Val Boyarsky, Andrew Behrend, Ryan Green, Meng Zhang for Cherry Hill Board of Education 2011

Name: Valery Boyarsky - often abbreviated to Val

Val Boyarsky I have been a resident of Cherry Hill ever since coming to the United States over 30 years ago. My family and many of my relatives call Cherry Hill home. I graduated from Cherry Hill West in 1979 and now have 2 wonderful kids going through the Cherry Hill School System – Stockton to Rosa to East. It is for them and the kids of our friends and neighbors, and all the Cherry Hill community with and without children in the School System that I am running for BOE this year.

Occupation:

I have two MBA degrees in Computer Information Science and Operations Management. I started my career while working through college and then graduate school and rose from a computer programmer to a VP/Director – at a top Information Technology spot. In this role I worked for a number of local companies in private, non-profit, and quasi-government organizations for over 20 years.
In the past 8 years I have been a managing co-partner in the small local enterprise that specializes in designing and manufacturing of automated kiosk systems for public use in libraries, schools, and universities throughout the United States and Canada. We were able to successfully grow and operate the company, providing stable employment to over 20 local people over the years. In 2005 our company was a winner of South Jersey 25 Fastest Growing Companies Award.
In my current role as a co-owner of this company I ‘wear hats’ of IT, Financial Officer, HR, Logistics, Purchasing, and Production Scheduling, among many other daily challenges and responsibilities.

Community Service:
While I am actively involved in a number of local and national trade and business associations and chambers (AMA, ALA, PLA, IFLA, NJTC, APICS, SJ and Cherry Hill Chambers of Commerce, NJ Life Science Vendor Alliance, PMI, and a few more), I am especially proud to have served on the Board of the Cherry Hill Education Foundation for the past few years. Within this organization I am actively involved with the Grant Committee. CHEF has funded many good projects for the Cherry Hill Community by collecting and awarding over $250K in educational grants, and I am proud to be a contributor and a part of this effort.

Why are you running for the Board of Education?
The Cherry Hill School System has many wonderful and dedicated teachers that provide a world class level of education to our kids. Yet, there are areas that need to be addressed: including an aging and deteriorating infrastructure, disproportionately rising costs, incomplete visibility into spending and funds allocation, needs for more complete community representation and effect on BOE operations and decisions. I believe in our township and our School System, and I would like to volunteer my skills and experience to address these and other issues, and help shape the future of our community.

Andrew H. Behrend Andrew H. Behrend

I have been a resident of Cherry Hill for 12 years, having moved from Yonkers, NY where I grew up. I have two children in the school district, one a Junior at Cherry Hill High School East, and the other a fourth grader at Horace Mann Elementary School. My wife and I have both been members of the PTA in each of the buildings where our children have been in attendance. I am employed by Quanex Building Products Corporation as a Manufacturers Representative/Sales Representative. I am very involved in Freemasonry, where I have held many elected and appointed roles. I received by Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communications from the State University of New York College at Oswego where I have remained extremely involved. I have been active as an Alumni Admissions Advisor since graduation in 1986, and have also been a member of the Alumni Reunion Committee for the planning of our 10, 15, 20, and this year our 25 year reunion.
I believe that the residents of our district have not been truly represented by our sitting board. We are a diverse community, and the members of the board should reflect this.
The administration needs to be made accountable for living fiscally within the realities of the current economy and build budgets not based on budget to budget numbers, but on actually expenditures vs. the proposed budget.
I believe we need to put more pressure (through litigation if necessary) on Trenton to ensure that we are receiving our fair share of State Aid.
I believe that we need to help our teachers to reduce the amount of needless reporting, and feeding of the “data monster, ” which will increase their time in front of their students. We also should be listening to these educators and eliminate those programs that they have found to be costly and non-effective.
I also believe that we need to look at our current tax formula to figure out why we are increasing the tax levy on an almost yearly basis, only to have $6+ million dollars each year, left over to roll into the next years’ budget. This is our money that is being collected needlessly.

I also believe that we need to have a clear and concise capital spending plan in place to enable us to renovate or replace the buildings in the district, most of which are at or are nearing “end of life.” The need to scale back spending to accommodate a bond issue in the next 12-18 months will be critical. I believe there may be a way of reducing the financial impact by purchasing and converting distressed commercial properties.

Ryan Green

Ryan Green
Originally from Western New York, Ryan received his B.S. in Elementary Education/Inclusive Special Education with a concentration Social Studies & Government from Daemen College in 2006. After graduation Ryan was recruited by the Palm Beach County School District where he taught Special Education for three years.

While teaching in Palm Beach County Ryan served as a School Representative in the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association as well as a State Delegate in the Florida Education Association. During his career in Palm Beach County, Ryan served as chairperson for many school-based committees and was elected Secretary for the School Advisory Council.

Ryan moved to Cherry Hill in 2009 to rejoin his family and to enroll in Rider University Graduate School of Education. Currently he is pursuing his M.S. in School Administration. When not in class he is substitute teaching in the Haddon Heights School District.

Ryan is extremely active in the community serving as V.P of Community Development for the Camden-Gloucester Junior Chamber (Jaycees), volunteering with the Young Adult Division of the Jewish Federation of South Jersey and Interning for United States Senator Robert Menendez.

When not in the classroom, you will often find Ryan at the Flying W Airport in Lumberton, New Jersey where he is currently completing his training to receive is private pilot’s license.

Ryan believes that the school budget should reflect community’s concerns. He believes that residents of Cherry Hill are not happy with the high salaries and benefits for our school administrators and that the School District needs to act both responsibly fiscally and retain the best asset in our schools

Ryan also believes that that the School District needs to have a clear and concise capital spending plan in place to enable us to renovate or replace the buildings in the district. While most of which are at or are nearing the end of their lives, the School District needs to scale back spending to accommodate a bond issue.

Meng (Barbara) Zhang

Meng Zhang Meng and her husband, Alex Li, moved to Cherry Hill in 1996 for the reputation of the public schools in Cherry Hill. Their son, Daniel, is a 9th grader at Cherry Hill High School East, and daughter, Rebecca, is a kindergartener at Sharp Elementary School. Both Daniel and Rebecca went to Barclay Early Childhood Center. Their youngest, Matthew, can’t wait to start preschool at Barclay after the summer of 2011.

Meng has a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. She received her MBA in Finance and Marketing from Rutgers University. Having worked as marketing manager, purchasing agent, and accountant, Meng has over 17 years of experiences in marketing and accounting.

Meng has been actively involved in her kids’ education and is currently PTA member at Cherry Hill East and Sharp Elementary. Over the past 15 years, she gained deeper insights and raised awareness on average Cherry Hill residents’ needs, wants and hopes for education through many talks, meetings, with community leaders and average moms and dads, especially in the minority communities.

Meng is an active member of Bethel Baptist Church. She loves to volunteer and give back to the community. She has been a volunteer ESL teacher and assistant for 7 years at Bethel Baptist Church. In 2010 she became a certified volunteer tax filer for the IRS, filing taxes for low-income family.

Meng was elected in 2010 Principal of Cherry Hill Huaxia Chinese School, a non-profit weekend school with about 350 students and 40 teachers. As Principal, she has hands-on experiences in the full-cycle of school management, from budgeting for the school year, working with school Board of Directors, recruiting teachers and administrators, setting curriculum, arranging extra-curriculum activities, etc.

Meng believes the most critical issues facing the District: 1) eliminated or reduced Federal and State funding; 2) defeated school budget; 3) allocation of school expenditures not in-line with interest of the community 4) lack of emphasis on our vision of being an international benchmarked district.

She believes that school budget should reflect community’s concerns. She believes that residents are not happy with the high salaries and benefits for our school administrators; that the District has to act both responsibly fiscally and retain the best asset in our schools: students and teachers. Tuition at Barclay Early Childhood Center increased nearly 58% in one year lately forced many parents and residents to wonder “where did the tax money go”?

Meng believes there should be better communication between the District and Cherry Hill community, this includes non-parent residents, parents, community leaders, ethnic groups, etc. Knowing our community’s needs and wants for our District would help us spend our reduced and limited resources better.

Meng believes that the district should be pro-active when it comes to increase revenues for our District. We should work harder on getting alternative funding for our schools especially during the recession.

Last but not least, to help us not losing sight of being an international benchmarked district, she would put more focus on diversity among our teachers and administrators, allocate more resources for non-public textbooks.

Meng loves reading and music. In her spare time, she shuttles her kids to piano lessons, dance and language classes. She enjoys playing badminton. Meng would like to bring to Cherry Hill schools her passion of reaching educational excellence while representing all people’s interest in the community.