A School Board Meeting with Eleven Pe…

A School Board Meeting with Eleven People Present   by Peggy Godfrey  (Westchester Herald, May 21)

 

     With wide differences of opinion, the five candidates for the school board debated their positions on the school budget, contract negotiations, mandated services and a host of other issues.  The New Rochelle Board of Education candidates were featured at a League of Women Voters meeting on May 11.

     Deirdre Polow, a school counselor who is the sole incumbent school board member, was the first speaker and spoke of her “passion” for preserving the excellence of the New Rochelle school system.  She emphasized that this was the lowest school budget in the last 12 years and that 70% of it was for salaries.  The Board is pursuing sharing services such as garbage collection with the city to lower overtime costs. 

     A retired teacher, Kenneth Chorzewski, said because of mandates he would not lower the budget at this time.  One cost saving he advocated was to convince principals they should be able to “roll over’ unspent money to the next school year’s budget.  He made particular note of two groups of people: those who have children in the school district and those who don’t, and they look at the budgets differently.

In particular, he made a comparison between the Superintendent of Schools in New Rochelle schools serving l0,000 children and the Chancellor of New York City with one million children saying both make $250,000.  Teachers’ salaries in New Rochelle in his view far exceed New York City salaries.

     Dr. Jack Wagner, a professor and retired surgeon, who has since dropped out of the race, talked about the number of contractors in the school district and was particularly critical of the 23 school mechanics and the amount of overtime they are given.  When union contracts were discussed he claimed the Board of Education and union have an “incestuous relationship.”

     The President of the Ward School PTA and a Vice President of a technology company, Jeffrey Hastie felt to aid transparency in the negotiation process school board members should be sitting with the teachers.  He also stated that technology should be used to communicate with the community.  Questions should be answered in public.

     While the claim was made by Polow that board meetings held at schools are “packed,”  Chorzewski made particular note of a meeting he had attended where after the children who were performing left, only ll people were left in the audience.

     Vincent Malfetano who is a teacher and attorney, feels a new vision is needed on the problems that face the community.  He believes he has the proper vision because even many years ago he had urged the school board not to close five schools.  He agreed that the present mystical school budget should contain as much detail as the city’s budget does.  He feels the district needs representation in the style of Teddy Roosevelt, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  The school board in his view needs someone who can speak up for needed change, such as moving the election to November and electing school board members all at once.

     There are currently two seats open on the New Rochelle Board of Education.  Voting will take place on Tuesday May 19.