In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Carolyn Buntic explains why she’s voting for Leslie Norwood and her running mates on the “Leadership that Listens” team in the non-partisan November 8th board of education race.
Dear Editor,
Over the past 5 years, I’ve gotten to know Leslie Norwood, her husband Paul, and her two sons. Whether we’re in Hoboken having coffee, or camping in the woods with our families,
I’m consistently impressed by Leslie. She’s smart, funny, and a straight shooter. The daughter of immigrants from Ireland and Brazil, she’s worked very hard for everything she has and has stayed grounded.
That may be one of the reasons she’s so quick to step up for others.
A while ago, I mentioned to Leslie that the Cub Scouts of Hoboken would be able to do more if they had more leaders. Her response? She stepped right up – even with her busy schedule, she took all the classes needed to be a den leader and did her training.
And she was all in. I’ll never forget her broad smile as she showed up to the Memorial Day parade in full regalia to lead her group, wearing one of her amazing hats.
Leslie is always willing to roll up her sleeves and make things happen. She’s not just a talker, she’s a doer.
I have always been impressed by her knowledge about the education system here in Hoboken, and how she advocates for children through her work on the board of the Hoboken Public Education Foundation.
After five years on the board of HPEF, she has a very real sense of the needs of our District schools, and she’s already been instrumental in addressing some of them.
While my children are currently at a local charter school, I believe that strong District schools make for a stronger community.
We all want the best education for all of Hoboken’s kids. I trust Leslie to always act in the best interest of HPS students, to step up for the District, and to be “all in” – because that’s who she is.
I hope you’ll join me in voting for Leslie and her slate: 2, 3, 4, on November 8th!
Carolyn Buntic
Hoboken resident
Leslie and Paul are well known election deniers. If they can’t accept president Biden how can we trust them to be in charge of Hoboken kids? Leslie like all ltl candidates is a liar and wrong for Hoboken, she should move to the Deep South where her and her husbands racism would be more accepted. Stop giving money to election deniers Leslie!
Bhalla certainly has attracted the lunatic fringe to try to keep his iron fisted grip on power.
Every election it seems to get worse. Every election they sink lower.
I don’t think we need to resort to name-calling, but I do think it is entirely valid to explore Norwood’s views on election integrity. If she and her husband promote the view that the president was not legitimately elected and that elections in general are rife with fraud and untrustworthy systems, on what grounds is she asking us to vote for her? What makes this election any different from all the others they condemn? If the answer amounts to nothing more than that this election is acceptable as long as she’s happy with the outcome, then those who do believe in election integrity have a responsibility to prevent Norwood and her ilk from getting their hands on the levers of power.
Norwood is an election denier, yet she and her slate send nasty fliers about Pavel Sokolov being a republican. You just can’t make this stuff up!
Vote Kids First, 6-7-8, on November 8th.
The problem is that LTL listens only to Johnson and Bhalla and not the majority of Hoboken voters.
Even one independent voice would be good.
Is anyone paying attention to the tax increase that Jersey City just passed? Hoboken is about to go down the same path; schools, palaces, new hires, inflation, benefits increases etc. And the Covid money is running out….. Hold on to your wallets, folks – and those who voted NO in January should be all in for Kids First on Tuesday… Sanity must prevail…..
A tax increase of that size in Hoboken will force many middle class to leave.
Only the very poor government subsidized and very wealthy will be able to remain.
How will Hoboken provide the best possible school facilities? This is the real issue: why are we forgetting?
LTL’s position is so weak, their only, desperate hope is to make things up about their opponents.
Even IF the things they are saying are true, they are besides the point.
Elect LTL and the BOE remains 9-0 and everything the BOE is doing wrong remains hidden.
Elect Kids First and the BOE becomes a 6-3 board with 6, Team Bhalla/LTL aligned BOE members. Board votes STILL remain the same, but the public is informed of EVERYTHING. This is why LTL is so desperately using dirty tactics to “hold on” to a 9-0 board – fear of what will be exposed.
Whoever you are, whatever your political beliefs are, whether you have children, whether you don’t: we need to see what the BOE is hiding, so vote 6-7-8!
Great video as usual.
Thanks! I’ve had a bit of writer’s block, but it could be because this is such a simple situation: Do we want a 9-0 board or do we want some diversity on the board. When it comes down to it, that’s what this vote is really about.
You mean adding a Trumper who agrees with Betsey DeVos on defunding public education, and an anti-mask, anti-science, anti-teachers union extremist to a board that puts the interest of students first?
Is that what you mean by “diversity”?
If “that’s what this vote is all about” that’s all the reason we need to VOTE 2-3-4.
In all dictatorships any difference of opinion is attacked and vilified.
Chairwoman Johnson and her HBoE are no exception.
They are now only pretending to “listen” only after most of Hoboken en mass rejected their extravagant plan and tax increase that would have fallen on the taxpayers of our city.
While they may often use the buzz word “diversity” they really don’t want it if means being asked questions and be open to opinions and ideas other then their own.
Your cartoons and ad buys are in-kind campaign donations, and must be filed accordingly. You are responsible to provide the value of your services.
KF has not filed the correct R-1 ELEC forms to hide donore and total contributions, Joe Branco knows better. Not exactly “transparent”.
Again, please read the elect requirements. I know you have been away for a while, and not active in political campaigns. For school board races you don’t have to filled an R-1 unless you go over the threshold for a 3 candidate committee. Also there is NO A-2 for school board.
Lets Hope Liz of Westfield doesn’t throw a drink in someone’s face again.
What is with Mulholland’s weird obsession with Hoboken. She moved her kids to a lilly white suburb after not being happy here.
She’s just an out of town landlord now who has a building with her mother that was sued for over charging tenants. That led to a throwing of drinks on a lawyer and shouting match at campaign after party in Hoboken.
Keep her away from schools.
Guess it’s 5’oclock in Westfield all the time
Residents like Ian Rintel can denigrate the motives of LTL candidates, call LTL’s enlightenment (that 2 KF candidates really are too extreme for Hoboken) “dirty tactics”, it’s his OPINION.
Mine is that Ian’s too busy making cartoons to educate himself about the all three candidates he’s endorsed, not to mention a little quid pro quo– Cindy Wiegand endorsed Rintel’s campaign.
As someone who actually knows Leslie and her runningmates, Ian’s broad-brush bloviations could not be further from the truth.
The fact that all 3 LTL candidates stepped up to run for board positions knowing in full the kind of abuse that a cabal of unemployed, anonymous HCV poo-throwers would inflict, speaks volumes for their character.
Like a herpes outbreak, these anonymous poo-throwers will vanish on November 9, only to resurface on November 10 to cry about “Ravi, Ravi, Ravi” and “Terror flier, terror flier, terror flier.” Alas, no cure for that kind of herpes.
The LTL candidates are more of the same mindset that gave us the disastrous referendum. The proximate cause of their failure is that they dwell in a group-think, self-interested bubble, isolated from our community. They didn’t consider or respect taxpayers, homeowners, voters, or anyone else. They certainly don’t think about the over 60% of students in Hoboken Public Schools who are economically disadvantaged. They’d rather talk about the few students who take AP courses or college admits than discuss the fact that the vast majority of HPS students graduate lacking basic proficiency in math. Why? Because they care about their own kids, not *those* children.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but DO NOT VOTE FOR LTL. To do so would be a continuation of the policies that have so miserably failed our students. We shouldn’t reward abject failure, nor should we reward the disrespect they continue to display towards our community, or the nastiness and vitriol they’ve injected into our politics.
Continue the progress in Hoboken classrooms!
Vote 2-3-4!!!
Progress? Isn’t HHS still in the bottom half of NJ high schools? More like continuing segregation.
Understand if you dare to publicly disagree with Bhalla or Johnson you will be personally attacked.