Edward A. Deyoung
Position Sought: Vernon Township School District Board of Education
Age: 68
Political History/Experience: I have 15 years experience on the Vernon Township Board of Education including 5 years as board president. I’ve chaired several board committees including the Finance, Housing/Building and Grounds, Liaison, and Partnership Committees. The management skills I developed over 40 years as a project manager are valuable in analyzing and evaluating school budgets, planning and reviewing school technology projects, and understanding personnel and student issues. I am currently the chairman of the Finance Committee.
Occupation: I retired in 2009 after 40 years as an Engineering Project Manager at BAE Systems in Wayne, N.J.
Education: I have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering. I continued to pursue graduate studies in Computer Engineering at Union College and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Family: I have been married to my wife, Jill, for 46 years. We have lived in Vernon for the past 38 years. We have 2 children and 4 grandchildren.
Top three issues: 1. Hiring a new superintendent with the proper experience and commitment to education: Our board has hired a firm to assist with finding a new superintendent. The process will be completed over the next several months with the expectation that we will have a highly qualified candidate selected and hired before July 2015. Community input is being sought in order to hire a superintendent that matches Vernon’s needs. 2. Increasing student academic achievement and success: There has been improvement in this area but more can be done so that all of our students show proficiency in all academic areas. Our leadership team, in conjunction with an enthusiastic faculty, has been working diligently to insure that our students excel. We are already seeing a significant improvement by investing in new technologies in our classrooms. We are also providing high quality in-service training for our teaching staff which will enable them to provide a better education for all of our students. 3. Dealing with declining enrollment: For several years, we have been experiencing declining enrollment. The latest demographic study shows that this trend is going to continue. We have started looking at how to cost effectively make better use of our school buildings including realignment of our current grade level structure. Realignment will have a direct impact on improving academic performance and can help to reduce some administrative overhead costs as well. By lowering overall operating costs we should be able to reduce the tax burden for our citizens over time.