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Westchester County, NY | May 17, 2011 Election |
Who I am and What I Stand ForBy Robert "Bob" PilieroCandidate for Member, Board of Education; Harrison Central School District; Seat currently held by Philip Silano | |
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I've lived in Harrison for 20 years, and now have two children in the District, a 3rd grader at HAS and a 6th grader at LMK. Having grown up as one of 5 kids in a working class family in Flushing, Queens, I know the importance of a good education and how it can change lives. My good fortune in having been educated at Regis High School, the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School and Georgetown Law School literally changed my life. I am running for a seat on the Board of Education because I believe our children`s future deserves and requires more from our schools than they are now receiving. To be clear upfront, I am pro public education, pro schools and pro teachers. I am not in favor of tracking; I favor greater course opportunities on an oopen enrollment, no-cut score basis, with maximum flexibility between academic pathways. Some of the current Board Members have occupied their seats for a decade or more. Although there have been some improvements in extra-curricular programs, our schools are no more competitive now than when they were first elected, and in many respects are less so. A decade ago, Harrison was widely regarded as a community rich in cultural and economic diversity, but that its schools needed a substantial overhaul in order to ensure a high quality of education for our kids. To remedy this situation, a new school Superintendent was brought in and many of the then-newly elected Board members (who are still serving today) promised to provide that needed change. While the District has made many changes, due to a number of recent and in my view ill-conceived decisions, at the end of a decade of their stewardship the District's results are as follows:
In the past months and, I am sure in the coming weeks, you will hear some disputing these facts (all can be easily and independently confirmed on numerous State and local websites) I assume out of some misguided loyalty to the Superintendent and Board. My loyalty is to your and my children, giving all the opportunity to have the education our children deserve and our tax dollars are supposedly paying for!! Low-ranking schools and high property taxes. This combination makes Harrison an unlikely choice for young couples with children. Based on 11 criteria, with schools, housing costs and property taxes being weighted 52% of the total, Westchester Magazine ranked Harrison dead last, 40 out of 40, in its list of Best Places to live in Westchester." Overall property assessments in Harrison are down by about $2.2 million, and houses placed on the market in Harrison languishes for an average of about a year (compared to 6 months or less in Rye and other neighboring towns), if they can be sold at all. I believe that members of the Board of Education have a solemn duty to ensure the best possible education for our children, and to ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely and productively to achieve that. These are some of the areas where I believe we can and must do better: 1. The Superintendent and the Board should set and communicate goals that are measurable, and time periods for achieving them. Without that, we will be unable to distinguish between mere declarations of success and true educational accomplishment. 2. The Superintendent should be accountable to the Board, not the other way, which is how it now operates. The Superintendent has a 5-year contract that is renewed every year. That makes it an evergreen contract with no accountability. 3. The commitment to "universal acceleration" should be reconsidered. It is irresponsible to force kids into courses (AP and otherwise) for which they are unprepared just so the District can report that we have a 500% increase in students taking AP courses over the past 10 years, without reporting that 48% of the AP tests are failed. 4. We need to provide our students with broader course opportunities so they are not forced to choose between what may for them be an unchallenging Regents level class or a college level AP class for which they are unprepared. 5. We need to re-examine the District's mis-application of the "differentiated learning" teaching model. Because of limited course offerings, classrooms are populated by students of wildly divergent abilities, but we irrationally expect our teachers somehow magically to bring out the best in each kid. Our teachers are highly skilled, but the "differentiated learning" model was never intended to be used in the circumstances the District has created through "universal acceleration" and inadequate course offerings. My kids will be staying in the District's schools. I want what you want:
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