Candidate Profile: Kinnelon Resident Marianne DeAlessi

Marianne DeAlessi is running for her first term on the . A lifelong resident of New Jersey, DeAlessi has been involved with the and Parent Teacher Associations. She has also served for several years on the Morris County Medical Reserve Core.

She has a son who is a freshman at Kinnelon High School. We caught up with DeAlessi to find out why she is running for the board.

Q: Will this be your first term on the board?

A: Yes.

Q: What inspired you to run?

A: I got inspired after last year, when the budget was defeated, and I saw some very valuable programs that were eliminated. We have a very good public school system and if we dont maintain it, I think we're doing a disservice to the children.

Q: What are some of the issues or challenges of the board that you're looking forward to working on?

A: I think preserving and certainly improving our academics. I think I'm looking to preserve the three A's, academics, arts and athletics, and to certainly improve our math and our science and writing test scores.

I also want to look at what we can do to generate some revenue. Children need to be competitve going to the science fields. There are so many sciences that they need to be competitive to get into the better schools. I want to suggest that we offer summer school for the children for science and math so that they could fit in more courses in the year.

Q: Are there any committees you're particularly interested in?  

A: I'm very good at policies and have experience working on them.

Q: What is your professional experience?

A: I've been in healthcare since 1986. I'm also a certified school nurse but only substitute in the district.