Tisha Mannino
My husband and I moved to Berkeley Heights with our two young children 12 years ago largely for the great schools. While we have had many fantastic teachers in the schools, we started to become concerned when we saw that our rankings were declining versus some of the schools in the surrounding area. This prompted me to start attending the Board of education meetings, so that I could try to understand what was going on. While US News and World Report set me on this journey, it was actually the statistics that I received from our ex-assistant superintendent, Mr. Scott McKinney, that really made me concerned. We need to bring our focus back to academics. At these meetings, there were only two board members who seemed to be asking the tough questions and trying to focus on understanding how we might do better. One of those board members is up for re-Election and her name is Sai Bhargavi Akiri.
Sai is an immigrant woman who is volunteering her time on the board of education because like me, she sees the value in a strong education. She got a strong education herself in India where dedicated teachers focused on teaching the fundamental skills in English, math and science. While the textbooks were tweaked each year, the curriculum stayed the same. Her education has served her well, allowing her to compete globally in her professional career.
As a BOE member, I have seen her respectfully ask many great detailed questions. She is not just listening to what the administration says, but asking them to prove and rationalize it. A board of education member needs to be detail oriented, understand metrics and be unafraid to ask for proof. Trust but verify is something that worked for me in my career on Wall Street and I think it is equally important as a board of education member. Sai’s approach as a board member epitomizes this philosophy. The Board of Education has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that all of our children are getting a solid education and that the $60+ million budget is being efficiently spent to achieve the above goal. This cannot be done effectively without digging into the numbers and having specific intermediate and long term goals to insure that the schools are moving in the right direction. Sai has tirelessly been asking these questions, fighting for our children, and our schools.
In addition, I have been really impressed how Sai is always seeking to understand the concerns of all different parents whose children have different needs. I truly believe she sees parents as a stakeholder and she tries to understand all of the issues facing our children, not just the issues that might effect her family. In an ideal world, parents, teachers and the administration would all be working together to make the schools the best they could be. However, recently it has become obvious that not all parent viewpoints are appreciated. We need more board of education members like her who will give us a voice. It is time to demand that our schools focus on academics and set realistic achievable goals to move towards that end. We can do that with Sai’s help. Question the narrative!