Views on My Candidacy for School Board

By Samuel Karol

It is my desire to stay involved in our community and help our district grow. As a board member I will forge strong relationships with parents, community, town, teachers, and administrators and foster open communication and transparent decision making. My years of experience has prepared me well for this position. The skills I use on a daily basis strongly parallel those needed for a BOE member as defined by the N.Y. School Board Association.

The New York State School Board Association publishes a pamphlet for potential school board members that list the qualities that make a good board member. This list includes the following; Effective Communicator, Consensus Builder, Community Participant, Decision Maker, Information Processor, Leader and Team Player. As I reflect on this list I realize that my professional experience in conjunction with my years of involvement in our school district and community has prepared me for the position of school board trustee.

As a member of the school board Audit Committee I have been exposed to some of the key issues that currently face our district. This involvement has provided me with significant experience that will be directly applicable to my duties as a board member. In my role as a Citizens Budget Committee member I have spent many hours analyzing our past and current school budget as well as our budget process. This work has provided me with a deep understanding of many of the budget issues the district faces now and will face in the near future. While a member of this committee I've made a number of suggestions for changes to the way our district communicates the budget to the community. These suggestions are currently being considered for implementation.

Being a regular attendee and participant at BOE meetings has given me first hand knowledge of how the board operates and the type of issues that are handled. With the exception of issues handled in closed Executive Sessions I'm in a position to be able to "hit the ground running" if elected to the board.

As a director of the Westlake Athletic Club I've gained a clear understanding of the needs of our Athletics Department. Serving as the Westlake Wrestling Club Treasurer has provided me with the opportunity to work with a large group of parents, students and coaches toward the common goal of improving our Wrestling program. In this position I have been deeply involved in fund raising to meet our goals.

I had the pleasure of being the Regional Commissioner for the Mt Pleasant AYSO for more than 6 years and a coach and referee for close to 20 years. In this position I had the pleasure of working with many individuals on our local AYSO board as well as others from many other areas. There were many opportunities and challenges associated with this work including: working closely with the local schools, the town board and the recreation department collaborating on fields, policies and participant safety. Over the years volunteering as coach, referee and commissioner I have been fortune enough to build many positive, long lasting, relationships that I'm sure will continue in my role as BOE member, if elected. A personal trait that served my very well while involved in AYSO is my skill in communicating with people. In this position I worked with over 200 volunteer coaches/referees, 1200 players, 1200 plus parents,etc. I always treated everyone with respect and always practiced being an active listener. It is important to assume positive intent when people speak. You can't get defensive. You can't get frustrated. It is most important to listen to what is being said and ask yourself, "are they saying something that I'm not hearing?" I try always to assume positive intent when interacting with people and fully intend to continue this practice if elected to the board.

As a professional Program / Project Manager I'm involved with teams on a daily basis working toward short and long term strategic objectives. The skills I use on a daily basis such as communicating/listening and information gathering/processing to help facilitate decision making are directly applicable to the work I would do as a school board member. For that matter the list of attributes one should look for in a BOE member found in the pamphlet mentioned earlier strongly parallel those required to be a successful program / project manager. For these reasons I believe I possess the skills and experience needed to be a very successful and effective member of the Board of Education.