About

Dr. Frank Heelan is a former School Superintendent for 25 years in Manville, New Jersey and Tuxedo Park, New York. Dr. Heelan was a Social Studies Teacher at Power Memorial Academy in New York City and Dobbs Ferry High School in Westchester County, New York. He earned a baccalaureate from Fordham University, a Masters degree from New York University and doctorate in Educational Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Dr. Donna Shalala, former Health and Human Services Commissioner during the eight years of the Clinton administration, sponsored his doctoral dissertation on educational legislation. He is a 24 Year Resident of Edison with children graduating from Edison High School

Issues

Education

The Edison Board of Education needs to improve in several areas if students are to prosper in its schools. They must provide more computers and upgrade the wiring infrastructure. Students taking Advanced Placement courses should receive greater incentives to earn college credit by taking the AP tests; currently, only one of three students enrolled in AP courses is tested. The World Language offerings must be vetted and changed, if necessary, so that our students are properly prepared for the evolving global society of the future. Due to the high number of student suspensions relative to state averages in the high schools and middle schools, a program to reduce student suspensions should be launched, following the example of the in-school suspension program at Edison High School.

Fiscal Responsibility

The Board should oversee taxpayers’ money with greater prudence and frugality, especially in these stressful times with Edison residents losing their jobs and foreclosing on their homes. The current leadership of the Edison Board has squandered taxpayer resources by unilaterally placing a superintendent on leave for two and a half years at a cost of $500,000. The Board Leadership has failed to carry out its key job of searching for and hiring the most qualified superintendent. All decisions of the Board, including raising the required graduation credits from 115 to 130, must consider the fiscal implications to taxpayers relative to the educational benefit to students.

School Overcrowding

The Edison community has displayed its distrust of Board leadership by rejecting several recent bond referenda to relieve the overcrowded conditions of Edison’s Public Schools. Student enrollment in the District for the 20 year period from 1988 to 2008 has increased over 40% with only a modest amount of classrooms added to accommodate the increased number of students. Science classrooms and labs must replace “science on a cart” with adequate instructional spaces to compete with other global students in an increasingly scientific world of the future. The taxpayers need a School Board with leadership they can trust to create a long-term plan to address the overcrowded conditions of Edison’s schools, balancing the student enrollment cycles with the affordability of Edison’s taxpayers.

Accountability

The Board should be accountable and should listen to the public. Some members of the current Board have conflicts of interest with family members as employees and consequently are ineligible to vote on many critical issues that come before the Board. I have no conflicts of interests, no family members on the District payroll nor do I have any personal interest in businesses dealing with the District.
Students deserve the best teachers and staff based on ability and I will uphold integrity in the hiring and promotion process.

News

News and Articles

Home News Tribune letter to the editor- 3/18/09

The staff and Board of Education of Edison Township are commended for securing a three year federal grant for $797,500 to embed the Hindi language in their course of studies. Edison is privileged to join Houston and Dallas as the only American cities to offer Hindi in their curriculum. Demographer-economist Harry Dent perceives India with her current 1.1 billion people (better than a 3 to 1 ratio to Americans) as a rising superstar economically, militarily, and democratically by the midpoint of this century. Teaching Hindi in Edison is a platinum opportunity to connect our students to where the future is going.

The Home News Tribune exploited the issue of staff members traveling to India as part of the federal grant by using the glaring front page headline, “Edison’s India trip exceeds budget”. Despite all the numbers provided, the author never proved the allegation that Edison’s India trip exceeded the budget. For the 2007-08 year, the budget was $6,000 in excess of the budgeted amount; but according to the year-to-year flexible budgeting attested to by Cynthia Ryan, Grants Director for the U.S. Department of Education, those funds would be underwritten by the following year’s budgeted amount for $300,000. With the State of New Jersey the nadir on the federal totem pole in receiving the lowest amount per capita in the nation – 61 cents returned for every dollar sent to Washington, I applaud the staff for copping this federal grant.

How necessary is it to support the Hindi language in the Edison schools? Surprisingly enough, most students in both Edison High Schools speak a first language other than English. According to the NJ School Report Card for 2007-08, less than 40% of students in JP Stevens speak English as their first language; 16% speak Gujarati, 12% Mandarin, 5% Hindi, 4% Korean, 3% Telegu, 3% Urdu and 17% other languages. In Edison High School, 58% speak English as their first language; 12% speak Spanish, 4% Urdu, 3% Mandarin, 2% Hindi, 2% Tagalog, and 19% other languages.

With such a fantastic potpourri of languages in the Edison schools, isn’t it time to reassess the traditional World Language offerings of Spanish, French and Latin? Of course, with the exploding populations of Latin America, Spanish must be retained. But is not now the time to replace French and Latin with essential languages for the future: Hindi and Mandarin? Let us not waste the linguistic resources of Edison students, but let us nurture and support these unique talents.




Home News Tribune letter to the editor-12/3/08.

Real estate professionals strongly recommend that a homeowner spends no more than 28% of one's income on a mortgage. Edison Public Schools currently spend only 1.1% of their annual budget on their debt service or mortgage.

The infrastructure of the Edison schools is in desperate need of increased funding to provide safe schools with sufficient space for student learning. This Tuesday, December 9th, there is a bond referendum for Edison residents that would raise $57,790,936 to construct one new elementary school and to expand classrooms onto James Madison Intermediate, Woodbrook Elementary and Ben Franklin Elementary. If this referendum passes, the State will pay 19% or $11 million dollars returned to Edison taxpayers. For the average Edison home assessed at $173,900, the cost to the taxpayer will be $70.42 or $5.87 monthly.


The student enrollment has increased from 10,309 in 1988 to 14,559 in 2008, an increase of 41% over 20 years without a concomitant upgrading of facilities. If the bond referendum passes, the seating capacity of the four schools will be augmented by 1188 and it has been projected that 77 seats will be allocated for special education students, who are now enrolled in out-of-district placements at high cost to Edison taxpayers.


What would be the savings to Edison taxpayers if these special education students were to find the seats in their home district? For school year 2010-2011, the cost to continue educating the 77 students out-of-district is projected at $4.2 million, or $54,800 average tuition and $1987 average transportation expenses per student. By educating these 77 students in a more favorable environment within Edison schools, the projected cost will be reduced to $1.4 million or $17,516 per student, resulting in a cost savings to taxpayers in the area of $3 million per year. Even if these projected numbers are excessively sanguine, the savings engendered by returning the 77 students to the Edison Public Schools will be substantial.


But with a successful referendum, what is the annual mortgage or debt service that must be provided for in the annual school budget? The average debt service for a 30 year mortgage at 5.5% will be $3.2 million. The cost savings by returning the 77 special education students will pay for the bulk of the debt service - year after year after year.


It is axiomatic that the value of one's home hinges on the quality of the local public schools. Investment in school facilities is a key indicator of a home's equity in a given community as well as the desirability of bringing up children in that community.


For the foregoing reasons - the severe overcrowdedness and safety issues within the schools, the 41% enrollment increase over the previous twenty years, the commitment of the State to pay $11million or 19% of the cost of the bond, the offsetting of the bond cost by returning the projected 77 special education students to their home school district, the capability of paying a low interest rate for the bond and low construction costs due to the economic downturn, and maintaining solid equity in our Edison homes - it makes sense to affirm this bond referendum.

Home News Tribune letter to the editor- 11/21/08

What a paradox! Business Week has ranked Edison as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in the State of New Jersey, on the basis of school performance and safety. Due to its good students and good teachers, Edison residents can be proud of the schools' accomplishments, such as J.P. Stevens High School attaining the highest number of National Merit Scholars of any high school in the State (27). Yet if someone were to venture into the learning facilities of Edison Public Schools, one would discover highly overcrowded and unsafe conditions in our schools.


As a volunteer of the School Construction Committee, I recently had the opportunity to visit two schools, Herbert Hoover Middle School and J.P. Stevens High School. Within the previous twenty years ('88 to '08) Herbert Hoover Middle School has increased enrollment from 371 to 871 (135%) with only an additional handful of classrooms. Three classrooms are adjacent to the cafeteria and must compete with the noise of the lunch room and music room. Remedial math and other subjects are taught in two classrooms with thin partitions separating it from the cafeteria and in the third class by the cafeteria, students receive instruction on the stage behind the curtain.


"Classrooms on a cart" appear to be a staple of the Edison schools: science classes are often relegated to art and home economics classrooms; resource classes are assigned to art and band rooms. Safety issues abound in areas such as the computer room with wires and cabling snaking their way to inadequate electrical outlets amid six large wood tables (6' x6') left over from an obsolete woodshop.


Next we visited J.P.Stevens, a High School that has climbed from an enrollment of 1674 in 1988 to 2353 in 2008, a 41% increase. The logistics of running one of the largest high schools in the State is formidable. There are four lunch periods in the cafeteria for 500-600 students pincered into a 23 minute time frame to feed more than 2300 students. The auditorium and cafeteria are used for multiple study halls with as many as 400 students per period.


The science program illustrates the severe overcrowdedness at J.P. Stevens High School. Science classrooms on a cart are too frequently a necessity: there are 67 science classes in non-science classrooms; chemistry is on a cart with access to only one electrical strip in the assigned classroom; physics experiments on velocity were being conducted by five students in a hallway due to a lack of space in the classroom; science classrooms were half the size required for a safe environment (600 square feet as opposed to a modern science lab of 1200 square feet); and a college prep biology on a cart using a classroom with only three individual electrical outlets. Because of the lack of space, Advanced Placement Chemistry and Physics cannot be offered to any student in the Edison high schools.


In my career as an educator, I have visited or worked in classrooms throughout New Jersey,Pennsylvania, New York (including Harlem, South Bronx and Fort Greene, Brooklyn) as well as fifteen schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. In my experience in touring several of the schools in Edison, they are the most overcrowded schools of any I've ever witnessed. How much longer can the good students and good teachers cope with the inadequate and unsafe facilities of the Edison schools? As one committee member described the overcrowdedness, "It"s like putting ten pounds of potatoes into a five pound bag".


Kudos to Business Week and Money magazines for ranking Edison as one of the top places to live and bring up a family. But if Edison residents visit the classrooms of the Public Schools, the paucity of modern day educational facilities and the cramped, unsafe spaces for students would soon become apparent.

Dr. Frank Heelan

Home News Tribune- letter to the editor 8/7/08

The Edison Board of Education unanimously voted to place the $57.8 million bond for construction of a new elementary school and expansion of three existing elementary schools on the ballot for September 30th. The Home News editorial on July 29, 2008 analyzed the key issues of this referendum with the headline, “Edison voters should OK school-expansion plan”.


As a volunteer of the School Construction Committee for the Edison Board of Education, I was initially skeptical of the bond referendum but with increasing amounts of data, I have come to support this referendum as essential for providing educational services for Edison students in facilities that are safe, adequate and affordable to Edison taxpayers. Board President David Dickinson stated, “The bottom line is the kids need the room”. How does one know if students have adequate space in which to learn or if the school buildings have overcrowded conditions for students?


There are two sources of information that will give us the ability to make an objective appraisal on spatial requirements: first, the student enrollment numbers over time and second, the student capacity or seat numbers for each of the school buildings. According to Edison School Board minutes, the student enrollment in the District for the 20 year period from 1988 to 2008 is as follows: · 6/30/88 10,309 · 6/30/93 11,674 · 6/30/98 12,489 · 6/30/03 13117 · 6/30/08 14,559 The trend of the increasing numbers of students in each five year period from 1988 to 2008 is quite alarming when one considers that, with no new schools built since 1972 and with only a limited number of additional classrooms in specific schools, the District must somehow provide top-notch learning opportunities to 4250 more students (327 more students per grade level).


This enrollment represents a 41% increase over this 20 year period and the 4250 additional students are greater than the total enrollment of most school districts in New Jersey. The State of New Jersey has devised a system to determine the seat capacity for each school building so that too many students will not be crowded into one building for their learning experiences. According to the most recent District Practices Capacity Report, the seventeen school buildings of the Edison District have a total capacity for 10,943 students.


Twenty years ago, such capacity was sufficient for the student enrollment; but the current enrollment of 14,559 students yields a deficiency of 3616 seat capacity, necessarily resulting in severe overcrowded conditions in the seventeen Edison schools. How much additional capacity will be achieved by passing the bond referendum? The following chart shows the additional seat capacity for the new elementary school and the expansion of the three elementary schools:

Elementary School Student Capacity Increase
New Elementary School (TJ site) 597
Benjamin Franklin Elem. School 166
James Madison Interm. School 207
Woodbrook Elem. School 218
Total Additional Capacity 1188

Even if the bond referendum passes and the 1188 seat capacity is added, there will still remain a dearth of 2428 student capacity that will require multiple bond referenda passed to accommodate current student enrollment. One shudders to think of the projected numbers of students entering Edison School District within the next three or four years and the widening gap between student enrollment and student building capacity.


These numbers patently illustrate that there is an authentic crisis percolating in Edison Township Schools and, despite tough economic times, multiple bond referenda must be passed to provide Edison students with adequate facilities for learning. I would urge all Edison residents and voters to visit the District website at www.edison.k12.nj.us <http://www.edison.k12.nj.us/> and view the Bond Referendum Presentation, Phase 1, 2, 3.

Dr. Frank Heelan

Parent of the Year Award

“Parent of the Year” Award

 

Parents are the primary teachers of their children and parents contribute abundantly for the betterment of their children’s’ education at home and in the schools.  Why not have “Parent of the Year” awards in each of the seventeen schools in Edison and then select one of those parents as the “Edison Parent of the Year”? 

A committee will be established to determine the selection criteria for parents and eventually, ongoing committees will be set up in each school to implement this process.

The idea for “Parent of the Year” emanated from Edison parents and would complement the excellent program “Teacher of the Year”.  The “Parent of the Year” award will motivate parents to collaborate with teachers in the education of their children and will recognize parents as the primary champions of their children’s learning.

Contribute

If you would like to contribute to the campaign, please make checks out to Dr Frank Heelan for Edison Board of Education and send the check to the following address.

Dr. Frank Heelan
55 Harmon Road, Edison, NJ 08837

We appreciate your support and contribution