John Sangiovanni

Montgomery Township/Rocky Hill School Board Candidates 2026

Q: How many years have you lived in Montgomery or Rocky Hill?

A:   Montgomery, 13 years.

Q:  Where do you work/job title?

A:  Chief estimator for a heavy/civil construction company for 10 years, overseeing projects up to $150M and estimating $700–$900M annually in utilities, water, and sewer treatment plants.

Q:  Education

A:  I don’t believe in judging a person by where they went to school and what degrees they have as it limits who a person is, what they’ve accomplished, and what they will do in the future.

Q:  Family/Personal

A:  I’m proud to be a husband to my wife Dara and father of two daughters, a senior at Montgomery HIgh School and a sophomore at Monmouth University.

Q:  What skills do you have that would make you a good school board member?

A:   First and foremost, I’m a parent. I’ve been there for my children through every experience they’ve faced in our schools, including advocating to protect my daughters’ educational needs, bringing multiple bullying situations to light, and fighting to make sure people responsible were held accountable. I know what it feels like to sit on the other side of the table and have to push to be heard.

I also bring real-world financial and management experience. I estimate and manage multi-million dollar construction projects, so I know how to look at a budget, ask where the money is going, and determine whether my company is getting their money’s worth.

Q:   What issues do you believe our district needs to address? What changes would you recommend?

A:  The biggest issue our district needs to address right now is the stifling of public opinion, public requests and the needs of the public. That needs to change. The only time the public has a chance to express themselves is during the school board meetings. But, the board president has designed the board meetings to remove timely public comments, which allows the board to make decisions without any public input. The changes I would make would be to make the format more open so the public has more opportunities to speak and to also learn more about how the board functions. The board members should be representing the taxpayers not suppress them.

Q:   What are your thoughts on school taxes? What should be the MTSD priorities?

A:  The issues our district needs to focus on are the tax increases that will be coming over the next two years. These increases have been pushed forward without looking closely at how past money was spent. Current board members who were elected in 2025 and will be sitting for the next two years will be raising our taxes. They approved a 6% increase in the spring of 2026 and will go after more in the upcoming years. Other sitting board members and the board president are allowing this to happen.

Currently, our school business administrator has refused to allow a change in the accounting firm that we have employed for over a decade. This needs to end. A new firm should be brought in, and past accounting practices should be reviewed while moving forward with a fresh set of eyes.

When a company in the private sector grows, it may change accounting firms because its needs, formulas, and financial conditions change. If a company makes critical errors in its revenue versus expenditures, it could potentially go into bankruptcy. That is not an option for a school district. In the end, the taxpayers are the ones who have to bail it out.  We are seeing this happen in school districts across New Jersey.

Q:   What are your thoughts on how to increase trust between board members, educators, and the public?

A:  Every year all of the candidates have used  the word “transparency” in their campaign almost as a slogan to increase trust. However, I have never seen it applied as long as I have lived here. Once a candidate is elected, something happens to them, they get drawn into the political spider web of our board and administration. It’s time to change that. The members of the board need to actually represent the taxpayers and the parents, as if every dollar and every vote matters to real people. There appears to be a cozy relationship with the board, administration, and the MTEA. Each is its own entity, each has its job to do. If we respect each of the three and keep them at a respectable distance it will bring back trust.

Q:   What book would you recommend as being important for all high school students to read, and say why?

A:    The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. It reminds us that government should serve the people and that elected officials must remain accountable to the citizens they represent.