School board incumbent still sees more work to do

Roni Posner got an education on how boards work while attending college in New England.

Posner, 66, was a student at Rider College – now university – when she fought to end curfew for women. Male students did not have curfew in the late 1960s, and, Posner said, the dean of students agreed to let women try a year to see how it worked.

After a year with no incidents, Posner returned to the dean about eliminating the curfew permanently. He said no.

“I walked out of the administration building that day and said, 'That's it',” she said.

She rallied a group of women to camp out near the building where a college board was meeting.

The result was an end to curfews for women at Rider College, and Posner's newfound interest in the decision-making process.

It's a passion that has followed her throughout her life. The 66-year-old is running for a second term on the Cape Henlopen school board where she serves as vice president. Lewes resident Jose Saez is challenging her for her at-large seat up for election May 12. Milton resident Carl Smink dropped out of the race April 7.

Posner said she is running because she believes there is more work to be done.

“Now we've reached a new phase of growth and policy-making for the district,” she said. “My focus will be separation of policy and management.”

Posner said board members should not make decisions on curriculum or other education tools – those decisions should be left to the professionals hired to do the job.

“That has been my mantra, and it will continue to be,” she said.

Posner got her start in education as a teacher in Boston public schools. Less than two years later, she took a job with the Massachusetts Department of Education, which gave her a front-row seat when lines were redrawn to desegregate Boston schools.

“I was at the table when Judge [W. Arthur] Garrity desegregated the schools with a stroke of his pen,” she said.

Her experience racially balancing schools in Boston may be put to use when the Cape district balances student populations at Milton and H.O. Brittingham elementaries. Like Boston, she said, lines can be redrawn to achieve balance.

Posner said she was an early proponent to bring computers into the classroom and also became interested in vocational-technical education while she worked on a master's degree from Northeastern University and a joint doctorate degree from Northeastern and Harvard in educational planning and social policy.

Posner worked two years as an assistant superintendent for a New England school district before heading to Washington, D.C., in the 1980s. There she worked for the U.S. Department of Education and later a string of nonprofits: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Financial Women International Inc., Women in Communications Inc., Alliance for Nonprofit Management and WomenHeart.

She also met her future spouse, Jeri Berc.

In 1988, the two were the first same-sex couple married in their LGBT synagogue in Washington, D.C.

That year, they also moved to Lewes. They are members of Seaside Jewish Community, and they have renewed friendships with many of their friends who moved to the Cape Region from Washington, D.C.

When she ran for school board the first time around, Posner said, some Cape schools were on academic watch, and there was a great need for improvement.

Even though district schools now place among the top in state testing, she said, the district must address facilities, class size and growth.

“Look how far we've come, but we still have some more work to do,” she said.