Regionalization – An Educators Sage Advice

Whether you were a youngster in one of her classes at Our Lady of Perpetual Help school when she was a favorite teacher there, or an educator at the Elementary School when she was on the Board of Education, or for that matter, a parent or taxpayer when she was a member of the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education, the name Joan Wicklund is synonymous with common sense, intelligence, and thinking things through before making any decision. Advice

Combining her years as a teacher in Highlands, and a member of both boards, this lovely and ever pleasant lady has given more than three decades to education of youngsters who have since grown up and frequently stop to tell her just what she has meant in their lives.

Today, Joan still lives in Highlands, still keeps up on every bit of local news, and still has very strong opinions after insisting on getting all the facts from every source possible.

These days, she is certainly happy the two local school boards are now a thing of the past, and she has serious doubts about the transitional board for the new PreK-12 district.

Always putting education at the top of her list of what’s important in a school system, Joan is on a mission to be sure both Highlands and Atlantic Highlands voters become well informed, know statistics, and follow the news of what’s been done that isn’t made public until after the fact when it comes to Henry Hudson.

She’s a strong advocate that everyone has to vote for five Highlands members for the nine-member board that will be on the ballot in November and she wants to be sure they know which five will lead the new district to provide the best education while not burdening the taxpayer.

She is a strong proponent of Sea Bright coming into the district to share in the cost and an even stronger proponent of being sure the board is open, honest, transparent and listens to the people.

That goes back to Joan’s early days on one of the boards. The late Kathleen Mendes, the lady largely responsible for the district getting that plush piece of land for a school, and also a former board member, thanks in part to her very generous father, Haak Kavookjian, gave Joan advice one day.

That advice was to always conduct all board business at open meetings, and to listen carefully to the people before taking final action on anything. Kathleen also had words for the public at board meetings, which at that time often ran late in the night. Kathleen would tell residents they had three things to do, assuring them they would be heard and any advice given. As Joan recalls, Kathleen would tell the public at meetings to “be Prepared, Be Brief, and Be seated.”

She laughs now, remembering her own explanation of why public sessions were always so long when she was on the board. “I always wanted to hear from the public,” she said this week, “because I found that my hearing was always so much better when it was a member of the public who was doing the talking.”

Good advice for the incoming board as well.

read All The Stories On Regionalization HERE

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