District must continue superintendent's mission of excellence
On Oct. 15, I attended the Board of Education meeting at Lloyd Road. It was the last meeting for our superintendent of schools, Bruce Quinn. As I sat through the meeting, I recalled the first time my family had encountered Mr. Quinn's vision for our schools and community.

Several years ago, my husband had met with Mr. Quinn about the Pop Warner football organization having to "pay to play" at the high school because of a maintenance expense. Several parents of children who played football thought this was an unfair taxation and so we started a petition to have this fee waived. My husband and two other concerned parents of the Pop Warner football organization sat and discussed this with Mr. Quinn, the newly appointed superintendent of schools at that time. At the end of the meeting it was decided that the fee would be waived with a contingent that a member of the organization would sign a contract stating they would be responsible for the maintenance of the facility, while the Pop Warner football games were played. We rallied volunteers to make sure that this contract would be upheld to the conditions set by the superintendent.

When my husband came home from this meeting, he was elated that Mr. Quinn honored the petition and was so willing to sit with the community and hear what they had to say. He also stated Mr. Quinn was very excited to be in such a position to help his community reach their full potential educationally. He had a lot of great new ideas he wanted to put in place to help all the children of Aberdeen-Matawan. He had a vision!

According to Cathy Zavorskas, throughout his five years of service we now have a comprehensive preschool program for our children of handicap, a pre-kindergarten program - the reorganization of schools is settling in. I have also witnessed our children striving with the expanded enrichment program. Every student will be kept on target academically with the RTI program. All of our school buildings have been upgraded and modernized. Our technology department has been expanded and upgraded. A new turf field has been installed to play American football and many other great sports. Inclusion, affirmation action and social reform are all being practiced. Diversity is being embraced and valued.

These are some of the changes I have witnessed and supported throughout these five years. Mr. Quinn is leaving his position to work somewhere else and more than likely expanding his vision and influencing other districts in some aspect. May we as a district (Board of Education, administration, staff, and parents) continue his mission of educational equality and excellence! May we also continue his vision for our community - to have every child treated with respect, dignity and educated to reach their maximum potential and become active members of a democratic society with having given credit to the MARSD.

Noemi Robinson

Matawan