Newly appointed board members speak out

By SARAH GOLDMAN

NARROWSBURG, NY — The function of a board of education is to work in favor of the students while making certain that the taxpayers’ money is being wisely spent. Angela Daley, Richard Sandler and Regina Wagner, board winners of the 2003 election, said they plan to maintain these goals and build upon them.

Daley, winner of K.C. Garn’s seat, has served on the Narrowsburg and Sullivan West board in previous years. She said her work with education and her experiences on and off the board help to make her understand the concerns of the district members.

“Because I’ve been on the board and off the board, it gives you a perspective,” Daley said. “I have found that there’s a danger of sitting in the middle of something and having a sense of ‘everyone knows what we’re talking about’ kind of feeling. When you’re not on the board, you see how much less information is not actually passed on to the public. Even though it’s out there, people don’t get it.”

One of Daley’s goals is to make sure the lines of communication from the board to the public and vice versa are kept open.

Sandler was unopposed for this election. He has served on the board for four years in Sullivan West and two years on the Delaware Valley board.

“I’d like to think the reason I was unopposed in this election is because I don’t have an ax to grind, and I don’t have an agenda. I vote the way I believe and the way I believe those that have supported me want me to vote.”

Wagner, who will fill Jeffrey Nober’s seat, has lived in the community for 30 years. She has strong ideas and goals for the board, and intends to keep children and education as a main focus for the board.

“I wanted to run for the board because I wanted to make sure that the curriculum for the school had as much attention as the facility,” Wagner said. “I also thought I could make a contribution to reshaping the outlook of the community toward the school.”

With growing taxes and decreasing state aid, the biggest challenge for all board members in the upcoming year will deal mostly with finance. The district is building and repairing school buildings while trying to keep taxes down.

“There is less money than there has ever been before and a lot of people are blaming what we don’t have on our merger,” Daley said. “It’s totally unconnected. There is a fiscal crisis in New York State and although money was restored [to the budget], we’re still, I think, three steps behind where we were last year.”

“Certainly, opening the new high school and adding the new building to the district will be a logistical challenge,” Sandler said. “Bringing the curriculum to what we promised the residents, that we would be expanding the curriculum and so forth, during these economic times, that will be a challenge as well.”

All three candidates feel that the promises made during the merger have been met.

“I think that the plan for the buildings, renovations and new buildings have definitely been delivered by the school district. It may have happened using a different route than what was originally discussed with the community. And yes,” Wagner said, “we can get stuck on a conversation on how it was done differently, but what’s really important is that the opportunities that were given to kids are ultimately going to be there.”

“We promised them a new high school, and that high school is coming. We promised the students at Delaware Valley that they would benefit from the expanded programming they had in Jeffersonville [Youngsville], and made that available to them,” Sandler said. “And we promised the residents of the former Jeffersonville-Youngsville] district that their taxes would be lower, and they are. I think many of the promises have been fulfilled and many are yet to come.”

Daley, Sandler and Wagner all feel the accusations from Arthur Norden about unwise spending are unfounded.

“I believe Mr. Johndrow is doing an excellent job, and the other administrators are doing an excellent job. I don’t think anything wrong is being done,” Sandler said. “They are managing our money wisely and the state evidently doesn’t have a problem with the way we are doing things because they aren’t rushing down here to go through our books as if there was a problem. I have every confidence in Mr. Johndrow and the administration.”

“It’s a good idea for the state to come down and look at the finances for the district and hopefully that will lay to rest any kinds of concerns that people have,” Wagner said. “I think personally for me as these issues are raised about the school finances, that it really raises a procedural issues. If anyone on the board of education has an issue, something as large as saying the district has millions of dollars unaccounted for, it’s the responsibility of the board members to first go to the employees of the school to raise that issue and give those an opportunity to give an explanation rather than call upon them on a board meeting when they have access to no figures, when they have access to no information to be able to adequately answer questions in the moment. I think that there needs to be more pre-questioning rather than raising those issues unexpectedly in a board meeting,” she said. “It really raises an issue in regard of consideration for the employers and a procedural issue as well.”

This year’s budget vote, which was estimated that almost 25 percent more community members participated in than last year, was passed in all three areas of the district. Candidates said this may be an indication of an increased community awareness of district issues and a willingness to get involved.

“I think people are feeling a renewed sense of hope with the passing of the budget,” Daley said. “The number of people that came out to vote, that was up over last year 25 percent. The people came out, and a lot of times the numbers are a bad sign, but this year, it was a positive sign. Almost every person that I’ve talked to is really feeling very hopeful that we’ve contained the naysayers, the people who’ve been holding back and not embracing this merger. I guess they’ll always be there, but we are a merged district. I feel a sense that more people came out and that we have more support than ever for the merger.”