Jingwei Shi
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Jingwei Shi (also known as Jerry) is an at-large representative on the Edison Township Public Schools school board in New Jersey. Shi was initially appointed to the position in January 2014.
This candidate participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to view his responses.
Biography
Shi's professional experience includes working in the pharmaceutical industry with Merck as a systems associate with Merial Limited. He has served on the Edison Township Public Schools human relations committee and as a volunteer with the J.P. Stevens Band Parent Association. Shi has also served as a vice principal and board chairman with a Chinese school in the Edison area. He earned both his M.S. degree in computer science and his M.B.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and his B.A. in systems engineering from the Shanghai University of Engineering Science.[1][2]
Elections
2017
Four of the nine seats on the Edison Township Public Schools school board in New Jersey were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. Three seats were up for regular three-year terms and one seat was up for a one-year unexpired term. A total of 11 candidates filed for the seats.
Board members Beth Moroney and Jingwei Shi won new three-year terms on the board and were joined in their victory by Falguni Patel. They defeated Carol Bodofsky, Elizabeth Conway, Ruchika Juneja, Aqib Virani, Sunil Vuppula, and Maria Wise. Board member Paul Distefano defeated challenger William Araujo for the one-year term.[3]
Results
| Edison Township Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jingwei Shi Incumbent |
17.62% | 6,401 |
| Falguni Patel |
17.27% | 6,272 |
| Beth Moroney Incumbent |
16.80% | 6,100 |
| Elizabeth Conway | 14.11% | 5,124 |
| Carol Bodofsky | 13.90% | 5,050 |
| Maria Wise | 8.24% | 2,992 |
| Aqib Virani | 4.82% | 1,749 |
| Ruchika Juneja | 3.79% | 1,378 |
| Sunil Vuppula | 3.45% | 1,254 |
| Total Votes | 36,320 | |
| Source: Middlesex County, New Jersey, "Historical Election Results: November 2017," accessed March 22, 2018 | ||
Funding
Shi reported $18,254.50 in contributions and $8,698.00 in expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, leaving his campaign with $9,556.50 cash on hand as of October 17, 2017.[4]
2014
Shi, fellow incumbent Frank Heelan, and newcomer Beth Moroney defeated five challengers to win the three at-large seats in the general election on April 23, 2014. Shi, Heelan, and Shivi Prasad-Madhukar campaigned as one slate and Moroney, Kiel Thoms, and Chang-Hui Shen campaigned as a separate slate called Team E3.[2][5]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Beth Moroney |
18.1% | 2,133 | |
| Nonpartisan | Frank Heelan Incumbent |
17.7% | 2,089 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jingwei Shi Incumbent |
15% | 1,768 | |
| Nonpartisan | Shivi Prasad-Madhukar | 13.4% | 1,581 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kiel Thoms | 12.4% | 1,466 | |
| Nonpartisan | Patrick Amaral | 11.5% | 1,353 | |
| Nonpartisan | Chang-Hui Shen | 8% | 945 | |
| Nonpartisan | Naseeruddin Mohammad | 4% | 473 | |
| Total Votes | 11,808 | |||
| Source: Edison Township Public Schools, "Public BOE Meeting - Reorganization Meeting," April 28, 2014 | ||||
Funding
Shi did not report any campaign contributions or expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission during the election.[6]
Endorsements
Shi did not receive any official endorsements for his campaign in this election.
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
Jingwei (Jerry) Shi participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[7] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 27, 2017:
| “ | Continue to put the students and taxpayers’ interests as the top priorities. Continue to collabare with township to develop programs to fund the school district and looking for more shared services. Continue to work with state legislators to get the fair share of funding for Edison. Continue to be fiscally responsible and stay independent from any special interests group(s). Continue to develop new programs, services and curriculums to impove the public education in town for both regular ed and special ed students. Create an environment where the students can thrive at the same time rewarding for our educators and staff so they can contribute with their best abilities. Challenge and prepar the students so they can be career ready, college ready and most importly to be a good citizen when they graduate.[8][9] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in New Jersey. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| “ | The buggest issue in our school district is overcrowding.[9] | ” |
| —Jingwei (Jerry) Shi (September 27, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. The local school board knows the local issues much better than the state. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Achievements cannot acurarly measured by a test score. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. The pay should go with performances. That is how the teachers and staff should be rewarded. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Stafff Evaluation and feedbacks from students and parents |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement. There are three pillars in education. The school environment(curriculum, dedication of teachers, administration). The will of the students to continue to learn and challenge themselves. The support of the students families. Cannot miss any one of the three. |
2014
Shi shared a campaign website with Frank Heelan and Shivi Prasad-Madhukar where they listed themes for their 2014 campaigns:
| “ | Students First Every act by a school board should be based on what is best for students. A school system exists primarily to advance the interests of the students, not the interests of the adults. Independence and Integrity Fiscal Responsibility Governance Openness |
” |
| —Jerry Shi, Frank Heelan, and Shivi Pradad's slate campaign website (2014)[10] | ||
See also
- Edison Township Public Schools, New Jersey
- Edison Township Public Schools elections (2017)
- Edison Township Public Schools elections (2014)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Jerry Shi," accessed March 17, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Heelan, Shi & Prasad for Edison BOE, "About Us," accessed March 17, 2014 (dead link) (dead link)
- ↑ Elisabeth Moore, "Email exchange with Cassandra Achille, Middlesex County Elections official," August 14, 2017
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "Filings," accessed October 17, 2017
- ↑ Facebook, "E3 for Edison BOE," accessed April 18, 2014
- ↑ New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, "View a Candidate or Election Related Committee Report," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "Jingwei (Jerry) Shi's responses," September 27, 2017
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Heelan, Shi & Prasad for Edison BOE, "Issues," accessed March 17, 2014 (dead link) (dead link)
| Edison Township Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Middlesex County, New Jersey | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-Large (3-year terms): Incumbent, Beth Moroney • Incumbent, Jingwei Shi • Carol Bodofsky • Elizabeth Conway • Ruchika Juneja • Falguni Patel • Aqib Virani • Sunil Vuppula • Maria Wise At-Large (1-year term): Incumbent, Paul Distefano • William Araujo |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
