Meet the Candidates: Deven Patel

Six candidates are vying for three open seats on the South Brunswick Board of Education in next week's school elections.  School elections will be held on Wednesday, April 27 with polls open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Voters will cast their ballots to decide on a $95 million general fund levy and on the six candidates seeking three open three-year seats on the Board of Education. Incumbents Matthew Speesler, of Kendall Park and Arthur Robinson, of Kendall Park, will be challenged by Edward Birch, of Kendall Park; Patrick Del Piano, of Monmouth Junction; Raymond A. Kuehner Jr., of Dayton; and Deven M. Patel, of Dayton.

Patel, 40, is a civil engineer with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.  He has three children, triplets, currently attending school in the district.  He said maintaining the balance between programming and minimal tax impact is difficult and needs constant analysis as to the best practices for all involved.  

"I'm definitely pro-kids because they're our future, but we also have to keep the taxpayer in mind to keep them from being impacted too much," Patel said.  "We all want to see our kids get the best of the best in education and keep moving towards a twenty-first century education level.  But I can assure people I'm not one who will continue to raise taxes.  We need to tax where we have to, but also continue to preserve the effective programs so we can satisfy students and taxpayers."

Patel said that preserving extracurricular activities for students is important because maintaing a strong district is important for maintaining property values.

"I'd like to keep the emphasis we have on sports and activities," he said.  "Taxpayers are the ones who pay for these schools and many of them have kids in the system, so we need to keep that programming strong.  We also need to keep in mind that not all residents have kids in the schools, so we need to keep in mind how harsh a tax increase would be on them. It's a difficult balance and it's certainly not a win-win situation for anybody, but both are important to me."

Patel has been attending Board of Education meetings for the last three years and is also the vice president of the township Transportation Advisory Committee and he represents South Brunswick in the Middlesex County Transportation Coordination Committee. 

"Through my work in the community I can bring some good ideas to the South Brunswick School District," he said.  "I bring an awareness of where to cut without hurting students.  I think the board needs a new set of eyes and some fresh ideas. Raising taxes is not a good solution for anyone, right now or in the future."

Patel said the district needs to continue to look at ways of mitigating the district's budgetary woes.

"To handle this crisis we need to look at some of the budget analysis and some of the short term costs," he said.  "We need to look at the cost of health care and see if we can do better.  We need to look at doing more shared services and state level negotiations.  We also need to try and keep charter schools from coming into the district so we don't lose more taxpayer money to those schools."

Patel said the district needs to continue to look to grants and outside funding sources to maintain the district's reputation.

"I would work with everyone and lawmakers throughout the state to try and get as much state funding as possible," he said.  "When we keep a strong district we keep people wanting to move here, so it's important that the South Brunswick School District remains one of the best."