Part 2: Few Attend Nanuet School Board Candidates Forum

The turnout was low for the PTA Council's annual Nanuet School Boards Candidates Night. On Monday night, the  school board spots came out to field questions from the council and the public. Read this  for more on the candidates' profiles and this for the candidates' responses to the council's questions.

• Incumbent Sarah Chauncey
• Incumbent Ed Dingman 
• Challenger Scott Walters

"May 15 is an important date for our community," said Christine Camillieri, PTA Council President. "It's the day when we make our way to the polls to cast our votes for not only our school and public library's budget, but to vote for whom we feel would best represent us on the school board."

Voter registration will take place in the  on May 9 from 1-7 p.m. Voting on the and  as well as the candidates running for  and  boards is on May 15 from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. at the Nanuet High School gym.

Here are their answers to the public's questions asked last night:

What do you think of the new Barr Middle School schedule?

Chauncey

• “Students really aren’t losing anything. I am sorry that we couldn’t stay in that type of block scheduling that had been designed … but it comes down to the budget and the tax levy cap.”
• “We’re trying to touch programs as little as possible. “

Walters

• “If I’m not mistaken, I think part of the rescheduling was put in place to assist in proper coverage of some the floating specialists that go from school to school”
• He added that having Barr’s schedule match up closely with the high school would make things easier to coordinate.
• “This is all part of that tightrope … you have to balance everything out. You want to make sure that all the students are serviced with all the academics.”

What is your position on keeping Special Education services?

Dingman

• “There’s a lot of state mandates … unfunded mandates. (However,) we have no plans on cutting special education”

Chauncey

• She added that the school gets state funds that are specifically for Special Education.
• “BOCES is there to help us. We can get those services well beyond services we could afford as a district. We take advantage of BOCES and other service providers.”
• “If you have four or five students with special needs come into the district, it’s a huge budgetary issue and you have to serve them and we want to serve them. There’s no question about that. But, if the mandates don’t help us pay for those services, it comes out of the budget. You have to be able to support those students.”

Walters

• “I think special education is truly some of the most challenging and rewarding teaching that someone can do.
• He also stressed the importance of technology as a teaching tool for special education

Thoughts on bringing in corporate initiatives and funding?

Walters

• For years, Walters has proposed a director of development, who would make connections with the private sector and work on a commission basis so that taxpayer dollars are not used.
• To learn more about his proposal, read this .

Dingman

• He said that through working on the Highview Playground, he’s realized that it’s possible raise money from the private sector.
• “I like to think outside the box and we do need to look for other avenues of revenue … but a commission-based director of development, I don’t think is not the right idea. I’ve done a lot of research for it. There are pros, but there are a lot of cons. However, we cannot afford to hire any staff at this time”
• He added that the Nanuet Schools Foundation should be revived with community members to raise funds for the school and that that foundation may have a director of development.

Chauncey

• “I think we should always be looking for alternative avenues of funding, such as grant funding.”
• She added that she also thinks that the foundation should be revived as well
• “Nanuet has traditionally not been a school that has advertised companies on school grounds or have banners on its ball park. I did a little bit of research and started looking at large corporations.”
• She added that with the small size of Nanuet schools, corporations would not likely be interested in advertising with the district

Student Testing

Chauncey

• “The trouble is with the pressure of the numbers (test scores), Even the youngest children know, they know (the significance behind a low score and being placed in extra help or ELA/Math academy). Unfortunately, keeping them out of the academy can be hurtful to them and be keeping them from help that they may need.”
• She added that the academy needs to be structured in a positive way. 
• “It’s the message and the way we give the message.”

Dingman

• He added that the changing of the name ‘summer school’ to ‘summer enrichment’ is an example of positive change for a student and his/her self-esteem

Walters

• “One size does not fit all when it comes to testing. It’s not just all kids are different, but all kids learn differently. As school board members, we need to work on methodology to make the comfort level as high as possible. What that is, I’m not exactly sure.”