I think so, yeah.
Good evening and welcome. My name is Lisa Pazaro and I'm a co-president of the League of Women Voters of Northeast Westchester. We'd like to thank the school district for asking us to moderate the school board candidate form again this year. Our moderator tonight is Catherine Daring. Catherine is a published author and poet. She is also a trained moderator and a longtime member and past president of our league.
In interest of fairness, Catherine does not reside in the North Salem School District and has no stake in the North Salem election.
Please give a warm welcome to Catherine Deering.
Thank you Lisa.
Good evening everyone.
I welcome you all this evening to our candidate forum to get to know the candidates for school board for the North Salem schools.
I am Catherine Deering, and Lisa, who introduced me, is the president of the League of Women
Voters of Northeast Westchester, which serves Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem, Makisco,
and Poundridge.
We're a volunteer organization dedicated to fostering and informed voting citizenry.
We're especially enthusiastic about helping voters get to know their local candidates.
We're always here on TV about all the national and state people, but this is your chance to get to know your local candidates.
Our league is preparing to host forums in the fall for our five towns for supervisor and town council and that sort of thing.
And we are welcoming more members to the league.
We have some forums over on the other side of the room.
You passed by them coming in and their membership forms and you could fill one in and hand it to Lisa or me and we'd be very happy to have you as a member of the league.
On Tuesday, May 16th, you'll be voting for the proposed budget for the coming year or voting on the proposed budget for the coming year and for two of the four candidates you see sitting across from you.
Voting will take place at your local elementary school, and polls are open from 7am to 9pm.
So I can't pronounce your elementary school, Pikwinakonk.
Pikwinakonk?
That's right.
I heard that before.
So I head over to PQ on May 16th.
Further information about the candidates and the budget is available at the www.norsalumschools.org.
Click on the Board of Education to see all the information.
They also have absentee ballots for anyone who needs one.
And now to the forum. We ask that everyone silence their cell phones.
There's no ringing going on. And now I'd like to introduce the candidates.
their names are Carolyn Alversano,
should've asked you how to pronounce these ahead of time.
Christopher Jagger, Kurt Gilden, and Matthew DeRose.
Our format tonight will be as follows.
Each candidate will have 90 seconds for an opening statement
and one minute for answers to questions
and then 90 seconds for the closing statement.
So 90 seconds, one minute, 90 seconds.
The order of answering questions will be rotated among the candidates.
And each candidate is also allotted up to two rebuttals.
Each one can be 30 seconds long to be used at my discretion.
So if we think that we're in the need for a rebuttal, we'll have rebuttals.
During the question and answer period, you voters may ask questions of the candidates.
I will remind you, no speeches, just a question, okay?
Any question may be directed at a particular candidate, but then all candidates will have
the opportunity to answer them.
So now we will go into the opening statements.
We've had a drawing of numbers to see what order people will go in, and they will
will start out in the order that they're at at the table.
So we will begin with Carolyn.
Carolyn, would you give us your opening statement please?
Hi, my name is Carolyn Eversono.
My husband and I moved to North Salem in 2004.
We are so happy to have raised our children here in North Salem
and our schools are such a big part of that.
We're not quite done.
Our youngest daughter is in 10th grade,
and our two sons are currently in college.
I am a former North Salem Board of Ed member.
I served one term from 2013 to 2015.
During that term, I was the co-chair of the advocacy committee,
along with Jim Bennett.
And we participated in a coordinated state-weight effort
to protest the Common Core Education Reform
which no longer exists today.
I also served on the Technology Committee,
and I am also proud to have worked with a few
of my fellow board members to advance the Spanish PQ program.
I'm also a former trustee at the Putnam Northern West
Esther Boce's Board of Ed.
And since my time on the Board of Education,
I have continued to be involved on serving
on our admission committee, our DEI committee,
and I'm also currently the Vice President
for the North Cell and Foundation for Learning.
I'm happy to be here to talk about
the most important issues facing our district.
Thank you.
And now Chris.
Hello, my name is Chris Jager.
My wife and I moved to North Salem in 2018.
We came from Long Island.
We should know about me.
I grew up in Hicksville.
I graduated high school.
I joined the military shortly after.
Station Korea, Iraq and for Carson.
Upon coming home, I got my degree at John J.
bachelor's of science and criminal justice, and after graduating from John Jay, I became
police officer in 2001 with the NYPD.
I was in 7-1 precinct currently for the last 10 years.
I was at the 2-8 precinct which located in Harlem.
I have a very big involvement with the community everywhere I work.
At this time I currently have two children attending PQ.
I have a first grade and a kindergarten with my wife and I just giving birth to our third
a very child two weeks ago, I have a long-term vested interest in running for the school board.
At this time, having two children in PQ, I want to get involved.
This year, I saw that the Board of Education doesn't make a lot of decisions on what goes
on with the school districts and important topics, like transparency with the parents, school
the mental health, and I look forward to opening up those lines of communications between the parents and the Board of Education.
Thank you.
Thank you, Matt.
Thank you to the League of Women Voters for giving us this opportunity to speak at this event.
My name is Matthew DeRose.
I was born and raised in the Bronx.
I'm a father of two children at the Quanta Conquette Elementary School.
My wife, a special education teacher, and I moved to North Salem, Rooster Area in 2012.
I'm a lieutenant in the FDNY with the total of 18 years experience.
My role as a supervisor foremost is to manage the overall safety and
well-being of firefighters and to manage all types of emergencies.
Currently, I teach an after-school class at PQ and a coach.
And I coach a Bruce or Little League baseball team that also happens to be consisting of all PQ boys.
I've been involved in the school district since my daughter and students all around our country were forced into
the remote learning environment.
Fortunately, I was able to support my daughter and teachers as we were all navigating this
unprecedented obstacle together.
It gave me a newfound appreciation for our teachers and the importance of our education.
The one thing I can say with absolute conviction is that when the community organizes,
communicates properly and acts with integrity.
We can and will overcome those obstacles together.
Thank you.
Kurt?
Welcome and thank you for coming tonight.
My name's Kurt Golden.
I live in the North Salem Central School District.
I am also a graduate from North Salem and so is my son.
I have been on the board for six years now.
I've served on several committees, audit,
facility, safety, communication.
and I'm also proud of our mission here in North Salem.
I'm also involved in the community.
I belong to the Chrome Falls Fire Department.
I'm President Captain of the Ambulance Corps.
I'm also the town of North Salem,
Office of Emergency Management Coordinator.
I have a few board of head of accomplishments I'd like to talk about.
I got a grant for maintenance trucks.
For the school, new sound system for the auditorium.
A grant for facilities that freed up funding for the additional resource officer.
work with the Department of Health to get clean, water, drinkable water in a
middle school high school and working for the same for the PQ project.
Participated in the superintendent's search and my plans for the future is I would
love to see pre-K started PQ with the next couple years and there is funding now
secured for that in the New York State budget.
Okay, thank you.
We will now have the Q&A.
We invite members of the audience to come up to the microphone and audience, the voters,
to come up to the microphone and ask your question while you're thinking about what you
want to ask.
I will start out with a question from the league.
We always like to kind of prime the pump with a question for you.
And this is going to be, well, Lisa gave me five questions I can ask you, but I think
I'll just stick with one.
And it is, if you are elected, and we're going to start with Chris.
If you are elected, what is one of your goals during your tenure on the board?
In other words, why do you want to be on the board?
What do you want to accomplish?
Just one of your goals.
One of my goals would be transparency between the parents of the district and the school board.
I would like to have parents that would want to attend the school board meetings and
not need to attend the school board meetings to know what's going on.
If that the end of what I mean by that is the transparency between the board and the parents
that the parents will have information and know everything that's going on in the district and with their children so they don't actually have to attend the meetings if they don't want to, they can attend the meetings if they want to not need to in order to know what's going on, and I would like to better enhance school safety with the schools and
Address mental health issues going on with young kids today especially after coming out of the pandemic and those would be the three things that I would look to address if elected.
Good.
Okay.
Thank you.
Turn off.
Matt, same question.
It's one thing you'd like to accomplish.
One thing I'd like to accomplish is to include parents in the Safety Committee.
According to the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the 2022
K-12 Security Guide, the first step in school security planning process is to identify and
can involve relevant staff and stakeholders, such as community organizations like the After
School Enrichment, YMCA, local law enforcement, and most importantly, their families.
So my number one goal is to include parents on the official North Salem Central School District
safety committee so that we are involved in the planning and
decision-making process.
Okay, thank you.
Kurt?
Like I brought up in my speech is I would love to see Pre-K started in North Salem.
I think that will be a benefit to the students.
As they grow older, we can have them in the school and I think we can do that here.
That's all I have.
Okay. You have up to a minute.
You don't have to use the entire minute.
Carolyn, what's one thing you hope to accomplish
when you are elected?
So the single most important issue
and my first goal for next year
is to effectively set the framework
for a productive relationship
between the Board of Education
and our new superintendent.
This is a time to clarify roles
process and set performance-based goals between the board and its superintendent.
It's the single most important issue because the success and the clarity of that process
will set the foundation for all other priorities to come over the long term.
Okay, thank you.
So now I'd like to turn the Q&A over to a lot of very interested parents in the audience
and I'm thinking some of you may ask some questions.
And then while people are lining up here
at the microphone, it's such a crowd.
I'd like to use this time to just remind the candidates
that when you answer a question, even if I ask you,
you should probably...
Probably direct look at either the camera or your voters here. And also, I think I neglected
to introduce our timekeeper. We have a timekeeper here who is a North Salem resident. And her
name is Zinga Melanes. Did I do it right? Oh, great. And for those of you who are sitting
in the back rows, hold up the sign so they can see what the candidates have to see in Zinga.
So she holds up these signs if they're sort of running on, you know, so that's her job.
So she has to keep the time her going.
So again, we have a microphone here, we're waiting for questions.
Finally, shame someone into getting up.
My name is Andrew Brown, you may have met, I know I'm the current board president.
Chris, you said the reason that you're running is your two children, your vested interest,
your two children.
Given that the overall majority of residents don't have children, how do you represent
their interests?
And I think although the question is directed to one person in particular, the others will
all then rotate through an answer to that.
With the residents who don't have children, I think the thing that's going forward right
now with the school tax break for veterans, volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance
workers is a good start.
I mean, those are the first responders, veterans, they deserve some sort of a break.
So that would be something I would be in favor in for those residents in there and that's the answer I have at this time for that.
Okay, let's rotate through in the same order.
So the question, I want to just clarify the question is, what would we do for the parents?
Yes, that you may have children in the schools and you're thinking of them but an awful lot of people don't have children in the schools.
So I think from listening to board meetings and what parent or people in school districts that
don't have children mostly complain about their taxes and why they should be paying high taxes in a school district.
My goal would be to speed up the process or get involved in the process of procuring more grants
for our school district.
I actually developed a good relationship with the district authority of the in the state
of New York, inquiring about the grant that was requested or administered for our SRO.
So I'd like to increase that relationship and learn more about grant writing and be involved
in that process, because I think that would be a great asset for our community and our budget.
Great.
Kurt?
I think several things there.
First thing is, we need to keep a tight budget, need to keep it below the cap like we did
this year.
Number one, number two, is we need to go after grants, which I have done in my record in the
the last couple years of me being on the board, to take the burden off the taxpayers, the
grants are a huge help.
And we need to adopt a budget that the community is going to pass, not a budget that's not
going to pass.
Okay.
Thank you.
Carolyn?
I think that the best thing that we can do for our voters in the community at large is to
protect the credibility of our budget process.
So of every ten months school year, four months of each year is devoted to presenting
our budget, January, February, March and April, eight sessions, where the public can come
in, learn about the budget, ask questions, and express concern.
That budget is presented section by section by section, and when we don't protect that credibility,
We risk losing the trust of our voters, and I think this district has worked very, very hard over the past 15 years to build that trust.
And one shaken, that takes a lot of work to regain that.
And I think that the public has appreciated the transparency that we've presented in the budget process.
And I think that is why we've had such support consistently over the years.
Thank you.
Oh, we have another question or coming up, mine to one side.
Hi, my name is Catherine Daniels.
I am a long-term resident of North Salem and Informer Board Member.
Could each of you please describe your understanding of the role of a member of the Board of Education?
Okay, for this question, Kurt will go first.
My belief of a role of a board member is multiple things.
First, it has to work with the board, the rest of the team,
to work with the administrative staff,
the staff of the school, listen to the children,
and especially the taxpayers.
They all have a say, we all have to listen to their needs,
and figure out what the best way is to solve them.
Okay, thank you, Carol.
It's not subjective.
It is very much laid out in New York education law,
And the Board of Ed is responsible for the oversight in three areas.
Oversight of the budget, oversight of its one and only supervisory role of the superintendent,
hiring the superintendent and holding him accountable to the goals that are set together,
and overseeing policy.
So as such, we are members of a district governance team, which is comprised of the Board of Education
members and the superintendent.
Okay, thank you.
Chris?
I believe the role of a board member is one to oversee the budget.
Two, have the best interest for students, faculty, and staff.
To be the voice of the parents, be the voice of the community.
To make sure the community's needs are being met, the children's needs are being met,
that the parents need to be in bed and yeah.
Okay.
I believe being a trustee, I would act as a liaison
between the community and the board and the district.
I believe it is my duty to be physically responsible
for our budget and finally work with our superintendent
to develop an education plan that will achieve the goals
and objectives of our community.
Okay, thank you.
Here comes another question.
Good evening everyone.
This question is directed to all four candidates.
A proposal to shift to a later start time
is currently being considered in our district
because the research has proven that it's better for student health and well-being.
Two committees have already explored the options and the various areas of impact
and determine that this will only be possible if both PQ and the middle school high school adjust their timing.
Knowing that, if elected, will you help to support this initiative?
Okay, thank you.
So on this question, we will start with Carolyn.
So yes, that is correct.
The research does support in favor of a later start, school start time.
This is a very complicated issue to address financially, logistically, from a union perspective,
on this particular issue, I would very much be inclined, I would need to receive the feedback of the community.
There's no, you know, there are parents that are going to be very unhappy with this.
There are parents that are going to be very happy with this, and I think that it really comes down to if there is a majority of our parents who support this.
Number one, and then number two, can we find the right solution that is within our means to implement it?
Chris?
Yeah, the research does support that it is better for the students.
I would also be more inclined to get the feeling of the community, get the feeling of the parents on the situation, to see who's in favor, both pros and cons.
I would also, I know, I think we're the last school district still doing this start time.
I think all the other school districts have already gone to the start time.
So I would like to maybe ask those other school districts how they did it,
how their parents feel about it.
Do they feel like it's working, that it's not working?
I mean, there are some pros to being the last school district to not do it.
We could weigh out the pros and cons from the school districts that surround us to get better feedback on the situation.
Okay,
thank you, Matt.
Okay, school start time, I've heard a lot about this in my own house.
I believe the committee work is still continuing, but without a lot of parent input.
I understand the need for adolescent health and well-being.
I also believe that there are other reasons for the decline in teen mental health.
one being social media use right before bedtime, but I do believe that change is difficult and we need to overcome those challenges together.
We must meet those logistical challenges and with support for our families who don't have the privileges and resources to deal with that change, like for example before school care.
We should work together for an equitable outcome, and I look forward to seeing the results of the school start time committee.
And I believe we should see that before the vote.
Okay, good.
Yes, so I am on the committee to look into school start time when I did go to school here.
School did start a little later.
around 748 to be exact. Not much of a difference, but is a difference. I think this is something
that needs to be looked into. North Salem is unique. And we've gotten through a lot
of the challenges, and this can be one of them. Later start time. It's few changes. I think
we need to also team up with the town with your new Rec Center from the help us with the
kids for different programs to make this work.
All right.
Thank you.
Is someone else?
Yes.
What is your name?
Yes.
I'm Alexia Ryan, a parent of a middle schooler, and I've been to a few of these sessions.
And one thing that I was always wanting to hear about was increased transparency.
And I was interested to hear one person specifically refer to it tonight.
My question is this, every time we have people wanting to come on to the board and change
things, very often from standing from the outside, it seems that they come into the board
and then they find out that what they thought they could change can't be changed.
So my question on transparency specifically, given that we have some people who have been
on a board before and some people who are new, for each one of you, do you agree that there
There is a transparency deficit that needs to be addressed.
And if you've already been on a board, did you see that from within?
And how would you do things differently now to increase transparency?
And for those of you who are not yet on the board and haven't been on the board, do you have
any specific ideas of how you would act to improve the transparency?
Because a lot of what happens, it doesn't matter if you come to meetings, that you find
out that a love what's said on the meeting is already an accomplished fact. And that's
how, as far as we know, it has to be. So the question really is, can you come up with
any specific and practical ways that you think you will be able to improve the transparency?
Thank you. All right. Chris, this falls to you to start.
Very good question. Yeah, I'm very big on transparency. I'm never been on a board, so I'm on
on the outside looking in currently.
Some things that I would like to do, if elected,
is before we vote on something, for instance,
I would like to weigh out and get the ideas of parents
and the community parents in the district first
before it becomes a vote.
Like I don't want people to find out after it's been
or even voted on.
I want them to know that, all right,
this is gonna be something we're discussing,
this is gonna be something that's gonna be
We voted on a month from now, and for that month leading up to that vote,
I would like the communities, the parents to reach out to me, I would reach out to them.
And this way we get a better feel for what we're voting on, whether it's something that improves,
something we don't think it improves.
And this way, like I said, I'm on the outside looking in.
I'm going to do everything I can to make sure transparency to the full extent is given.
I'm done, thank you.
Matt.
So we talk a lot about communication and we have a multitude of social media platforms to communicate on, yet there always seems to be a failure to communicate. I've been to many board meetings and listened on the other side and felt that a lot of decisions had already been made, especially during a pandemic where a lot of things were out of our control.
But one thing I would mention, and one of the solutions that I would suggest in something that we do in the Fire Department is we have a singular email that can go out to all parents because in this school district, we have PQ News Day,
sent a compass and a multitude of other things, plus Facebook and everything else.
But what I would suggest is have a parent forum, like a central square type of parent forum where we could all be in on it at the same time and I have to stop.
All right.
Thank you, and single.
All right, Kurt.
Yes, I think there's more ways. I think we need to have more discussions with the board.
More meetings like that maybe incorporate somehow after a meeting. There's a discussion with the
board. This way, we're all here. We have usually typically three of those year. Maybe it comes to
little four year or five year, slowly bring those up and happen during a board meeting. Communication
has always been an issue. We've improved quite a bit getting into communications director. Maybe
Maybe it's time we get to communication, it's director full time.
It was quite the improvement when she did come on part time.
A lot more stuff was getting out.
Maybe that's the next year's budget, we need to see.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, I have a rebuttal.
Yes, if you think you need one.
Well, I'm using my time to it.
I would also, to Kurt's point, the communications director, the PTO had a, it was kind of like a split decision whether or not they wanted that position to be filled.
So, I think to say we needed to spend money on a communications director, it was one of those things that it was already set in stone.
and we had no no decision it was already set in stone and yet we still have
communication problems. All right thank you.
Carolyn you didn't answer this one
yet. So I do think that there is always a great deal of confusion about
board of ed meetings which take place in public so that the community can
and observe, and that is by law, but they're not interactive dialogue meetings, which is
very frustrating for everyone, because that doesn't make sense.
You think you're coming to the meeting, you're making a comment, you are staring at people
and you are hoping for an answer.
But the truth is that it is the superintendent who is the CEO of the school district, and
And I think that there are actually several key opportunities for parents to engage and
ask their questions with the two most important people in their child's education.
So our PTO meetings always have our principal and our superintendent present and they are always
accessible to ask questions.
At PQ, we have coffee with the principal where really people can come in and in a casual format
ask their questions, have discussions, and I guess I have to stop.
I too would like to say more.
I'm going to have one, a question at the end for the, I needed to say more.
Any other questions from the voters?
Yes.
Stay tuned.
I'm in.
Jamie Roach.
Sorry, I'm reading off my phone.
The past year, this past year, the issue of school safety became a hot topic amongst parents
and school board members.
Aside from tangible measures such as an additional SRO, bulletproof glass, etc., experts believe
that mental health programming is an important piece of school violence prevention.
Recent results of the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed an alarming increase
of mental health challenges among youth, most notably among children who
identify as LGBTQ+. This means that programming and initiatives to design to
support this population like those created by diversity, equity, and inclusion
in committees are essential in promoting positive mental health outcomes for students and a safe school environment.
So my two-part question is, if you become a board member, do you fully support our district's DEI initiatives?
And if so, how?
Well, Matt, you get to go first on that one.
First of all, I'd like to say, I approach DEI with, through kindness and wisdom.
Over time, we can learn to appreciate our differences to promote a healthy relationship with people from all different backgrounds.
With diversity in our curriculum, incorporating a wide range of topics in the library.
I would also promote and encourage cultural differences and promote cultural heritage.
Equity,
we should provide families opportunities to participate in extracurricular programs like the ASC and YMCA and support students who struggle to achieve benchmarks, not push them forward and rob them from their true potential.
So I do,
in my own way, support our district's DEI, thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Kurt?
Yes, we support what the school has done.
I think we've done a pretty good job so far, we've had pull forbs two years ago come in.
And I think the biggest thing that we need to do is we need to have an equal opportunity for
all of our staff, faculty, children, and community.
We need to make it a safe environment for our staff and children.
And of course, our community, because they do come into the building.
And we need to keep working on this.
This isn't something that's our stops today.
We have to keep on growing it forward.
Okay, thank you.
Carolyn?
Yes, they do support the efforts of the DEI committee.
I served on the committee.
and I believe that it is not an unreasonable thing to require that all of the
grown-ups in the community support the fact that every student deserves a
school environment where they feel welcome, safe, and included. That is not a
particularly high standard. These are children. They deserve an environment where
they feel welcome, safe, and included.
We are in early stages of this work.
I am very impressed with the people who have come forward
to really move this work forward.
And I think the Paul Forbes work was very interesting,
to a very eye-opening to a lot of people.
I think it's also important to remember
that nobody is being asked to change their family values,
to change their faith, or to change their heritage.
In fact, if anything, this work is about affirming those things and
recognizing that our diversity makes us stronger as a community.
And it also prepares our students to enter a world that is much more diverse.
Thank you.
Chris?
D.I. is something that I always go into with a very open mind.
I do support it.
I do think mental health is definitely a very big issue with young kids, even adults,
even high school kids, something definitely I would definitely look into with an open
mind.
I would definitely love to look at the curriculum.
I think like everybody's unique, everybody's their own person.
That is what makes this country, this country, it's what makes this world, but that is definitely
something I would be willing to go into with an open mind, and then address that from
that stage forward.
Okay.
Thank you.
I think that's everyone on that question.
Is there another question from the group?
Yes.
Hello.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for coming.
My name is Brian Lang.
I'm a current board member, and I want to ask all of you why should voters support candidates
It is that have already been on the school board, given the precipitous drop in credibility and trust on the board,
evidenced by a complaint as well as violations of open meeting law, denying public comments, ranker at the meetings.
Why should we support someone who has already been on the board and not support someone new?
Thank you.
All right, on this, luckily enough, Kurt goes first.
I've been on the board for six years now, and I think that I've brought a lot to the board.
I've gotten quite a few things accomplished, and I'm running for another term because I want to do what's best for the school and best for the community.
I feel like I've done a good job. I've gotten elected two times.
So I have an interest here. My son went to school here. I went to school here. I live in
the community and I have a caring heart for this town and the school district.
Okay, thank you. Yeah, Carolyn.
I served on the board eight to ten years ago.
which feels more like four.
And I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish at that time.
I think education is part of a big, huge machine.
And it is riddled with so much red tape, regulatory and legal and state and federal and on and on and on.
And it's very hard to see positive change while you're in it.
and while you're a parent and in it.
For me, it's only recently as my kids have gotten older
and we do a lot of reflecting back that when you look back,
when I look back on our last 15 years,
we've accomplished a great deal, a great deal.
We've accomplished a ton of transparency in an organization
and credibility in our budget process,
introducing a strategic vision, the mission
that has aligned all of our resources,
our teachers, our focus, our student engagement,
engagement, our teacher engagement. There's been a great deal of accomplishment that sometimes
you can only see over time. And again, I wish I had more time. Thank you.
Chris. I mean, I believe the board member truly had
the school's best interest, the parents' best interest, the community's best interest. Then
you would go with that board member, but in voting for someone new, you would be fresher
your ideas, you got someone who's never been on, so you have that, that mentality from someone on the outside looking in who's actually been with the parents on the outside looking in who sees the perspective of the parents who heard the voices, I was not too long ago, I was sitting on that end where the voters are sitting right now at the board meetings, listening to the parents sitting next to me, and that's what I have to say.
Okay, all right, Matt.
Mr. Lang, I was at those board meetings that you referenced.
And I'd like to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see you speak up on behalf of what is constitutionally right within the board decor.
Or I believe that the current board member had the opportunity to stand up for what is right.
And I think when the going got tough, that whether it be ulterior motives or
For other influences,
he failed to listen to the community and give us what we obviously
wanted.
Well, I think that's all four answers to that question.
Do we have another question?
Okay.
All right.
You and then you.
Can you speak on the microphone so the people-
If
you ever question the budget, you guys might use some line items, so it actually brought something that you guys can look at in case you meet around.
I will say the budget is available to look at at the...
So, if you're watching this late and re-run, you can look at that. Let's see what they're talking about in this next question. So, I've had a number of conversations with Eric Stark, the district school business administration director. And 85% of the budget comes from our taxes and the rest come from state aid. And the last two years we got to
a really large additional state aid package that we don't normally get.
This year was $400,000 beyond what we anticipated.
We needed a new teacher at PQ for next year, so a quarter of it went to that, about half
went to the new SRO, and the rest went to electricity increases and various contractual increases.
But the board's been trimming the fat on the budget.
So if we have a year, which is coming up, that we don't get that 400,000,
what would you cut because we're going to have to make cuts?
And I gave you a list of some line items that might help because we probably can't cut a number of things, so I left those out.
I
think the question really is, if suddenly the state A disappears or a large portion of it,
how would you approach that, how would you deal with the shortfall, would you cut something
if so what?
And Carolyn, you get to go first on this.
So every year there is sort of a unique set of circumstances that the board is presented
with.
there's more CD, there's less CD, there's CD that the state decides to withhold, there's
the ERS and TRS that doesn't get, that comes in throughout the year.
So there's always new circumstances to deal with.
I would say, and I'm not in any way trying to avoid this, that I would not sit here today
to tell you about a line item to cut.
But I think that the importance of a very clear strategic vision for the district, if implemented correctly, and with a board that supports that, the board should always be aligning its resources to the priorities of the district.
Those priorities are the ones that should be protected at all costs, and the other ones are the ones that I usually would look to examine far, far more closely.
So in other words, core education versus non-core education, and sometimes they're just incredibly
painful choices.
And I agree with you, the COVID money is going to dry up soon.
So I would imagine next year's budget will be a much more challenging climate.
Chris?
I'm not going to lie, I can't give you an answer on the fly on this.
This is five pages that was just given like two minutes ago.
I'm not going to sit here and lie and make up some sort of an answer.
I've never been on the board before, so I'm not familiar with the breakdown fully of the budget.
That is definitely something I'd be willing, definitely would dive into if elected, but in the short span that we have in the 60 seconds, 90 seconds, I can't give you affirmative answer on all of this information on what exactly I would cut and not cut, sorry.
So the real budget PDF is about 62 pages, I'll be quite honest reading that, I try to find things that peak my interest and I have a hard time reading it.
What I would do would be to work with our district and learn how to read the budget.
And if you are giving me a multiple choice, I would say don't pay the coaches because I do it for free, that's it.
I think every year is different, and every year has different priorities, so it's very hard to say what you would cut right away.
So by saying that is in three years from now, when that might happen, we'd have to analyze what we have.
is it worth asking for the coaches, hey, is $100 less?
Or if we're not having JV sports because there's not enough enrollment,
there's money savings there.
But I think every year you have to look and see where you can cut
because there is some fat we've trimmed over the years.
And I'm sure there is a little bit more here and there that we can find
if we needed to trim it.
And every year is different from academics to sports to electric.
who knows the electric might come down we will hope bus routes could be shorter
we don't know so I think every year you have to look at that to see where you can
cut I don't think it's just say hey you can cut this today all
right I
think
there's a woman yeah is
your microphone on no now it is hi I wanted to know from
All of the candidates if safety and security for our schools is going to be a top priority.
If so, are we going to be open-minded to allocating funding for upgrading and implementing
some new safety and security measures considering a lot of local districts are kind of obsolete
in that department.
And if there's going to be similar resistance that we've been met with the current board
going forward based on how important it has been made aware to the current board.
It is for us to have a safe and secure school district, so kind of two-fold question.
Thank you.
We'll begin with Chris.
100% school safety is going to be definitely a concern.
I believe in my law enforcement military background, I could have some good input there.
I do believe on this ballot that is coming up, there is a security bond that is going to
be voted on by the community.
That's going to be money allocated to the schools, to beef up security for the schools.
But definitely the SRO is going forward, definitely well needed, want to need school.
And like I said, at the end of the day, the number one thing for parents when they go off
What the work is, they don't want to have to worry about their children's safety at school.
And definitely as going forward, that's going to be a priority.
Okay, thank you.
Matt.
I think everybody here knows how vocal I was about getting the SRO on board.
But one of the things I would like to say about that is something that we glaze over all the time.
That our school resource officer is not just a police officer.
or this person will become an integral part of our school district.
And we'll play a role in discipline, in averting mental health crisis and
violence in the school.
So I think just hiring SRO, we've encompassed
a multitude of objectives in one role, but I would reiterate my continual objective
of including the parents and the safety committee, so we have a lot of work to do.
Okay, thank you.
Yes, I'm always looking to improve safety.
We have a bond out now, hopefully we'll pass to improve the safety of the schools.
We also the safety committee, and we had a survey done to see what we needed to do to improve.
And also, the mental health is a big part of it.
We have now mental health in the high school and every grade, which is a huge part of keeping the schools safe also.
So yes, I would like to improve the school safety.
Okay, thank you, Carolyn.
So we've hired our second SRO.
So we have the security bond going out, we have a safety committee that I believe to be
very effective and engaged and active.
But I also, I believe that safety and well-being has to be a holistic approach.
Every single school shooting is about an adolescent or young adult who begins to feel angry, isolated,
unloved or unwell.
We do need SROs, we need security, we need technology, but until that specific problem gets
that's addressed, these tragic events will continue.
So it has to be a holistic approach.
It's not safety and mental health,
it is a very much integrated solution.
Okay, thank you.
Did everyone, yeah, everyone answered that question.
All right, we have time for one more question from the group.
Are you, do you have a question?
Okay.
The question from the background.
a lot of mine is that we're in business of educating children and nobody tonight has
really talked about how we do education.
Are you aware of the initiatives we use such as differentiated learning and computational
thinking and what would you do to support those initiatives?
Okay, thank you.
So the question is on education itself and something called differentiated learning, I believe,
was one in computational thinking among other things and Matt, you go first.
So again, I'm going to be quite honest there in this school district, my children are
in PQ, they first and third grade.
So three years in the school district, I learned something new every single day about different
different assets we have in this community pertaining to education.
When you go to the district website, you can dive deep into the web and get lost in how many different aspects of education we encompass in this school district.
There's a lot to read and there's a lot that I read and it's hard to because I can't tell you with honesty that I know those specific educational formats.
Kurt?
Yeah, so the school's mission has been great for education.
We are probably one of the school districts that had the same mission for so long with
educating our kids and that's something North Salem should be proud of.
A lot of our kids have moved on to college.
They've also gone to tech schools and learned different things.
I think North Salem should be very proud of what we've, we've taught our kids over the
years.
Okay.
Thank you.
Carolyn.
So I think that one of the benefits of how our mission has evolved and how well entrenched
it has become is that we're now at this opportunity where we can really start to get
granular about how to serve all students.
You know, our academic superstars, they are shining, our athletes are shining.
But I think it's really now an opportunity to look at all of these different pockets
of students, and how do we help them to shine?
I think Unified Sports is an amazing example of that.
I think that differentiated learning is a really important, very early days idea, because
there are all different types of learners.
There are, you know, the traditional classroom learners
who have excelled, but there are many students who are
more visual learners or more auditory learners
or more experiential learners.
We have, you know, students who are not good at academics
and have never been good at academics,
but we haven't really got so granular about
how can we help them to learn better?
What styles learning can help them to do better?
And I'm out of time.
I would love to talk more about this, all right, Chris.
Currently, I mean, I don't know much about that topic, currently not being a member, but
if elected, I do look forward to understanding the risk and the benefits of the educational
topics and seeing if we can improve on anything if elected.
All right, thank you.
All right, one more.
So
my question is to Kurt, you say you're pro-safety.
Oh, is this not on?
Okay, you said that you're pro-safety.
Why did you vote no to an SRO two times?
And if the answer is because of financial constraints, why did you never disclose that seeking
a grant could fund this expense?
And why did the public only hear about the grant on the day the board was served a complaint
on this issue?
I guess I'll encourage you to answer that first.
There was a process, the board.
Usually goes through with everything. And the process wasn't done. We found out during the process that there was new legislation that had to be in the contract. We never had a contract in hand from the county. And by taking the time necessary to do all this, we found that information out. Also, the funding, I worked on the funding,
some time after we voted in the know to see if we could get it.
As everyone knows grants aren't awarded right away.
They're not given out right away.
You have to apply, which I did and didn't know we got it.
We got the letter the same day of the meeting that we were awarded that grant.
I think that answers the question.
If any of the rest of you would like to comment about either the SRO or transparency, I'll
go through the order and you can comment on it.
That would be, the next person would be Carolyn.
The SRO or the transparency?
the transparency about getting the funding and logic or reasoning for what you
tell people are not. I don't know.
I don't feel that's a relevant question for me.
I'm sorry. Do either of you want to comment on that? If not, we can go on to the
other question. Yeah, I mean that was. I think it was pretty much directed at. Yeah,
yeah, I'm gonna say I don't really. I have something to say. Okay. There's a big
There's a big difference between a grant being awarded and a grant being administered.
So grant is awarded, that's a fancy letter from Senator Harcombe saying.
North Salem Center School District gets $150,000.
That's an award.
Administered is when the grant is reviewed, and it's gone through the 90 to 120 days of review process, sent to the Senate and then sent back from the DSNY to the school district.
in cold hard cash, so that's a big difference.
Voting no twice is, you could have voted yes,
and then worked on it positively and working with the district because the parents and the community wanted it.
So you could have listened to that and worked on it while everything was being done.
Thank you.
We'll go on to the next question which is the question we like to ask is the last question
because we're at 8 o'clock, it's the right time to start wrapping things up.
So I'd like to know if there's an area that we haven't covered enough tonight that you
would like to briefly discuss.
So I've heard several times from the person on the left and inside about, oh, I wanted
to say more, and I think some of the others may have too.
So anything that you've either talked about and wish you could say a few more words about
or something that you are kind of surprised no one asked a question about and you'd like
to speak about.
So on this, the person who should go first is Kurt.
One of the things that was not brought up tonight and I would like to talk about is all
issues that occurred after COVID. I think we need to get our kids brought back up to date.
There's a lot of things that we lost while the kids were home. And I think that is a big issue
that we haven't talked about tonight is helping the kids recover and get up to speed from COVID,
from all different levels from learning to mental health, all of those issues, and communicating.
So that's the biggest thing that I think that hasn't brought up tonight was COVID.
Okay, thank you.
Carolyn?
So I guess I would like to bring up the issue of mental health from a different perspective.
I think that many parents that are learning about the national mental health youth crisis,
as I have been over the past year or two, are wondering, you know, as they're reading
these very clear and horrible statistics, the question is, but is that really here?
Is that really here in our beautiful bubble in North Salem?
And unfortunately, the heartbreaking answer is yes.
The district has recently decided to disclose some important information.
And from March 2022 to 23, there were 26 suicide assessments conducted in our district.
26, a suicide assessment is a situation that activated the need for intervention to assess
the seriousness of a potential threat.
So even if that number of seriousness was a fraction, that's an important number and
that should not sensitize us.
They are our children, they are our friends and neighbors.
So it is, yes.
it is here in North Salem and we need to be very actively attacking this
problem from all fronts. Thank you. Chris same question, what would you like
added to the evening?
I believe to piggyback mental health is a growing
concern definitely after coming off of COVID. I believe mental health and the
SRO kind of go hand in hand. A lot of people don't realize that the SRO I know a lot
people there is there for Gaffa Bid active shooter but the SRO's training is
very specific to the schools. They walk around the schools, they'll be able to
tell if they do see that loner sitting by themselves. They have the training
to be able to see that person and maybe they address the issue before it becomes
a long-term issue, before it becomes a bigger issue and I do believe the SRO and
the mental health do go hand in hand with each other and need to be discussed
more. Thank you Matt.
All right so real quick. What I wanted to say before was I wanted to
create like a parent forum, parent square so that we can disseminate information regularly. I
also would like more community forums where we can talk like this because I think we can formulate
And we can really get down to the social, emotional aspect behind how decisions are made.
But one thing I wanted to point out was that we always forget about the children and
including them in things.
And what I would also include with the community forums is to encourage the middle school,
high school students to attend and participate in district changes and issues, and incorporate
them into a lot of the after school extracurricular activities that include PQ, yeah, so that's
it.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
And it's not a rebuttal against you at all.
Actually, I believe that our PTO meetings are that town square.
Again, the two most important people in our children's education are present at those
meetings.
I think part of the problem, though, is that we're not getting the attendance of these
meetings, and we need to figure out why.
And if it's schedules, if it's lack of interest, whatever it is, how do we address that?
What's the better format that's going to get parents to participate at a number that's
large enough where the feedback is really relevant?
Because I mean, as board members, feedback from any person is very important, but what we're always questioning is is that feedback representing the will of the community or is it just representing the will of one person.
And so the more people that can participate and express similar views, the more we know this is something that needs to be acted upon.
But I believe the PTO meetings are the right form for that.
Okay, thank you.
We've now come to the closing statements.
So the closing statements run can be a minute and a half, 90 seconds, and we're going to go in reverse order, so confuse you all.
And so the order on this will be Kurt, then Matt, then Chris, then Carolyn.
Thank you all for coming tonight, asking the wonderful questions.
please get out and vote for the budget, please get out and vote for the bond.
Also, please re-elect if you can.
Thank you all again for coming tonight.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me.
Okay, thank you, Matt.
Okay, thank you, everybody, for showing up tonight, really appreciate it.
And it shows your support for us.
We as parents know what is best for our children and our voices deserve to be part.
of the larger conversation.
I will be the parents liaison, someone who parents feel comfortable coming to, to voice their
concerns when they feel unheard.
There needs to be better communication with parents, with a need as well to create
an open exchange of ideas and information between the districts and us parents, which should
be involved in such things like the District Safety Committee, as it is our children who
We're directly impacted by decisions of some board members who seem in some way removed from the school community.
Let's utilize our diverse set of skills as a community, highlight what we can achieve by working and reaching those goals together.
Thank you very much.
Chris?
I just want to start off by saying thank you for everybody for coming out.
I moved to North Salem, like I said, in 2018, because it had that small town vibe.
There's a small town, small community, small school district.
There should be no reason why there's a disconnect between the school board and the parents.
If elected, I would open up all forums of communication that I could possibly do to the parents, to the community.
If I go now and talk into the community recently, there's a lot of talent in this community.
There's a lot of people who will have a lot to bring to the table in this community.
From the parents, there are just some community members to the children.
And I would love to just get as many people, if elected, involved and hear the voices of the community,
hear the voices of the parents, and give a voice to the parents again, thank you.
And Carolyn,
thank you for coming, thank you for participating in this.
It is just a great opportunity to talk about the most important issues that are facing
our district.
In my opinion, those important issues are maintaining the stability of our district.
Stability sounds like something that is kind of boring.
It's only boring until we get a taste of instability.
And that matters.
So, caking off the relationship between the board and our superintendent is crucial.
mental health, I believe is a top priority within the district.
I didn't give you a chance to talk about the Sandy Hook Promise, say something program that will be launching next school year, it is a tremendous
suite of mental health and safety resources for our district.
What I love about it is that it will activate our community to look out for and care for and protect one another.
It is time to take the power back.
We can't live in fear.
We can't stand by while the light in so many of our children is dimming.
And we can't let the potential of our country be so diminished by this issue.
So I appreciate the opportunity to reinforce this.
And thank you again.
Thank you to all the candidates.
And thank you for the turnout tonight.
This is probably the fourth or fifth time I've moderated a candidate for them.
And this is by far the largest crowd I've seen, so it's great.
Yeah, give yourself a round of applause, but also a round of applause for your candidates.
They've done a great job tonight.
And there are applications for membership in the League of Women Voters over there if any of you would like to join us and help out next time, okay?
Thank you and good night.
Oh, and don't forget to vote.
May 16th at PQ.
. . . . . . . . .
I know they tried to get more and more things going on, so I'm going to take over the company, and that's what I'm going to do.
I don't recall getting noticed that, but I think it's more
So, you might get those things in the Webchester, but not the media, but it's going to be
.
I don't know what you're supposed to say.
You know, it's like I honestly have never heard about it.
But you know, it's kind of cool.
Are you, are you, are you, are you in New York?
No, we're in New York.
Right.
But do they have it?
There's my friends on it.
And I am, I'm saying.
I'm saying.
I'll get the receipt.
I think because I was looking at the other meetings, and you guys do like the private areas
I think I was the only one that followed the rules, so I have the job.
And they don't listen.