Sea Isle School Candidates Band Together

SEA ISLE CITY — Jack Birkmeyer, Dan Organ and Valere Egnasko have announced they are running for the Sea Isle City Board of Education, campaigning together under the slogan “BOE…Continuing the Progress.”
According to a release, these three candidates share the belief that the progress made by the board over the last year needs to continue.
Valere Egnasko, current President of the Sea Isle City Board Of Education was elected last year to a one-year term and is currently running for a full three-year term.
Under her leadership the board has begun the process of working with the Ocean City School Board to send our 5th through 8th grade children to Ocean City. She has also led the way to increase our shared services with other districts; reduce staff costs while increasing time on core subjects like Math and Language Arts; create separate classes for each of the lower grades; and fix the school’s long overdue roof problems. The current Board has secured $360,000 in grant money to replace the roof.
In response to Valere’s efforts, the New Jersey School Board Association president added the minimum tax levy to their list of items to discuss with the legislature and the Department of Education. Currently, the law prevents SIC School District from lowering its taxes. Valere says she is committed to providing the most opportunity for the Sea Isle children and the best value for the Sea Isle tax dollars.
Jack Birkmeyer was a mentor at the SIC public school for six years and a local home owner for 39 years. He is a retired Mental Health Consultant with a Masters of Social Work from The University of Pennsylvania.
When asked why he is running, Jack responded, “The work that has been accomplished by Valere and the Board this past year needs to continue. I share the same philosophy for improving the education of our children while responsibly managing its cost and wanted to see the progress maintained. So I decided to run for the School Board and join with Valere and Dan in this campaign.”
Dan Organ is a member of the Sea Isle City Zoning Board. He is a retired Operations Superintendent from the Sunoco Philadelphia refinery. He has a degree in Business Administration from Widener University.
At a School Board meeting, he heard a veteran School Board member express to the audience, “come April we’re going to take back our school.” Dan says that was when he realized this election is about the control of the School Board and the direction it will take in the next couple of years. “I think”, Dan expressed “the taxpayers of Sea Isle City believe it is their school and judging from last year’s election results, they want a Board that will listen to the majority of citizens and not a small group of people. The voters need a choice and by my running they will have one.”
Birkmeyer, Organ and Egnasko feel that running together is the best way to get out their message that they will work to “CONTINUE THE PROGRESS”