Magesh Kamalakannan talks about why he is seeking a seat on the South Brunswick BOE.
Patch Staff
|Updated Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 3:53 pm ET
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A resident of South Brunswick for 17 years, Magesh Kamalakannan is seeking a seat on the South Brunswick Board of Education in the upcoming election.
In a Q&A with Patch, Kamalakannan speaks about the busing issue, his plans for helping the district navigate budget problems and more.
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Name: Magesh Kamalakannan
Town of residence: South Brunswick
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Position sought: Board of Education Member
Family: I live in South Brunswick with my wife and 2 kids for the last 17 years. Daughter studied from 3rd grade in SB and graduated HS in 2017. Son who did his entire schooling in SB from his Sand Hills Preschool to his HS graduation in 2021.
Education: B.E.(Mechanical Engineering) & MBA (Finance)
Occupation: ITSM Professional / Manager
Previous or current elected appointed office: None
Campaign website: www.facebook.com/JoyceMageshVivek4BoE
Why are you seeking to run for a seat on the South Brunswick Board of Education?
I came to South Brunswick because it was a very good school district and offered a lot of opportunities to develop from Sports to clubs and other extracurricular activities. But in the last three to five years they have been greatly compromised. I remember those days when my son and other SB kids were practicing for their USTA or GMC tournaments before 2017 under the floodlights. Unfortunately, this is not possible in SB anymore. In 2017 the lights were switched off and after COVID-19 the courts are permanently locked after school hours. How can our country produce tennis champions at the national level if all schools did like our SB administration? Then we have the recent bussing crisis when 250 kids lost their bussing because of the state budget cut and the school tried to save a small amount of $250k and put children's lives at risk. It is an accident waiting to happen in the future because of their wrong decision.
Then we have the $15.5 million (over 5 years - 2.5 million capex and 2.6 million opex every year) which was signed in by the BOE without involving the SB community on a major project of this scale. Ideally, a townhall should have been done on this project and financial experts from the community should have been welcomed to review and analyze the project as the current incumbents running for reelection don’t have the expertise to do a financial evaluation thoroughly. They should have left it to the financial experts in the community through a committee and townhall meeting to update and get feedback from residents.
The school's and BOE members’ first priority should be the students and their interests should never be sacrificed.
That is the reason I decided to run for the BOE - to speak for the students.
What according to you is the biggest issue facing the school district right now?
The biggest issue facing the school district is managing its $166 million budget efficiently. For want of 250k, they have put the lives of 220+ kids at risk. They made a huge blunder by removing the bussing for the summer field development. I took a walk on the path suggested by the school administration and immediately realized that the path couldn’t be used as they were overhead HT power transmission lines. The residents called and later found out that PSEG has blocked the path with chains between the two developments for safety reasons and the school administration totally missed it as no safety study was done till then. And we know the budget cuts are coming from the state because of falling enrollment numbers even in 2019. What planning was done to secure that? It is only last month that our BOE announced about forming a committee.
Also as the Superintendent pointed out in the last BOE meeting - for mandated bussing the state has to give $509/student a year. We have roughly 5000 mandated bussing students. And they have been giving only $400/student a year. Why has the school not demanded this $500k that is due to us every year? When I asked whether any communication was sent by school or BOE to recover this money, there was no clear response. Even considering the last 5 years, it is 2.5 million gone down the drain unclaimed or 5 million over 10 years. The $15.5 million wellness center project is definitely not needed at this budget cut time when no school district has completed 3-5 years with that project to do a meaningful ROI analysis on that.
Learning to manage its budget efficiently and avoiding unnecessary huge projects is the key that the BOE has to focus right now.
SBSD is seeing regular cuts in state aid due to the funding formula. What plans do you have to ensure student services are not cut and there are no job losses for employees?
How many budget meetings have you attended and have you put forth any solutions?
I attended the budget meeting in which the budget for school year 2023-24 was approved. I attended almost all of the BOE meetings this year and also actively encouraged other parents/residents to attend these meetings. Same in the previous years, but mostly remote due to COVID-19. Ideally, they should have a budget meeting (more like a townhall) before it is finalized to discuss the details with the residents/parents and have proper two-way communication instead of the current one-way, three-minute comment section which is not useful to put forth any solutions as they are not tracked and no feedback is given on them in future BOE sessions.
Transportation is a statewide issue. Do you feel transportation issues are being handled well by the district? If not, how do you propose improving it?
It could have been handled better in the following ways:
What other issues do you feel need to be tackled in the district?
What sets you apart from other candidates?
I have been living here for close to two decades and know a good deal about how our schools were five years ago and how they are now. To me, it has come down a lot and this impacts our school ranking and also our property values in the long run. I have expertise in finance and system implementation both of which are needed for a BOE position at a time like this. Unfortunately, the incumbents lack basic expertise in this area and this should be a major criterion that one should look into in the upcoming election. I have around three decades of experience working with Fortune 500 companies and can bring valuable experience to the School Board. I would like to focus on the excellence of our school district; transparency and empowering our parents and residents so they also get involved in major issues.
What else would you like to share about yourself or your campaign?
SBSD has great challenges in front of it. But with a creative mind these challenges can be converted into great opportunities.