A greater ability to advocate for the needs of students and educators, help them achieve their highest potential, as well as improve transparency between the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education and the communities it serves are the primary reasons why Bonnie Knechtel is seeking election to the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education in the November election.
Knechtel is seeking the single two-year term for an Atlantic Highlands resident on the new nine-member board to be determined in the November election. She faces competition for the position from two other candidates, Noreen Higgins and Justin Thomas.
Although filing as an individual Knechtel has already said discussions with another parent of children in the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School Chelsea Witkowski, has shown the two share similar values. And priorities.
Witkowski is vying for the single one-year term on the board and is being challenged by two other candidates, Richard Colangelo and Allison Jacobs.
Since they share values, ideals and the need for transparency and more community involvement in the board, Knechtel and Witkowski are supporting each other in the election and in many ways are campaigning together.
Knechtel, who lives on Ocean Blvd with her husband, Karl and three children ranging in age from 6 to 9, is seeking election for the first time, though has served in various positions on the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School PTO for five years and is currently in her second term as president.
The candidate grew up in Canada and received her first degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph there.
In the United States, she studied for her master’s degree in nutrition as well as her Doctor of Chiropractic at the University of Bridgeport. She had her private practice in chiropractic in Manhattan for several years before beginning to raise a family.
The couple has lived in Atlantic Highlands for 12 years, seeking a town with a sense of community and a great school system to raise their children and term the borough a “wonderful town with a strong sense of community.”
While she believes the Henry Hudson district offers many benefits for education, including a small class size and student/teacher ratio that promotes an individualized learning experience, Knechtel also sees it faces other challenges she can help overcome.
“As a small school district we don’t always have the same resources that bigger districts may have. School sports, extracurriculars, and advanced placement classes are available to students, but access to some may take some concentrated navigation,” she pointed out.
Including Sea Bright in the district could assist this disadvantage she believes, saying “My educational background has made me very research focused. Based on the feasibility studies done and all the areas they focused on I think Sea Bright should be included in the district.”
Knechtel also has plans to repair other problems within the educational system, once again relying on her personal experience as a parent and her knowledge of the programs available.
She is aiming to advocate for the best curriculum and specific programs available for every student. “Some children are struggling to be challenged appropriately “she pointed out, “while others are struggling to meet standards. I want to help change this”. Her ideas include promoting changes to support every student achieving at their highest by timely development of these programs.
As an example of areas in need, Knechtel cited the Quest/EXELerate program introduced as a gifted and talented program at elementary school..” While it offers some benefits to gifted learners, it has yet to deliver a curriculum that has tangible structure and evidence of advanced curriculum that these learners need,” she explained. “We can’t expect high achievement in our upper schools without facilitating excellence in our lower schools,” she added.
Transparency between the board and the community is another aim where Knechtel has ideas for improvement. The community should be aware of the things the board is working on, she explained noting that increased understanding of board decisions and rationale will help engage the community and facilitate changes the community needs.
Her ideas include advanced access to agendas, pre-polling the community for questions, providing a comprehensive review of meetings in understandable language and varied formats, and offering live streamed meetings for those who cannot physically attend due to work or other constraints. All of this, the candidate said, will help eliminate redundancy in meetings and lack of communication from the board.
Knechtel said some challenges she has faced from the boards have led her to seek election and make improvements. Some answers she has received when asking the board have been contradicted by live experience, she said, primarily when discussing academic matters at elementary school. She has also noticed responses at board meetings…and she has attended meetings for the past six years, have made it difficult to get a direct answer to questions asked., often a reply being “things take time”, or “talk to the principal”.
The candidate continued that she has experienced changes in leadership, challenges with access to services, and varied curriculums which have both have negatively and positively impacted students. However, she added, “our ratings are slipping, our children aren’t always being challenged or supported appropriately. Our schools have the ability to improve,”
As part of their support for each other, Witkowski, seeking the one-year term, and Knechtel, seeking the two-year term, will have a table at Saturday’s Flea Market sponsored by the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society.
The two candidates will be at the table throughout the Market hours to answer questions, introduce themselves and distribute literature. They also plan to have a Meet and Greet at the Highlander bike shop in October and invite people to contact them directly on their Facebook page HERE
