- Q. How many Board of Education meetings have you attended during the last three years?
- A. I have attended over 20 Board of Education meetings in the past three years and all of the Budget Information meetings for the past three years.
- Q. What do you see as the role of a Board of Education member as part of our District governance team?
- A. My role, as a member of the Board of Education, must always be to work with the community to ensure that their interests are being served. The board members should be the overseer of the fiscal state of the school District. A board member should provide guidance on the policies used throughout the District. The board should be making recommendations for creating and updating the policies that will help promote the District’s goals. The board members need to be advocates for public education and work with local, state and federal representatives to ensure the best interests of our school District are met.
- Q. If you are reelected or elected to serve on the Commack Board of Education, what would be your three priority areas for board/administration study and potential improvement for the District?
- A. My first priority will be working with the board and superintendent on short and long-term plans for the Commack School District. We need to fully analyze the current fiscal situation including the tax cap and confront issues like increasing federal and state mandates that put additional fiscal constraints on our District without additional funding to support these mandates. Without these plans and declining enrollment, we are simply looking at diminished services and staff in the coming years due to a lack of sound fiscal planning.
- Second, I want to ensure that our students are offered ways to express themselves outside of the academic world. Many students look forward to times that they spend doing other school sponsored activities such as sports, clubs, music, art, honor societies among many others. These activities are vital to the students as it helps define and shape their character and personality.
- My final area of concern is the funding that occurs at the state level. This past year, we have received an early indication that the state aid would not be the same as in prior years. This effect could have been disastrous for many communities on Long Island including Commack. Thankfully, the aid was restored. We need to have ongoing conversations with our state representatives to ensure that we continue to see funding such that we do not have the situation whereby dramatic cuts need to be made.
- Q. What is your definition of a “Comprehensive Commack Education?” Does Commack currently offer this kind of an education, K-12?
- A. My definition of a Comprehensive Commack Education is one in which all of the students are offered the opportunities for growth and maturity. These areas must include the mental, physical and emotional well-being of the student and our District does offer such a program. Our District must make sure that our education standards are reviewed, updated and keep at the highest quality nationwide. We also need to include extra-curricular activities as part of this education experience as these areas allow the student to learn and express themselves in other areas not related to the main academia subjects. Unfortunately, these activities are usually seen as the first easy area to cut. One of the goals of the Board of Education should be to ensure that students are afforded a variety of activities that will enable them to become well-rounded adults of the Commack community.
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