End of an Era At BOE

Last night's surprise resignation of Mary Shaughnessy as Board of Education President marked the 4 year mark in an era of remarkable bipartisanship on a board that has been a perennial target for parents, teachers and students.

Looking at her 2012 campaign website, her platform can now be viewed as a list of significant accomplishments that seemed like pipedreams when she first won the presidency 4 years ago:
+ Promote cooperation between the school board, the superintendent, educators, and the community.
+ Create a vibrant, high-quality school system that will benefit all Bloomfield taxpayers by improving our local property tax values.
+ Support curriculum and individualized instruction that demonstrably enhances student achievement.
+ Create more pathways to parent involvement. Increase BOE transparency with more accessible and informative meeting agendas and TV coverage.
+ Work diligently to balance the needs of students with those of taxpayers. Ensure discipline and true accomplishment are maintained and advanced.
+ Work vigorously for Bloomfield’s fair share of state aid. Fight to end unfunded mandates. financial and administrative stress.

Among her most important achievements was the creation of a remarkably bipartisan board by personally recruiting the best and brightest education focussed candidates from all corners. Less well known are her extensive volunteer efforts preceding her presidency. She started the series of televised candidates forums for local council candidates that will be continued this fall. She was a founding member of the Brookdale Park Conservancy and was instrumental in fighting unwise developments such DeSimone's condo application on Liongate that has become Bloomfield's newest nature preserve.