Views on My Candidacy for School Board

By Samuel Karol

As a concerned resident, parent, and taxpayer, my decision to run for the school board grew out of my desire to become more involved. I believe I can make a positive impact within the school district as a member of the Board of Education because of my background on Boards (with AYSO), my experience in the school district over the last 20 years, and my professional experience as a Project Manager dealing with complex issues and budgets on a daily basis.

My efforts as a board member would center on serving all of the children in the community; one child is no more important than another. We are a diverse community and have to celebrate that diversity. Our schools are here to serve the educational needs of all the children. All stakeholders; parents, teachers, administrators, community members, the town board, as well as students must be partners in this endeavor if we are to be successful.
A key issue for school boards is to create a long-term vision, mapping a course that provides the necessary opportunities students need to reach their full potential. The board is responsible for establishing and maintaining a structure that supports this vision, empowers the staff, and provides leadership. It is difficult to provide leadership and carry out a vision when a district lurches from crisis to crisis, like a ship without a rudder. With my background and knowledge of our district I can help to provide the necessary leadership to keep the district on an even keel. I strongly believe that we have tremendous teachers and staff working with our children. We must re-establish morale amongst all district employees, and work to return harmony throughout the district. Education takes place in the classroom and the board's efforts must focus on enhancing and enriching what goes on there.
My Focus
We need to keep our focus on what benefits our children and find ways to continually support that while minimizing any impact to our community. Recently, after having attended some work sessions, I have noticed that there seems to be an important aspect missing. It seems that the following questions are not raised when discussing important issues and I plan to make sure we always ask these questions:

How does this benefit the students, teachers and families of our school district?

Is there an impact to the community and taxpayers, and if so how do we minimize or eliminate the impact?

My Priorities:

a) Continue to improve the quality of the education. This is essential, we are competing is a global marketplace and our children need to be able to compete for jobs in a world that is continually changing.

b) Improved Relations with the teachers, community and the school board which I believe has been damaged during the recent contract negotiations. I feel that it important to work as a team toward common goals. We need to come together in tough times and share benefits of good times, but we must trust one another and work together. Without the shared trust and respect if makes it very difficult to operate effectively as a school district

c) Keep School Taxes down. We need to keep taxes down in line with the rest of the economy. If taxes go up at a pace higher than wages, families will no longer be able to afford to live in the community. If young families can't afford to live here our student population shrinks. If student population shrinks, will need to make cutbacks at schools. This is a terrible cycle that we need to avoid because it will hurt the community, both our school district and home values.

My qualifications:

Professionally: I'm a Certified Project Manager and deal with solving complex problems on a daily basis. My professional career has given me valuable experience working with budgets. It has also given me valuable experience dealing with people from diverse backgrounds and in many different fields.

Community: I had the pleasure of being the Regional Commissioner for the Mount Pleasant American Youth Soccer Organization, which is the largest sports program in the town, for more that 6 years and a coach and referee for close to twenty years. AYSO is a non profit organization that provides a recreational soccer program for children ages 4 to 16. This position allowed me to work with individuals both on the Mt Pleasant Regional Board as well as the Area Board (consisting of commissioners and board members for other towns in Westchester County) to help improve the soccer experience for our children and families. The challenge was to continue to improve the program while keeping registration fees down. These challenges required working closely with local schools, town boards and recreation departments. This experience allowed me to build valuable relationships that will benefit me as a school board member in addition to providing me with invaluable insights into the workings of the school and town. During my tenure as Commissioner we increased our membership from 500 to 1200 children while minimizing increases in membership fees. This required working on reducing costs (i.e. uniforms, supplies, etc) and increasing our revenue. I was able to work with vendors to reduce costs of uniforms and equipment and instituted fund raising events to offset the cost of the program to its members. As you can see by the numbers of our membership, I was very successful in retaining players while attracting many new children/families. I also feel that patience is a very important trait in being a school board member. In running this league I had to deal with over 200 volunteer coaches / referees, 1200 players, 1200 plus parents, etc. I always treated everyone with respect and felt that it was so important to be a good listener. It is important to assume positive intent when people speak. You don't get defensive. You don't get frustrated. You don't scream. You are trying to understand and listen because at your basic core you are saying, 'Maybe they are saying something to me that I'm not hearing.' Always assume positive intent when people speak.

School: As a parent I have been involved in my children's education. I have one son that completely went through the Mt Pleasant system and another that is just a year away from completing. This has given me a great deal of exposure through both the academic side of their education along with all of the extra curricular activities. I have tried to help out wherever I could. For example I have become involved in both the Westlake Athletic Club and the Wrestling Club holding the position of treasurer this year. Also since my last child will be a senior next year my decisions on the school board will not be biased by my own children's needs since I will not be able to affect that.

Commitment: Once I have committed to something I am completely committed. For example in running for this board position I have taken advantage of every opportunity that presented itself. I attended the training session that was offered by Westchester Putnam BOCES for Potential Board Members and I attended the drawing for ballot positions. I was disappointed that none of my opponents were present at either event. I also attended an interview session at the Gannett, Journal Newspaper which was also attended by one of my opponents, but not all of my opponents and a meeting with teacher representatives, which was attended by me and two other candidates. I am committed.