More information about BOE candidates

Five candidates seek three seats in Rondout Valley school board

Sunday, May 8, 2011

KYSERIKE — Rondout Valley school district voters on May 17 will choose three of five candidates to serve three-year terms on the Board of Education.

Incumbent Trustees Kent Anderson, James Ayers and Pamela Longley are joined on the ballot by James Blair and Peri Rainbow.

Rainbow, 51, cited more use of “low- or no-cost” community resources to help meet the demands of providing a better education in a tough fiscal environment.

Rainbow cited partnerships with area higher education institutions, the use of volunteer mediators and the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network’s Safe Schools Roundtable as examples of community resources that not only can enrich students’ educational experience, but also help teachers tackle tough topics like bullying.

A SUNY New Paltz adjunct professor who teaches educational studies, women’s studies and psychology classes, Rainbow said she aims to improve the district’s culture to one in which students and teachers feel safe, accepted and included, and which allows everyone to focus on academics and improving student achievement.

During tough economic times, Rainbow said, the district should lean more on parents and volunteers to, for example, supervise students on school buses.

She said she also wants the atmosphere between the school board and public to be more open and inclusive.

Rainbow, who holds a master’s degree in humanistic multicultural education from SUNY New Paltz, lives on Buck Road in Stone Ridge with her spouse, Tamela Sloan, an assistant principal at Grove Street Academy in Kingston, and her 15-year-old daughter, a Rondout Valley High School student.

Longley, 38, cited among her top priorities finding new ways to bring in revenue or cut costs, like sharing services, contracting out in areas where money can be saved and using the district’s reputation for its “strong special education” program to get non-district residents to come to Rondout Valley and pay tuition.

A paralegal assistant at the Ulster County Attorney’s Office, Longley also wants “to improve the climate in the district for all stakeholders” along with district communication overall. She said the district should foster an environment in which everyone feels like they are heard and respected and that nurtures learning at all levels.

Longley, who is seeking her third term on the board, said it also is important to integrate technology with the academic program to give students the skills they need to succeed in 21st century workplaces.

Longley said she wants students to graduate with critical and analytical thinking skills, good judgment, confidence, a love of learning and a general feeling of empowerment that will make them succeed at whatever they do in life.

Longley, who lives on Old Clove Road in High Falls, has a child in the district.

Blair, 70, cited bringing “a more pragmatic” approach to contracts with district employees among his top priorities. He said a big problem facing the district now is the intersection between school officials’ past agreements to “generous” compensation with the current fiscal realities of declining state aid and rising pension and health insurance costs.

A retired Manhattan commercial litigation attorney, Blair said employee costs have become unaffordable, citing the approximately 50 positions being cut in the district’s proposed budget for 2011-12. He said it is important to come up with budgets that not only work for employees, but also are affordable for district residents.

Blair, a member of the Marbletown Property Tax Reform Task Force and the New York State Property Tax Reform Coalition, also is a proponent of consolidating the district’s schools, saying it seems inevitable. He said the district is paying Westchester County-like costs per student and getting only average performance.

Blair was part of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force from 1962 to 1967, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He graduated from Dartmouth with a master’s degree in math and from Harvard Law School.

He lives on Krom Road in Stone Ridge with his wife, Wendy, a retired property administrator for New Zealand’s mission to the United Nations. They have a 29-year-old daughter.

Ayers, 67, cited renegotiating the contract with the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers among his top priorities. The contract between the union and district calls for 4 percent raises on top of 2 percent step raises for 2011-12 and expires at the end of that school year.

The retired Rondout Valley math teacher also listed “rightsizing” the school district as a need. He said an elementary school probably will have to be closed, given declining enrollment and tough economic times. The matter, however, still needs more study, he said.

Ayers, who is seeking his fourth term on the board, said that with new statewide teacher evaluations coming down the pike next year, developing the part of the process in which there is local discretion also will be important. Issues, he said, include developing assessments, which must include ways to evaluate special education, art and physical education teachers,  and ironing out an appeals process.

The president of the Ulster County School Boards Association, Ayers also expressed disappointment in the district’s progress in addressing English language arts scores. He listed that as another priority.

Ayers holds a master’s degree in math from Florida State University. He lives on Samsonville Road in Kerhonkson and has two children, ages 31 and 23.

Anderson, 58, said improving curriculum and relationships between staff members and the administration are among his priorities. He described those relationships as strained at present.

“Both sides need to emphasize being collegial rather than adversarial,” he said.

Anderson said consolidating the district’s schools is important to him because of the district’s declining enrollment and the difficult fiscal climate.

Anderson, who is seeking his fourth term on the board, is a private-practice attorney in Kingston. He received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

He lives on Candlewood Lane in Stone Ridge with his wife, Gail, a retired teacher. They have two children, ages 23 and 26.

(Freeman 5/8/11)