Dorothy LaBeau

Incumbent

After moving to Sparta in 2000, I became actively involved in the school district and community, volunteering in many different capacities.

All three of my boys attended Sparta Public Schools with two graduated from Sparta High School. I have a senior at Malone University in OH and my second son is at UNC-Charlotte. Currently my youngest is a senior at SHS.

For the past six years I have worked as a groups account manager for a dental manufacturer focusing on hospital residency and major accounts.

During my 12 years in Sparta I made volunteering for the public schools a priority. Before being elected to the BOE in 2009 I served as president for MAS PTO, served four years on the Sparta Little League Football board and helped Sparta Friends and Neighbors raise money for Character Counts with their annual fashion show.

In 2006, I was a founding member of the Sparta Education Foundation and continue my work with them today. We have donated over $311,000 to the Sparta School District in grants requested through the curriculum department.

I also taught religious education for Blessed Kateri for seven years.

Sparta Public schools are in the top 30 percent of the state and we should always strive to do better.

During the next three years I would like our district to provide full-day kindergarten. This will give our youngest students the ability to do more each day and further prepare for their elementary grades and beyond. With over 90 percent of districts in NJ providing full-day kindergarten, we need to give our students the same advantage.

While striving to do as much as possible for the students, we need to be mindful to build the budget from a zero-based perspective and remain below the 2 percent state cap continuing to find efficiencies to get more out of every dollar. In the past year we have saved over $100,000 in top administrator’s salaries.

The current BOE recently approved to join the County Solar Project which will reduce our cost of electric and provide approximately $90,000 in revenue annually for the next 15 years.