • Lawrence Reid • Lois Turner • Stephanie Wohlrab At-large one-year term: • John Talty • George White |
| Important information: | Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
