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RINGWOOD - Four seek three open board seats
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - April 09, 2008)
RINGWOOD - Four candidates – two incumbents, one newcomer, and one former school board member – are vying for three three-year terms on the Board of Education. Only one person, Melissa Griegel, is campaigning for the two-year term available.
Incumbents Janet Citranglo and Cynthia Tassitano square off with Ronald Schiavello and William Kingsley for the three, three-year seats. Kingsley was a Board of Education president before he stepped down last year. Tassitano filled in that vacated seat.
The Board of Education had to reorganize after Kingsley’s departure, resulting in Citranglo stepping up from trustee to vice president and Richard Schaefer moving from vice president to president.
The school referendum
More than anything, the repair of school facilities is a hot topic within the school community.
This year, the Board of Education has discussed with taxpayers their reasons for rejecting the $28.8 million referendum last September. That referendum would have retired the antiquated E.G. Hewitt School and upgraded the Robert Erskine and Peter Cooper schools, along with the Martin J. Ryerson Middle School.
Griegel, a referendum committee member, said she’d research more about the $28.8 million referendum, the reasons it failed, and come up with some alternative, more satisfying solutions. That way, she said, the facilities’ problems won’t escalate further.
“A well-respected school system is important for everyone in the community as it raises the values of our homes and entices young families to move to Ringwood,” she said.
"I'm for the $28.8 million (referendum),” Schiavello said. “From what I’ve seen in the Ringwood schools as a substitute teacher, I think it's a necessary thing that we pass this.”
Although the referendum committee has put the $28.8 million referendum on the back burner for now, the Board of Education resolved to take baby steps in getting taxpayers to finally embrace that referendum.
For starters, the school board approved the second question for this year’s election ballot, which is the $1.3 million replacement of the Ryerson roof. The school board, district officials, residents and three professional architectural firms agreed the roof is in such bad shape that replacing it is the only solution.
“The hot topic is always how much things cost, but the topic as of now is the second question, and passing the budget,” Citranglo said.
“I know it seems a lot of people I talked to are talking about the new Ryerson roof,” Schiavello said. “That's something I’d check out personally to see if that's necessary. I want to see it for myself.”
Cynthia Tassitano
Cynthia Tassitano has been on the Board of Education since last December, when she filled a seat Kingsley vacated.
A borough resident for 17 years, Tassitano is the mother of three: two E.G. Hewitt School students and one who attends Lakeland Regional High School, serving borough and Wanaque students.
Tassitano has been in the banking business for 28 years and works for a financial consultant in Franklin Lakes.
William Kingsley
William (Bill) Kingsley is seeking election for a three-year term. Married with two children, Kingsley is a park supervisor at Van Saun Park in Bergen County. Kingsley was appointed to the school board in June 2006, won the school board election last year, and was the school board president before he stepped down late last year for reasons he declined to mention.
A borough resident for four years, Kingsley coaches the Ringwood girls’ softball team and is a member of the Upper Lake Men’s Club. As a former budget committee member, he said he helped keep costs to a minimum with very little impact on the taxpayers.
If elected, Kingsley said his foremost goal is to help improve the students’ education and concentrate on making school repairs at an affordable price for taxpayers.
Before this year’s elections, fellow community members demonstrated their outpouring of support for Kingsley through what he said were “hundreds of calls and letters.” That support convinced him to run in this year’s school board race.
“I was really impressed with the amount of support I got, asking me to come back,” he said. “It was really quite impressive to me that people I didn't know, the whole community supported me. I hope that the election will come out favorable, and we could get back to running the great schools of Ringwood.”
Ronald Schiavello
Ronald Schiavello, 67, is a first-time candidate running for a three-year term on the Board of Education. He’s semi-retired and works as a substitute teacher and in the real estate field.
He said that during his busy career he didn’t have much time for community service. However, many years ago he said he served “a very short time” as part of the Ringwood Special Police.
With his in-depth career as a chemist, vice-president and president of various companies, Schiavello believes he can address the borough’s students and taxpayers using his analytical skills.
“I'm the type of individual that really analyzes and scrutinizes things before deciding, and with my management back-ground, that could help the students and the taxpayers," he said.
Janet Citranglo
Janet Citranglo is running for a three-year term on the Board of Education. She is an incumbent who has served on the school board for three years. Citranglo is married with one child, a fourth grader at the Hewitt School.
A 16-year borough resident, Citranglo is a state certified teacher in Spanish and also a homemaker. She is originally from Queens, NY.
Regarding her goal as a school board member, Citranglo said that she “would like to continue serving the children of Ringwood without forgetting the taxpayers.”
Melissa Griegel
Newcomer Melissa Griegel is running uncontested for a two-year board seat. As a first-time candidate, she said she wants to make sure the students have “safe, working facilities to make their environment more conducive to learning.”
She works at Books, Bytes, & Beyond, a Glen Rock children’s bookstore, organizing school book fairs and author events. Griegel is married to her husband David and they have two children, a preschooler and a first grader.
She is a Brownies leader for her daughter’s troop and the Daisy Consultant for Ringwood Girl Scouts. She participates in Sisterhood at Barnert Temple as the preschool-temple liaison, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC). Griegel joined the district’s referendum committee earlier this year.
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