As readers have noticed, the web site has been relatively inactive for the past couple of days as I have been devoting time to organizing my campaign for the New Rochelle Board of Education. The election is May 17th, just 2 weeks from today!
Tonight is the first event of this very brief campaign, a forum where all six candidates running for school board in New Rochelle have been invited: Robert Cox, Naomi Brickell, Rachel Relkin, Peter O’Keeffe, Dr. Salvador A. Fernandez, Colin J. Thomas. The event is being hosted by the End Civic Association at Halligan Hall at Holy Name Church. There will be three additional scheduled candidates forum’s, one sponsored by The League of Women Voters on May 9th at 7:00 p.m., one by the PTA on May 11th at 7:00 p.m. at New Rochelle High School and one by WVOX, 1460 AM on May 13, from 11 a.m. until noon where callers will ask questions on a live broadcast.
There has been so much excitement getting ready for the campaign, I forgot to announce that the district held the drawing last Thursday for poll position on the voting machine ballot and we managed to get the first spot on the ballot! I hope that is a sign of things to come!
FUNDRAISER THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!
The campaign will be holding its only fundraiser this Saturday night at the American Legion Hall, Post 8 at 112 North Avenue from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. Of course this is a spontaneous event given the nature of the short campaign so we really need your help to spread the word: please email and call your friends today. This is not your typical fundraiser. We want everyone to have a good time, raise some money for a good cause (electing me to the school board!) and build excitement for brining real change to the New Rochelle Board of Education. We’ve got 100 tickets available at $40 per ticket for which you get ice-cold soda, beer, wine, delicious food provided by AJ’s Burgers and great entertainment — DJ Carlos Sanchez, Keyboardist Matthew Pryce and the always rockin’ A to Z Band playing your favorite cover tunes — this is going to be a fun event. It is the first time ever that Talk of the Sound readers will have an impromptu gathering in one place. I am curious myself as to who will be there. Any excess funds in the campaign will go directly to the victory party the night of May 17th.
Folks have been buying tickets before we even announced so hurry up, RSVP now via email at partyatpost8@newrochelletalk.com or call me directly at 914-500-8386 and I will put you on the guest list. We will give you instructions on payment options — check via the mail, check or cash in person either before or at the door or online via credit card or PayPal.
UPDATE: Some folks have been asking about whether this is a kid-friendly event. Yes. I am bringing my two younger kids but would figure my wife will want to run them home about 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. The rock band will be coming on about then so it is likely to be a bit loud for younger kids at which point it would be more of an adult event but to each their own. Everyone is welcome!
PALM CARDS
As for the hard work over the past few days, the hardest part has been crafting the message of the campaign and getting that message into the “palm cards”, both English and Spanish. That was accomplished over the weekend and fine tuned until today, they went to the printers this morning and we should be ready in time for the weekend. As a Talk of the Sound reader, you get to have a sneak preview right here (feel free to email this article around to your friends and family!).
Click “read more” to see the new palm cards.
We have a great team already in place, supporters from all over New Rochelle and all walks of life. Now we need volunteers to help the team get out the vote and bring home a victory for New Rochelle by electing Robert Cox to the School Board.
VOLUNTEER FOR THE CAMPAIGN
This is a short campaign with a lot to do and every little bit helps. You can call me directly at 914-500-8386 or email at bob@newrochelletalk.com but for specific items it will be quicker for you to contact the appropriate campaign team leader:
1. Host a Lawn Sign or Window Sign: If you are interested in spreading the word please contact Greg Pryce at signs@newrochelletalk.com
2. Absentee Ballots: If you need an absentee ballot or want to help put absentee ballots into the hands of voters who will be out of town on May 17 or senior citizen voters who cannot make it to the polls on election day please contact John D’Alois at absentee@newrochelletalk.com
3. Phone Bank: We want to make phone calls to registered voters the week before the election. We need English and Spanish speaking volunteers. If you are interested please contact TBD at phones@newrochelletalk.com
4. Election Day Poll Watchers: We need to have two people for each of the 12 polling places (the 10 public schools plus Holy Name and MLK Center at 95 Lincoln and 570 Fifth Avenue). If you are interested please contact Mickey Boyle at polls@newrochelletalk.com
If you are interested in volunteering but don’t see anything that grabs your interest we still want to hear from you, there is always plenty to do. Send an email to volunteer@newrochelletalk.com or call me at 914-500-8386.
Hope to see you tonight at Halligan Hall and/or Saturday night at Post 8.
Fundraiser-Kid Friendly?
Bob,
Is the fundraiser kid friendly?? I’d like to come with the family…
First Candidate Forum Last Night, East End Civic
The East End Civic Association hosted what was the first gathering of school board candidates at Halligan Hall at Holy Name Church last night.
The line up was Robert Cox, Dr. Sal Fernandez, Colin Thomas and Naomi Brickell The other two candidates, Rachel Relkin and Peter O’Keffee did not attend.
After each candidate gave opening remarks, the members of the association asked questions. The primary focus was on the school budget and taxes.
One of the better questions came from Bo Kemp, a Trustee of the New Rochelle Public Library who noted that most of the expenses of the district were personnel-related costs and asked how we would reduce those expenses.
I offered several specific examples — installing biometric time-clocks at all school offices, schools and the Cliff Street yard and Grove Street garage as part of a program to make sure we will only pay people for hours worked and only give overtime pay to people who have worked the required number of hours during a given week, putting GPS locators on all district vehicles to make sure they are not moving when they are supposed to be secured, not parked for extended periods at the Dunkin’ Donuts or outside of New Rochelle altogether, ending our $850,000 contract with ServiceMaster which is supposedly managing our Buildings & Grounds department but cannot seem to keep track of the workers, vehicles or supplies.
No other candidate offered any specific examples. Naomi Brickell said she “harshly objected” to the idea of time clocks because it would insult district employees.
I did not get a chance to respond last night but as the spouse of a teacher in the district who has for many years routinely worked uncompensated overtime, the hard working teachers are the ones who benefit the most from such a system since the shirkers are held accountable so work does not always get dumped on the hard working people. More importantly, we have a very real problem with workers getting paid for hours they have not worked and in the current fiscal reality we need to contain costs where possible even if that means some temporary discomfort as people get used to the new system.
Another good question came up on the busing. The question was “how would you have voted on cutting the busing for out-of-district, non-special education/BOCES youngsters attending private and parochial school. Thomas and Fernandez had not attended the budget meetings over the past two months so were not familiar with the issue and did not offer any specifics. Naomi Brickell started her answer saying she would say how she would vote but ended saying “I would not vote vote”.
In my response, as is my style, I gave a blunt answer. I told the association that although some people from the French-American school and Catholic parochial schools did attend the budget meetings to advocate for putting the busing funds back into the budget, the group was almost entirely parents from Young israel New Rochelle and Young Israel Scarsdale. I said I had met with some of these parents as they sought to determine who they would support as a candidate for school board and had been pressed to promise that I would vote with them on taxpayer funded, out-of-district busing, I refused to make that promise.
I do not have any philosophical objection to paying for out-of-district busing. It costs $1.9mm. At the same time, it also frees up resources because parents who are paying the cost of educating these children privately are not placing that far higher burden on the taxpayers. I attended Iona Prep, my wife attended Ursuline and my two oldest children went to SJP for a while.
What I do object to would be cutting pedagogical services, services going directly to children in the classroom in order to fund what is an optional cost for the district from a legal perspective.
What the parents from YINR and YIS wanted to hear is that I would
What I told them instead was that as a more general principle I would not support cutting ANY services going directly to children unless I was absolutely convinced that there was nothing else to cut and that we were so far away from that being the case that I did not see any justification for the administration’s decision to cut the busing from the budget at this time.
Vote for 1 and only 1 on slot 1
Bob,
Congratulations on drawing slot 1 on the ballot. For those present at the meeting for the East End Civic Association last night, it was clear that you are the only candidate that understands the issues in depth.
Vote for 1 and only 1 on slot 1 on May 17th!