Journal News Questionnaire

By Jeffrey Mester

1. Why are you running and what qualifies you to be a school board trustee?

Three years ago when I ran for the Board and won, I wrote, "I strongly believe that the strength of a community is a function of the involvement of the members of that community. We all have an obligation to contribute to the community in a manner that best matches our abilities with the needs of the community. I believe I can make my greatest impact by serving on the Board of Education. I believe that my life and professional experience combined with my interest in creating long-term educational opportunity and advantages for the children of Chappaqua make me qualified to be an ideal member of the Board of Education." That has not changed. In fact my belief has grown.

The learning curve is steep as a new Board member. One of the critical factors in being a productive Board member is experience. The best decisions are informed decisions. At the same time, being a Board member requires a considerable volunteer commitment of time, effort and involvement. One of the many things I have learned is that the district is a very complex and large organization. Before I decided to run for re-election, I seriously considered not running.

But not running is not an option if you truly believe in your obligation to contribute to the community as I do. Knowing that the most effective Board member is an experienced Board member with extensive knowledge of the district, a complete understanding and appreciation for the structural budget issues that face the district, a person who can make practical and reasoned decisions, a person who can build consensus, a person who can balance competing community interests and a person with vision and conviction coupled with my strong belief in giving back to the community has led me to run again. I am that person.

Being on the CCSD School Board requires a level of commitment not quite understood until you have served. Before I ran last time I was informed that being on the Board was a full time commitment requiring significant hours of work. Even with numerous warnings and my own conservative estimate, I under estimated the level of commitment required to be effective. If you want to be an effective and productive Board member it requires a commitment of time, effort and emotional strength that is hard to understand until you have done it. It is with that knowledge that I say that I am prepared to make the commitment again. I do not take the obligation lightly.

I have chosen to run for four fundamental reasons. These have not changed from the first time I ran and won. I am passionate about education and its importance to our future. I believe in the obligation to serve or contribute to your community. Now, more than ever, this community needs leadership that can address the need for fiscal discipline while maintaining academic standards. I believe my school board experience, life experience, professional experience, and education give me a unique but fundamentally important viewpoint needed on the Board. Most important, I want to continue to give a voice to the silent majority; to those who are not part of the 1,200 in Chappaqua who typically vote for the Board. I want to ensure that both residents without children in the district are represented as well as those with children.

I recognize the significant burden of being responsible for balancing conflicting community interests. We can all agree that we want to give our children the best education possible, but at what cost? The financial well is not a bottomless one. The other Board members and I recognize this reality. In fact, we were the first district in Westchester to propose and pass a ZERO budget increase last year. This year we have continued our fiscally conservative path and proposed a 1.9% budget increase. Our two-year track record of fiscal restraint coupled with preserving academic programs, maintaining class size and preserving extra-curricular activities is unsurpassed in Westchester.

I recognize the need for accountability. The Board of Education is accountable to the community. The Board must set policy and plan for the long-run. It must set a fiscally disciplined and responsible course that both encourages residents to stay long after their children have grown and encourages newcomers to raise their children here in town. It must create an atmosphere that encourages learning as well as responsibility. In setting policy, the Board must ensure a culture of openness. The education process must be a partnership among the administrators, educators, parents and students. Communication is critical.

Policy making, budgeting, and allocating resources consume a majority of the time spent as a Board member. The job requires a person with broad business and board experience. It requires a person with vision. It requires a person who can make practical, logical and reasoned decisions. The job requires a person who has extensive experience with budgeting; a person who has had bottom line fiscal responsibility. A Board member must work well with others. I have been on Boards of Directors and been the CEO of two organizations. I have had and have the P&L responsibility. I have demonstrated leadership and working successfully with others. I have a successful track record of being able to lead effectively while maintaining fiscal restraint. I have a track record of consensus building and working to include as many voices as possible.

I enter this race with the goal of ensuring that all the community's opinions are heard and considered. I continuously seek out the community's advice and counsel. I welcome its input.

I share the belief as stated in the preamble to the Educational Philosophy of the Chappaqua Central School District that "the education of its young is the most demanding and the most rewarding."

2. What do you see as the top three challenges facing your school district?

The single most important issue facing the district is the budget. The Board will need to maintain the fiscal discipline we have demonstrated the last two years while preserving the district's well deserved reputation for providing a superior, well rounded education that includes not only challenging course work but also a wide offering of sports and other extracurricular activities.

This can only be achieved by change. The current model is not sustainable. This will require creativity, vision, determination, consensus building, sacrifice and compromise. The three significant constituencies in the community, residents with children in the district, residents without and district staff, must work together to create a new paradigm.

The four primary drivers of building this new public school standard are developing new compensation models that consider total compensation rather than salary and benefits separately, expanding the public-private partnership with such organizations as the Chappaqua School Foundation that will provide sustainable funding sources other than taxes, establishing a coordinated community effort that lobbies Albany to allow districts self determination in our relationships with our bargaining units, and establishing a consensus on community standards for the academic and non-academic programs we offer in our schools. Simply put, what programs do we offer and at what cost.

The second most important issue facing the district is the selection of the next district Superintendent. Again, simply put, we need a leader in the truest sense of the word. We need someone who can lead us through the paradigm shift. We need that person as soon as possible. The district ship cannot afford to go rudderless for long. The dislocation of not having a leader during these difficult economic times can exact a large toll.

One of Dr. David Fleishman's legacies will be the administrators he hired, inherited and developed from within into (excuse the cliché) a well oiled machine. As the current Board President I am uniquely positioned to interact with different members of the team on an almost daily basis. We need a new superintendent who can lead this group to continue working as a team on behalf of our district. We need someone who does not make change for change sake. We need someone who has, or quickly develops, a complete understanding of the programs and course offerings of the district to best understand come budget time what will be affected under various budget scenarios. We need someone who works well with the community. This next Superintendent will be the liaison to the public-private partnerships described above. We need a person who can be fiscally disciplined and conservative.

There are several other challenges facing the district that are also important. One of those challenges is finding a way to engage, on a regular basis, more of the community. Too often the community only becomes engaged when a hot-button issue arises. Often it is too late at that point to be proactive rather than reactive. The Board shoulders the burden of leading the district as it rightfully should, but more community involvement will help the Board immensely.

Another challenge the district faces in conjunction with the town is providing athletic facilities and fields to local youth rec sports teams in addition to our own scholastic teams. There has been an explosion of youth sports over the last 10 years. Our fields and the town's fields are literally in constant use. Maintaining these fields in a way that provides a competitive and safe surface is extremely difficult and costly and may not even be possible with the amount of use they get.

A lot has been said about property values at recent Board budget meetings. Much of determination of property values was attributed to the combination of school reputation and taxes. There is little doubt that one of the reasons families move to Chappaqua is for the schools. Another significant reason a family with young children move to a town is for the recreation offerings to children. We as a community need to be able to offer to our recreation and sports programs, facilities that can be used regularly and that are in good condition.

Through private funding sources, we need to build and maintain artificial turf fields if we are to be competitive with other towns in our youth sports offerings. While New Castle leads in recreation opportunities in our parks such as Gedney, we lag behind and are at a disadvantage to other towns in our sports field facility. The district needs to work with a private organization or committee to raise non-tax funding for artificial turf fields.

3. With respect to school finances, are there any specific initiatives you would pursue to save money or reduce costs?

I recognize that Chappaqua's taxes are some of the highest taxes in the county, state and country. The community deserves a return on its investment. It deserves to know that the money going to the schools is being used effectively and efficiently. Any Board policy other than fiscal restraint and efficiency is reprehensible. However, funds must be expended in order to maintain the quality of education and to maintain our district's facilities. The Board must be capable of balancing long-term goals with short-term spending constraints.

The largest part of our district's budget, 75%, is allocated to compensation. We must work in partnership with our bargaining units to control costs and preserve jobs. As mentioned above, this requires compromise and creativity.

In addition to controlling costs, as mentioned above, I would pursue other forms of revenue other than taxes. Expand the relationship between the district and community groups such as the Chappaqua School Foundation and the Sports Boosters.

4. What changes would you make on the academic front?

Academically, I am satisfied that the district is, in general, on the right path. The focus of developing critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century is sound. The district needs to maintain its staff development programs as well as working collaboratively with individual teachers at the high school to adapt to the modified block schedule.

In general, the focus should be on addressing the needs of all of the students, and on a curriculum that emphasizes the fundamentals yet focuses on developing critical thinking skills.