Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; Byram Hills Central School District

Challenges facing our school district.

Each year in the early Fall the Board of Education adopts a set of goals and tasks it seeks to accomplish during the school year. Some of these (such as renewing contracts with our employee bargaining units) have a short duration with an expectation that there will be a desirable outcome by the following June. Others have multi-year timeframes because they may be curricular in nature (including annual reviews of different departments, programs, or disciplines) or relate to the state standards and assessments or the district's leadership positions. We often align our goals to address real challenges facing the district and we give careful and conscientious attention to them because their outcomes directly affect the district's educational environment. Of the many issues we face in the current and near-future, I believe the following will be among the most challenging: 1) planning and implementing succession needs for each of the district's highest level leadership positions, 2) refining our community outreach and communications efforts to gain broader community support and understanding of district initiatives and budget proposals, and 3) providing for greater integration of technology (e.g. SMART Boards, Earobics, Lexia, etc.) in the curriculum (in both the teaching and learning processes) in a manner that is fair, equitable, and cost-effective. Another challenge is to continue to promote in the broadest and most effective ways possible the principles of cultural proficiency so that all segments of our school community can improve our sensitivity, awareness, and understanding for all cultures and behaviors.

Suggestions to save money or reduce costs.

The Board of Education has the extremely important responsibility of ensuring the financial health of the school district. This requires that we constantly monitor district expenses and have a thorough understanding of the anticipated costs of new programs and initiatives and personnel increases. Since we are a service organization -- the education of our students is our only product, most of our expenses are for personnel or are fixed in nature (e.g., salaries and benefits, state-mandated pension contributions, debt obligations, etc.). Hence, we have very limited opportunities to make substantive reductions in expenses without there being a negative impact on the educational process. For example, I would not eliminate teachers and increase class sizes (which are currently within acceptable ranges); I would not 'privatize' our transportation system to eliminate our bus replacement, maintenance, and insurance costs; and I would not scale back on the money we earmark each year for the ongoing maintenance of our buildings and grounds since this routine care helps to prevent more inflated costs down the road. However, I would continue to do as much outsourcing as possible (except transportation) of such services as psychological testing and screening, food services, personnel security checks, etc.; I would continue to purchase supplies and other services through BOCES or other regional consortiums; I would continue to ensure that the business office is staffed with high quality and experienced personnel who can take any necessary steps to address recommendations that result from internal and external audits and risk assessments and who can provide creative ideas to reduce costs or control expenses; and I would continue to seek and welcome grants and contributions from the school community and others such as the Byram Hills Education Foundation (which has contributed more than $2 million over the last 13 years), the Boosters Club, and the PTSA.

Some Thoughts About Our Academics.

We must always be guided by our District's Mission which is to 'provide students with the means, the knowledge, and the opportunity to excel in order to become productive and responsible citizens of the twenty-first century." There is an organization called 'Partnerhip for 21st Century Skills' that is a coalition of organizations and corporations that serves as a catalyst for change in the way K-12 education is taught, learned, and assessed so that today's students can be effective citizens, workers, and leaders of tomorrow. I support the Partnership's Framework for 21st Century Learning which includes: 1) continuing our emphasis on the core subjects [e.g., English Language Arts, Math, Science, Foreign Language, History, Geography, etc.], 2) expanding course contents to provide a global awareness, financial and economic literacy, civic literacy, and health and wellness awareness, 3) improving our learning and thinking skills, 4) making greater use of information and communications technology, and 5) having teachers incorporate life skills such as leadership, ethics, accountability, and personal responsibility into their pedagogy. Thankfully, at Byram Hills we have been incorporating these skills into our curriculum for several years, and I would continue to encourage it in every discipline. Looking ahead, I strongly endorse the continued growth and expansion of our fine arts curriculum in lower grades and the middle school --but particularly our orchestra and choral programs with an increase in the number of advanced music and art courses; I believe that foreign language will and should eventually be offered in the lower grades [with the hope that we can find qualified teachers]; and I would like to build upon the extraordinary success of the Authentic Science Research in the High School program by introducing a similar program in mathematics. Although not 'academic', I would also support district efforts to add another girls interscholastic team to the Spring sports season.