My decision to run for the Board Of Ed wasn’t easy considering our children have graduated. But events over the last few years regarding this current BOE—both in terms of philosophy and budgetary management—made me wonder if there are systemic problems within.

Then came the BOE’s anodyne response to October 7 when considering our Jewish students and how they may feel threatened by rising anti-Semitism— much of it coming from academia. And so, even though my children have moved on after a combined 24 years in the Westfield public schools I would like to make a difference.

I freely admit I have never been involved in education. (Maybe that’s a good thing). Still, I have been a successful small business owner for many years, having started a boutique commodities brokerage firm that grew to over 20 employees in three offices; I am now semiretired, and managing my own money. So I understand that a concern cannot rely on a 2 percent revenue increase every year – courtesy of already overburdened taxpayers. I make no promises other than to try and offer my green eye-shade discipline to the BOE. As the book “Good To Great” offers, getting the right people in the organization first is crucial to success.

I’ve also lived in Westfield for 27 years; my office is right downtown. So I would be approachable to any parent who has something they wish to discuss, within acceptable BOE protocols.

Other candidates will present laundry lists of all they (and I) want to accomplish: full-day kindergarten, upgrading infrastructure, ramping up robotics and AI learning, mental health and IEP assistance, etc., so I am in line with some other candidates. But they will not tell you how to pay for it. Personally, I will not insult your intelligence by offering no caveats as related to budgetary constraints without seeing firsthand how the sausage is made. Thus will parental involvement/ feedback be essential to properly stacking our priorities.

My candidacy is not just about money, but changing the philosophy of education and offering broader perspectives to the board. A capacity for critical thinking is crucial for achievement in this competitive world. We must stoke this discipline before kids get to the finishing school of a radicalized college quad. If we are to teach kids to think for themselves, then curricula should be more balanced. If, for example, students are presented with Marx’s Das Kapital , then they should also read Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. I know a single board member cannot unilaterally choose class material, but he/she can point out imbalances in curricula and bring them to parents’ attention…and at least offer some pushback against the monolithism of this BOE.

In short. if you’ve had enough of the rancorous partisan politics, new age social experimentation, broad interpretations of DEI mandates, which I believe foster more, not less, division among the student body (noble intentions aside), and just want common sense and fiscal discipline to return to education, then I am your candidate.

Brad Schaeffer

Candidate

Westfield Board of Education