Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; New Rochelle City School District

Civic and school board experience: I have attended over 100 school board meetings. Since 2008, I have often been the only person at the school board meetings not on the board or employed by the district.

I have relentlessly pushed for greater transparency of board meetings: airing meetings on TV, publishing agendas and orders of business on the web, as well as school budgets, audited financials, powerpoint presentations and video on the web. I researched and recommended digital recording technology to record meetings and make podcasts of meetings which was later purchased and adopted by the school board.

I not only attend the meetings but publish reports about them on the web. I also publish articles and opinion pieces by other members of the community.

To mark the 49th Anniversary of the Lincoln School desegregation case, I edited and published an 8-part series on the history of the Lincoln School case, one year before the 50th Anniversary of the Kaufman decision. I met with the leadership of the association of black churches in New Rochelle, the President of the N.A.A.C.P. and other leaders in the African-American community. I appeared before the school board to inform them of the upcoming event, of which they were unaware, and urged them to properly mark the occasion of the 50th Anniversary on January 24, 1961. These efforts initiated the year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary in our schools.

Elsewhere in the community, I have coached soccer and served as the Commissioner for New Rochelle AYSO Soccer. I was the founder of the Al's Pals Program for developmentally disabled youngsters, working with current school board member and then-SEPTA President Chrisanne Petrone to promote the program and attract players. I have been a head coach for both Little League Girls Softball and Little League Boys Baseball. I have donated my time to develop and manage numerous community web sites and social media platforms including the NAACP New Rochelle Branch, the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle, the New Rochelle Save Our Armory Committee, Habitat for Humanity for Westchester, and various political campaign web sites. I have been an instructor at the New Rochelle Public Library teaching a course on social media and web-based publishing.

Family:

My wife, Dr. Maria Suarez Cox and I have raised our four children in New Rochelle.

My wife is a special education teacher for the City School District of New Rochelle and a professor at Columbia University's Teacher College. She has been in the Special Education field for 25 years. Prior to working in New Rochelle she was a special educator at the Mount Pleasant Cottage School and Greenburgh 11 School for children residing at the Children's Village and has been an adjunct professor of special education at Marymount College, College of New Rochelle, DePaul University and Marymount Manhattan.

My two older children, Elena and Owen, are successful graduates of New Rochelle High School. Elena will graduate this month from SUNY-Binghamton and has already started a full-time job working as a layout editor in Binghamton for Gannett. Owen is a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame where he is majoring in Arabic Language and Culture. He will be working this summer for the Brooklyn District Attorney and studying next year at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is pursuing a career in government service working in the Intelligence community.

Collins and Micaela are currently enrolled at Albert Leonard Middle School and and Ward Elementary School, respectively. Collins is currently on the High Honor roll at Albert Leonard. Micaela plays Lacrosse and loves her teacher, Dr. G.

The Cox family is a member of Holy Name Parish in New Rochelle.

How long lived in the District:

I lived in the City School District of New Rochelle since 1994, 17 years.

Education:

Irvington Public School System (K-8)

High School Diploma, Iona Preparatory School

B.A. University of Notre Dame

M.B.A. University of Chicago

Occupation:

I am an online publisher, journalist and social media strategy consultant.