TOMS RIVER – Incumbents Ashley Lamb and James Capone retained their school board seats, and will be joined by first-time member Laura Picurro after the dust settled on election day.
School board candidates are not allowed to put their political affiliation on the ballot. Instead they use short slogans. The vote counts are as follows, but the official numbers take a few weeks until the county confirms them.
Ashley Lamb (11,584 votes), James Capone (11,469 votes) and Gerard Nappi (8,891 votes) ran under the “Protect What Matters” slogan. Laura Picurro (11,064 votes), Anthony L. Colucci (9,104 votes), and Elizabeth Huber (9,159 votes) ran under the “Finance, Education, Accountability” slogan. Kristen Hanson (6,069 votes) ran under the “Educating Students Responsibly” slogan. There were 422 write-ins.
During the campaign, candidates spoke about the significant cuts in state funding over the years, and how to provide for children with dwindling finances. The following details come from pre-election interviews with The Toms River Times.
Lamb is Deputy Ocean County Clerk and a small business owner. She has served two terms on the board of education, and is currently its president.
“Our plan to address the situation and keep taxes from increasing any further is to open a special education academy to create in-house experiences for our medically fragile population, and bring out of district programming home to Toms River. Primarily because this is what is best for children, also to save tax dollars, and begin to generate our own source of revenue that is not linked to tax increases and not controlled by Trenton,” she said.
“We have also begun and will continue to reduce unnecessary administrative costs, cut spending in places that do not affect student outcomes, and offload responsibilities that have nothing to do with educating kids. Selling unused land to municipal and county governments keeping the properties in the hands of the taxpayers, yet reducing the strain on the district to manage them. Smart management, supporting our outstanding teaching staff who have in turn supported these children is what has kept our programs intact and allowed us to do more with less. Moving into this fiscal year the plan is to continue to safeguard our student experience, our buildings, our programs, our staff, and prevent any state forced tax increases,” she said.
Nappi is a full-time remote employee and Vice President of Strategic Relations at MicroTech LLC.
Capone is the owner of Capone’s Gourmet Pizza and Pasta in downtown Toms River.
Picurro is the Director of Health and Human Services for the Township of Toms River. She oversees the Toms River Senior Center and Senior Services and is the Municipal Alliance Coordinator. This will be her first time in elected office.
“In my current position, I manage public programs, grants, and budgets, and I am accountable for how those funds are spent. I understand the need to make difficult decisions, establish priorities and do more with the resources available. I plan to bring that same approach to the Board. I will advocate for the funding Toms River deserves while making sure we are responsible with the money taxpayers are already providing,” she said.
Colucci is retired after more than 40 years in finance and accounting. He the President of the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association and is a member of the Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment. He previously served on the Toms River Environmental Commission and the Old Bridge Arts & Culture Commission.
Huber is “an experienced educator and workforce development professional….In my current role with APL Associates, I provide pre-employment transition services to high school students and deliver individualized job coaching for individuals with disabilities, supporting them through pre-placement, workplace training, and long term skill development.”
Hanson is a teacher who worked her way up to Assistant Superintendent of Special Services in Brick before retiring after 37 years of experience in education.
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