001foreign [Music] good evening and Welcome to our meet the candidates Forum sponsored by the West Seneca District Parent Council I am Sarah obedient and I am your District Parent Council chairperson as well as the moderator for tonight's event on behalf of our Council as well as our school board candidates I'd like to welcome everyone who's in attendance either here in the room tonight or watching our live stream we really appreciate your interest in getting to know our candidates and making an informed vote on Tuesday May 16th before I introduce the candidates just a quick rundown of how the evening will go each of our segments will be timed we have Tammy down here in front who will be operating our timer and she'll waive our her signs and our candidates as the time is passing
002we will let you know if your time has expired each candidate will have three minutes to provide an opening statement then I will ask a series of questions that have been submitted by families and constituents through our Google form uh please note that some of our questions have been combined and reworded to group like themes for clarity candidates will have two minutes to answer each of those questions and we will rotate the order in which the candidates answer the questions so that each candidate has the opportunity to go first if time allows we'll take some live questions from our audience after we've made it through our list of questions and candidates will still have two minutes to answer those questions as well each candidate will then have three minutes to provide a closing statement so
003with all of that out of the way I will introduce our candidates who are seated alphabetically tonight because that makes me happy first we have Laureen barilak we have Trek flitter Jennifer cuss Sandy magnano Sarah Pierre warzek and Laura silkel Scott we also have two candidates who could not be with us in person tonight John Barrett and Frank zappia I would just invite you to read their candidate bios on the district website or come out and meet them in person on Election Day May 16th right here at East Senior and without further Ado we'll go ahead and move on to the meat of our evening and get started with opening statements starting with Laureen thank you Sarah like you said my name is Laureen berlich and I am running for school board because I believe
004I offer a new vantage point being a nurse a mom a girl scout leader in the community very active volunteer in the community with organizations such as Camp good days and especially with my Girl Scouts we go on a lot of Adventures and being a nurse also at Camp you learn a lot about what is on their mind of all ages from elementary through high school I believe are times that we are more than any it takes a village and it's so important that all members of that Village are here to help support our schools especially public schools at this time I have a background I said I'm a nurse I also have a background in theater so I know what it takes a group not just one person to make anything come together I
005know what it's like to work on a team I have been active with the Winchester Potter PTA ever since my daughter started school and on the board for a few years and I've got to know many of the teachers the staff everyone from all levels and it takes everyone from the custodians to the Food Service workers to the officers in the in the office to really make this run and have the best safe environment for all students of West Seneca so I'm honored to be here thank you Sarah and for the committee for putting this together and thank you for everyone else on the panel for stepping up and running it really takes the community like I said to do this so even just to be here today is such an honor so thank you
006thanks Lorraine Trek hi my name is Trek Fuller and Sarah thank you and all the staff and everyone in the West in a good school district that helps put this on um I'm a product of public education I graduated and I cannot believe I'm going to say this a decade ago from 2013's graduating class from West Seneca West um somewhat uh I'm an attorney Western New York Law Center focusing on tenant rights and foreclosure as well as class action lawsuits um but I came up through public education public education is the Silver Bullet it changes everything the opportunities that I was given from the Fantastic teachers and staff that I grew up with helped me learn helped me develop and help shape the way that I have developed and what I have learned since then
007it gave me the skills the tools at the bottom line of this entire election comes down to one thing and that's making sure that public education is available in its best form for the kids I'm a product here I sat in these schools I sat in these classrooms and I am a product of what they can do and so my job and hopefully for what I can do on this board is to give back to the teachers and the staff and preserve what's uh what's best for these kids and so I want to thank every one of you that's on the board and all the parents for the opportunity to uh to hopefully serve that purpose and give back to the community that helped made me thank you Jen hi my name is Jennifer cuss
008I thank you so much for joining us today and thank you for the parent committee for holding this today I have been in West Seneca resident for the last 30 years I graduated from West Seneca West in 2003. I have a seventh grader at West Middle and I have a foreign exchange student at West Senior she's a senior um I also have my Master's in my in secondary education this is my second year running and I have attended every single board meeting for the last two years and I have learned a lot in regards to our school board meeting yeah you might have to pass on down sorry um so let me rephrase I have been to every single board meeting in the last two years and I have learned so much in regards to
009what goes on behind the cameras that everybody sees um virtually I am running again because students parents in the community need someone to ask questions and make changes to enhance our district one thing is bullying is a huge issue and I would like to add policies that would ensure our students to feel comfortable to go to school without worrying about being bullied at all I also would like to enhance our district by making sure we change our current literacy methods that will increase students Proficiency in reading and writing I'd also like to add science fairs spelling bees and give our students the opportunity to in and grow and show what they can be capable of I do appreciate you taking the time to must come to us today and I look forward to seeing everybody
010on May 6th thanks Jen Sandy to everybody for being here I appreciate all of the support I appreciate all the candidates that are up here tonight it takes a lot of strength to do this I have been living in West Seneca for 38 years I am a registered nurse of 41 years admitting that is a little tough I'm the mother of three and I'm going to be a grandmother which is a gift and my husband used to be a chiropractor here in West Seneca we owned a small business and we worked the business my kids are now all here which is a gift and I will tell you that I ran for New York State Assembly and narrowly lost my election in November but I spent hours going door to door with everybody and I
011will tell you we all think a lot alike and our biggest concern is those of our families and our children our communities our seniors it means a lot and it means a lot to to the taxpayers as well we all have to work together and we have to listen to one another and I think I'd be a great candidate and that's why I'm here with these other wonderful people and thank you for your time thank you Sarah hi everybody my name is Sarah Pia warzek and I decided to run for the board because um mainly of the short-sightedness that I see that the board has the short-sighted decisions that the board has made over the last few years I recently more recently moved into West Seneca I've been here for about seven years my children
012are 18 17 16 and 12. so I have one that graduated already one's graduating this year a sophomore and a seventh grader we are on the west side of the district for the past 10 years minus this year I was a volunteer coach for West Seneca little football and cheer my coach cheerleading I was on the board there for about six years so I know many kids and parents from that organization from both the east and west side I also was a volunteer softball coach for a few years through South Line little league and again there's a number of students from both East and West that play through South Line I was also on their board for about four years um most recently I work really closely with most of the coaches at West my
013kids happen to be athletes so last year alone I was fundraising for the football team and I raised over ten thousand dollars for the team and with that money I would bring breakfast bags to their summer workouts it would cover the cost of their camps of the insurance I made Thursday dinners for the team I was at the school every week and just got really invested in the kids and I want all kids to have those experiences so I want more people to step up and to kind of take on those challenges like I have I want to see you know Equity amongst the schools I want to see the hard decisions being made that have to be made for the betterment of all the kids redistricting is a big thing nobody wants to pull
014the trigger into it sorry for that expression but it really has to be done so you know making those tough decisions and really making long-term fiscally responsible and just overall responsible decisions for the students is Michael thank you and Laura hi everyone thank you for being here this evening my name is Laura Sokol Scott I am a resident of West Seneca and I grew up here as well I'm also a graduate of West Seneca West for a short time my husband and I did live out of state and then returned five years ago and a big part of our decision to move back was the opportunities that we wanted for our girls and I felt like West Seneca provided that for them and living here I want to make sure that our our kids all
015kids not just my my own three that are in in West Seneca schools have student-centered support and programs available to them and I want to make sure that they're going to be a big part of the community when I went into education professionally I wanted to Foster love of learning and engagement with our students as a school administrator now I continue to want to do that on a building level and I feel like being on the school board will allow me to ensure that as a community we have in school and out of school opportunities for our students I think that there's a lot going on that is of benefit to students I think that there needs to be more collaboration between the two sides of town I think that there are ever-changing priorities in
016State education I feel like I have a good understanding and handle in that because of what I do professionally um I think the future of our students is really dependent on the decisions that we make regarding the health Safety and Security of the buildings I do think that there are program planning things that we need to look at long term there's a lot of things that go along with my experience that has to do with strategic planning and decision making being able to ask the why of doing things and being able to really understand the ins and outs of of programming that we currently have and where we need to go as a district as a as a board member I would be an active listener I would ask those questions that we want to
017have I would have thoughtful conversations with leaders in all of our different groups not just District leaders but also in the buildings in the community the parents because we want to be able to ask and answer questions that are really important to those vested in our schools communication is a huge part of what I see as an area of growth for our district I think it's an essential component to our District's success and in making those tough decisions we need to make sure that there's a lot of collaboration among our community and I think that the board is a big part of that thank you so much and thanks to all of you for giving us a little bit of insight into your background and why you're here today now for the part that we
018have all been waiting for we'll move on to the question portion of our Forum as a reminder each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each question and Tammy will be keeping track of the time down here in front if you need a question repeated as we go through the line I will be happy to repeat the questions for you as well since Laureen started our intros we will start the first question with Trek so here's the question we are in a unique situation where there are no incumbents running to fill the three open school board seats meaning there will be three fresh voices to be heard what sets you apart from our existing board members and how will you be different than our current board um well one it means that we have
019a lot of fresh voices and a lot of fresh ideas it's been said by multiple people at this point communication is key so I've never been a teacher I've never taught another person how to do the job or you know what how to learn something so for me what I bring to the table is an understanding of the idea of active listening uh in my day job I listen to experts all day long talk about what they know in order for all of us to make decisions um what sets me apart on this for this reality is um every day I'm constantly looking at new information I'm constantly looking at how it changes the puzzle that's in front of me and coming up with new and interesting and Creative Solutions we're going to face a
020lot of problems we're going to face a lot of interesting challenges and opportunities the purpose of this is to identify the most apt answer and that comes from bringing everyone into the room talking to everyone that we can get our hands on the more information that we have the better our answers can be and I do that for a living as an attorney but it's also because I came from these from from these schools I wasn't you know it hasn't been very long since I was sitting in these seats so I know that there's a lot of information that we can get our hands on across the board and that lets me actually bring a perspective of being a focal point for a lot of different voices can you repeat it yeah meaning there will
021be three fresh voices to be heard what sets you apart from our existing board members and how do we be different from our current board what sets me apart from everybody right now is I have been to every single board meeting I see um right now in our audience too of current members one is retiring so thank you um I see um every time I sit and watch these board meetings I want to so badly ask questions that I know that need to be asked when and we have a presenter presented to the board I see what goes on behind the camera at these board meetings I've talked to numerous board members and assistant superintendents people that make the presentation to see how I can learn and grow to be in this position um so
022that is what um I how I set myself apart we have the collaborate and yes we have three open seats but the three seats [Music] the three seats um whoever um is um on this board need to collaborate together to make this board in the school district a better place for our students parents in the community thank you thanks Sandy as a nurse of like I said 41 years I'm a very good listener and you have to listen to everybody everybody has a unique perspective on things and what I believe and what you believe might be two different things but there's always common ground and I believe that um you know learning from my nursing experiences I was the assistant director of the health center at Canisius College for several years and I can tell
023you you learn a lot from adolescents and children and it's been an eye-opener and you know we went through the difficult time of the pandemic and a lot of things happen to people during that time mental illness is on the rise with kids and there's just been so many problems and I do believe that you need to work together you need to collaborate you need to listen to one another and you need to come up with Solutions together so I believe that I bring that to the table and I look forward to being your candidate for school board [Music] all right hello everybody um so what I think I bring to the board is that in my professional life I am a school psychologist for the Buffalo Public Schools and I know a lot about
024special education right now that might not be at the Forefront of everybody's mind but with what's coming up it's going to be there are children who are supposed to be getting early intervention services and preschool services that aren't because of a lack of therapists so these kids who are already behind are going to come into kindergarten even further behind agencies are full classrooms are closing the children that we would refer out we have to have a plan in place for how we're going to educate them how we're going to do this safely I believe in speaking with all stakeholders in the community it shouldn't just be the seven people at the board table making decisions it shouldn't be reliant on consulting firms coming in and talking about numbers we need to speak to the staff
025we need to speak to the students we need to see where the needs really are and make good decisions based on that information foreign I think that it goes back to that idea of communication being a big part of of what I do professionally and personally I am a school administrator for Erie two BOCES and every day I am working with the groups that we're talking about as stakeholders I interact with children and all the different parts that make a school work are you know AIDS and assistants our teachers our related service providers and that carries over into my personal life as well I have three daughters that are in the school system and so I have familiarity with what's happening at the different levels of school that they're in within two years I'm going
026to have a child in elementary middle and high school at the same time so I'll be well aware of the changes that are happening within the district from a parent perspective and it gives me access to parent groups through the various things that we participate in the activities we attend and I think that that makes it a big a personal approach to how we deal with things in our in our community and how I access that information collaboration is a huge part of what I do professionally and because of being a school administrator I know those tough things that we have to think about when it comes to hiring staff maintaining staff looking at the needs of our community and being able to plan for the various student groups that are part of West Seneca
027thank you thank you Laureen what makes me different I think first and foremost is I think I'm the only one up here that is not originally from West Seneca so I come from down the lake I'm originally from Erie Pennsylvania from a small town called Harbor Creek you drive through it on your way down the 90. so it makes me different in that I came from a public education but in a not as diverse area and I bring different ideas because if you're just from one place you may not have seen something else and to have a big world view sometimes you have to know what it's like in other areas in my profession as a nurse I'm a comprehensive case manager I train them at this time and come up with clinical processes for
028that so we're not allowed to take no for an answer so much has happened in this society and we know that mental health is a problem but so is socioeconomic issues that don't just happen in the hospital they don't just happen in a doctor's office they carry on it doesn't just happen to that patient I said I never had a patient we had a family that we would have to take care of so we can't take no for an answer if something is there as a barrier we have to find solutions to that barrier whether it's through grants whether it's through multi-disciplinary teams I'm not afraid to ask the tough questions to communicate to be transparent when transparency is available and absolutely communicate thank you excellent thank you all our next question we will start
029with Jen we are a district of Working Families many of whom utilize our before and after school program the cost of the program Falls solely on parents and can be quite an expense for example two children in both before and after school full-time can cost a family around eight hundred dollars per month as a board member how would you explore reducing this cost for our Working Families thank you um so the before and after school costs it is a benefit but also a burden like you said and in order for us to reduce it we would definitely have to look at ways we can use the part of the budget to help our parents although we can also look to different organizations instead of having it in-house we used to have the YMCA the Y
030and I think we could we should bring that back to the district and try to figure a collaboratively with the parents and how we can reduce the um the costs because that is an expense that um parents should not have to go through with their students so it is that is a very expensive after school program and I believe that um you do have to help these Working Families I mean I don't know if anybody's been I mean we've all been to the grocery store recently I was at Wegmans and I spent eleven dollars for a container of uh you know grated cheese so this is a real problem and I believe that you know these programs are important kids need to be involved maybe you cut back on some of the programs that you
031know aren't there's not a lot of involvement or you you know bring programs together and cut the costs there but there are ways to do that we just have to you know look around and and problem solve the problem foreign so I like I said I work in Buffalo I grew up in Buffalo schools um Buffalo does offer after school for students it is free of cost and there is busing provided for some sites so if they can get it for their students we need to look into what they're doing so that we can try and get it for our students at a reduced cost or a free cost so looking into grants funding opportunities that way West Seneca is a first ring suburb so you know the socioeconomic status of the people in our
032community there is a wide disparity there so for those who need that and would benefit from that service you know I say we do everything we can to make sure that it's affordable um also you know looking through the budget with a fine-tooth comb to see if there are ways to reduce spending in other areas to maybe lower the cost of that program for families but ultimately I think it comes down to looking at Grants and other funding sources in that in that area thank you I do think that there are funding sources available in my previous experience working as a teacher in other communities I did have some access to grant writing and some of the programming that was available outside of the area but that could be something we look at for our
033students here I do agree with the other the other candidates and that we have to look at well are we spending our money on right now and how can we make sure that we are doing something that's strategically best for the families in our community board members we have to first and foremost be stewards of the district's money and so looking at each line item and what that looks like is first and foremost so without having those numbers in front of me it's very hard to creatively problem solve but I think that's something that as a board we could do because like I said we're stewards of the district's money and as Working Families you know we can't have families that are determining if they are getting medication or buying food and paying rent or
034the mortgage and having their children cared for after school so that is absolutely something we're looking at and grants are always the way but other districts will also be looking at that so we have to find Creative Solutions as a team and I think working collaboratively will be key to finding that creative problem solving is the name of the game here we have to be smarter about what we do with our budget smarter about what programs we use how we effectively use the budget socioeconomics are already one of the most detrimental issues facing most families but it comes down hardest on the kids no kids should come to school and worry be worried about anything that but what's going on in the classroom if we make it harder on the families we make it harder
035on the kids to focus on learning so as board members we have to look at every opportunity every resource that we possibly can but that comes back to a point that I made earlier it's about getting the most information there are solutions out there we have to be aware of them we have to talk to people who have I think the ideas and information necessary for us to make those determinations um but again we can't keep putting the burden on the families you can't keep offloading the issues on to people who are already focusing on a myriad of other issues this comes down to being smarter being more agile being more creative in how we do things and focusing on the the bottom line which is helping kids thanks everyone our next question we will
036start with Sandy what are your thoughts on bringing back curriculum once offered that has been removed for example family consumer Sciences previously known as home economics at the high school level I think bringing back home that would be an awesome thing for people I mean when you think about some of the kids in my children were taught how to cook and clean and do all those things and they're better chefs now than I could possibly be but home economics and those old school curriculum it's really important and I think you know the other thing is trade schools not everybody is meant to go to college and I think trade schools are a great you know place for for students to look and because everybody isn't cut out for college and I can tell you that
037from you know working at a college but I think home economics would be the first thing to bring back it's one of those skill sets that everybody needs foreign I agree with Sandy I think bringing back classes like homak and other classes along those lines will get the students more engaged and involved in school when I think back to when I was in school those were the classes I came to school for I didn't come to learn algebra you know I've never used algebra a day in my life but I have to cook for my kids every day so you know we want the kids to be invested there's also you know when I graduated from high school the push was College College college the trades were full and now we're seeing kind of that
038cycle back to you know the trades are you know where you can go to be debt free but kids don't know about that stuff and don't learn about that stuff if they don't have a chance to experience it when they're in school I think that we're trying to develop Future Ready students and so there's a lot of different components that are a part of that I think that having practical skills like home and careers is something that we need to consider and I think that there are some things I know my middle schooler participates in home and careers as part of that curriculum now and she comes home with those practical skills that can follow through into a high school program but there's also a lot of things that kind of are continuation already that
039are in existence we have CTE programming we have some of the different centers and schools that are part of our collaborative relationships with not just within the district but with it with the BOCES and so while I think that there's a benefit for students having exposure to these programs I think that there's a lot of choices that we can currently look at that fill some of those needs I think there's no better time than now to bring it back homeack that is one of my favorite classes back in the day and as a girl scout leader teaching these life skills to those girls knowing how to cook and how to sew it's not just for women it is not just an old school thing to know how to sew a button on is a life
040skill if you are out in the wild and you need to put together there's Girl Scout leaders in here and I'm getting heads not because they know I tell my girls I'm not ready for you to be released to the wild yet because there's simple things that they do not know that we took for granted that growing up pre-social media pre-bone in our hand we were cooking with Grandma and mom and aunt and we learned life skills that during a pandemic I didn't have to be fearful because I knew that I could teach my daughter I knew that I could Garden I could cook I could make things happen same with during a winter storm if you don't have electricity how do you prepare food those are life skills that I think we should be
041teaching in the high school level so that they are Future Ready that is so important to have productive members of society after we're no longer here because the truth of the matter is you can't learn how to cook and so Hands-On through social media through YouTube on someone's phone so absolutely I think that should be brought back um absolutely in high school if not sooner I think this comes down to how ready are we making the kids in a drastically changing World um our role on as a board as parents as community members is to prepare the Next Generation to face the challenges that exist now but give them skills to develop as things change hommec provides a set of skills certainly but I think the larger context of this is to to take an
042eye to the entirety of the curriculum and ask the question what skills are we providing for these kids in the future and that is it's not as simple as bringing back classes that we've had that have been successful it's retooling a school system in a way in a creative way to give these kids the abilities to think to put together you know what their lives are going to look like because you know we bring up social media that the last 15 years huge everything we went from communities that were around the neighborhood to a global Community we have to provide those skills across the board for a changing future and so it's it's looking at this what skills can we brought in across the board not just in homeac well everybody is talking about homec
043um like um the other board members have sedated um while we need home ec we also need to add different classes financial literacy we need to get these kids our students ready for the real world we need to make sure that they know how to make balance of a checkbook even though we don't really use checkbooks anymore but we need to well mahomac is an amazing class that has it but we need to expand that and bring into what we actually need to learn like um Sarah said I don't use algebra in the real world we need to know what to how to change a tire how to bring those things back that actually mean something when the student walks across the stage they are ready to experience the world properly thank you thank you
044next question we'll start with Sarah what do you think our current board is doing well what can they do better I think the current board is um more united than pass boards have been I think that they are trying to open communication amongst stakeholders I think they're trying to make good decisions for the long term um but with a board majority rules so you know it's a matter of getting people on the same page and getting to a place where everybody can be in agreement that on what is best moving forward so while I think that there's been um more communication with parents and with stakeholders this year than there has been in the past I still think that there's some you know backdoor deals going on some telling one person one thing and another
045person another and I think that that's what needs to end I think you know transparency and showing a united front for what is in the best interest of the district even if it's not in the best interest of that board member in particular for themselves I would agree that um the collaboration and communication of the Q the current board has been an improvement over the previous boards I do think that that's something that we need to continue to grow I do think that with with those changes we can start to move into a direction where we're looking at how are we evaluating current programming what are we communicating to the community about current programming what are we using as evaluation tools when it comes to our leadership our current curriculum the resources that are being
046used across the schools and how are we spending our money why are we spending it those ways I think that that's something that the the current board has begun to look at but I think that that's definitely an area of growth what I think the current board is doing well is that they took off the Band-Aid solution as a nurse I don't like Band-Aid solutions they don't hold long term and they finally brought kindergarten and Pre-K back to the Winchester area which then became Winchester Potters uh having those kindergarten students go across the district my child being one of them and at that young age separating their emotional liability like they don't understand that change at that age so I think the board the current board absolutely stepped up and did what they had to
047do and they opened when Chester Potters up which is larger and allows a lot more of the special ed classes to be in the district and right at home where the kids are being transported out so I think that's one of the best things they've they've done they've improved communication there's many Avenues to do that but I think with doing high performance teams in my current job I think that's something that could certainly be looked at with the board moving forward and part of that there's ten tenants to that but the two big ones that always stand out for me are transparency and accountability and I think part of accountability comes from people don't always know who's supposed to be accountable for what so if everyone thinks that somebody else is accountable for it then
048it just kind of falls through so being able to close the loop and be accountable would be key so if I'm elected I would certainly want to bring High performing teams methodology to the board I think the current board is attempting to communicate there there's no question they're in it for the right reasons um but at the end of the day you can't have groups who feel that they're not being listened to that they don't have a seat at the table we Face an epidemic of teachers right now who are frustrated in what they're getting from the administration from the school boards who are choosing to leave the field itself um we have to do a better job of at every level getting open lines of communication and having open and honest Frank talk what
049are the issues what do you need to see uh as Solutions um because at this point we're not we're not getting that conversation we're not getting at every level these people who feel comfortable and feel like they're being heard to develop a solution that fits what we need in our school district um we we have to figure out a way of bringing everyone to the table in a way that's meaningful and I think all of us are searching for that way of doing it because there is information we're just not we're not getting it where it needs to be and we're not finding the people who are frustrated that they're not being heard um and that's something that we need to focus on across the board finding the solutions and bringing everyone to the table
050so that we're not losing good people who are doing it for the one reason that we're all trying to do it which is for the kids being at the board meetings every um every month I met what I've seen improve is um the communication between the boards previously they work pretty well together what they have they should need to work on getting better as asking more questions to the present presentation people that present to the board of different structures of the school um listen to the parents when they get emailed or I respond figure out a solution instead of just pushing them back to the back burner in regards to issues that parents have making it more welcomed to have parents come to the board meetings because I'm only the only one that comes to
051those board meetings um and we just need to be more transparent like everybody else is going to say we say the same thing over and over again but we need to be transparent with everybody make sure that parents know the chain of command and where to go if they need assistance in regards to anything in the in the school district so I have noticed that communication has improved and the board is trying to do a really good job they're doing the best they can but we can do better and transparency is key like everybody here has said and parents need to know what's going on as taxpayers do because the taxpayers are putting the bill and there's a lot of people that don't have children in the schools currently so I believe that you know
052we need to hold everybody accountable and we do need to communicate and I think it's easier to do than we think it is so I mirror a lot of what's been said here and I will move on to the next question thank you thank you our next question we will start with Laura Banning books is a Hot Topic right now what are your thoughts on the issue I think that as parents we have a responsibility to help our students select the reading material that we feel most comfortable with in talking about difficult themes I do not believe in book Banning because I think that in the way that I might want my child to not read particular books another parent one that might want that to be available to them so I think that we
053need to look at what's age-appropriate we need to rely on the teachers to decide what is most appropriate with curriculum goals state standards and then align our reading materials to that if the reading material is deemed inappropriate by a parent there's choices and I think that we need to trust that our teachers as you know the educational experts in their field look at those those resources and materials and ensure that our students have the most appropriate options available to them I think being such a Hot Topic and understanding that we live in a free country the problem is a very slippery slippery slope when you ban one book into the next and into the next so I do not agree with Banning books of any sort we as parents as taxpayers we have a choice
054of what books of what anything comes into our home just we know from a parent just because Johnny does it Johnny's mom lets and does it doesn't mean I do so that's a choice that's a choice that we all have and that is not one that I believe is to be in the schools for Banning books we're trying to raise forward thinkers students who can think for themselves when they become adults and voters and that means they have to have information available to them if you just take what the next person said then you can't think for yourself so I am absolutely against Banning any book of any kind I am absolutely against the idea of book burning and our book Banning and uh and I will say it this way it's a disservice to
055the kids um we're trying to teach them how to think and the skills necessary to Grapple with difficult topics across a global environment which becomes the Pinnacle of what our society is we have to teach these kids to Grapple with these topics in a way that they can ask themselves and they can work on why does something make them uncomfortable but this comes down to trusting teachers they're the experts in the room we can't continue to put ourselves in a position where instead of dealing with the difficult topics we're just removing them it leads to detrimental consequences later on and it prevents us from actually creating a culture that understands itself every one of these kids has the opportunity to learn something to grow to figure out their place in society and what they how
056they think about these things and we deprive them of that every time we take pieces of information off the board so I am fervently against okay um I um do not believe that we should book um ban certain books I think that we need to be transparent and the district has to be transparent allow the parents to know what kind of books are in the class in the library or in the classroom we have to give the opportunity to make some policies in regards to what kind of books will be welcome in the in the libraries in the district but I'm not for Banning all types of books just particular books that should be age-appropriate in their schools and we need to be transparent about that to our parents and our taxpayers in the community
057I'm not for Banning books but I will say this because I don't think a lot of people are aware and as a mother and a soon-to-be grandmother some of the books that I have seen are straight up pornographic and I shared some of this information with my own children and they were appalled and when you actually see what's in front of you it's very disturbing and these books are rated from one to five five being books that contain rape sadomasochistic behavior and bestiality a lot of these books fall within the four and five range I find that that is not helpful for children and I believe children need to grow up in a world where they can just be kids and we leave that up that teaching to our parents and collaboration with the teachers
058so when you really see the material out there it's an eye-opener I will say that um I'm not for Banning books in the schools I think that you know as everybody on the panel has said you're allowing children and young adults to kind of experience learning in their own way they're having thought-provoking conversations based on what they've read their learning and growing from what they've read um I don't think any any book is going to be worse than what they're going to find on their phone thank you and we're back to Laureen can taxpayers count on you to hold the line on taxes and how would you demonstrate fiscal responsibility that's a great question Sarah again you have to have numbers in front of you and as taxpayers we don't want to see these numbers
059goes up we know we have some of the highest taxes but the bottom line is that we are stewards of the district's money we have to make sure that our students have safe environments that they have the education that they deserve and that they need to be um future citizens of this town or of the world so it depends it I don't want to say that I would ever raise that I don't want to ever say that but the bottom line is we have to be competitive and that means we have to be able to staff all the positions in the school so if you don't have custodians and cooks and clerks and nurses it's not just the teachers we have to be competitive who's driving the buses do we have AIDS do we have
060enough for the IEPs do we have enough to keep a safe environment anywhere that our students are in their classrooms on the bus and that may require taking very close looks at the budget without taking cuts to the Arts to sports to the curriculum so without seeing those numbers in front of me uh I can never say never but that's not something as a taxpayer I would want to do but but I have to look at it in front of me to say that we have to do a better job of explaining what benefits the money goes to where are we investing what is that investment leading to part of the frustration as a taxpayer is the lack of transparency but I echoed some of the thoughts that came before me we have to be
061competitive the we have an epidemic of teachers that are leaving the field they're not going to different schools they're leaving the field you have the purpose of this is to get the best education for the students it's an unfortunate reality that you can determine a lot of socioeconomics on one number which is a zip code we have to do a better job of ensuring that the resources are there that we're being competitive across the board and at the end of the day those Services cost money but we have an obligation to keep that number as low as possible while still providing those services and to explain to the taxpayers what they're getting for their money if we can explain that in a way that is we are doing the best for what the kids are
062and providing them the best opportunities for a better future I think a lot of taxpayers would be better well better prepared to pay that money but I don't think that this is about cutting just for Cut's sake it's ensuring that we have the best Solutions and most Creative Solutions using the numbers using the information that's there so that's what they can they can understand about me well the [Music] while I have been being at the board meetings Mr Thiel has um the person that um is the one that um brings presents the budget so if um when I'm on the board if I'm on the board I want to ask him um specifically questions and where we can allocate different resources to different um sport spots to not try to increase the taxes we want
063to keep a where we are but um Mr Thiel is the person that would need to be asked those questions and we need to collaborate to find where the uh the funds we can allocate make sure that we can try to find more grants and different resources that will be able to keep where we are currently in our taxes um it's the same well I'm a taxpayer as all of you are and I watch the um recent budget meeting and for the 2023-2024 year there are giving 147 million 816 452 um dollars which is an increase to the taxpayer of 6.59 now I believe that we can allocate money and and move money around but we all have to budget and live with in our means and sometimes we have to consolidate programs um and
064we have to look at things really look at things and not just rubber stamp everything um like I said my husband and I ran a small business and there were times that he had to pay his people before you know we took a paycheck and hence why I was working um but we have to do better with our budget and we have to be accountable to all of you the taxpayer that's really important degree um we're looking for a good return on our investment I don't mind paying taxes when I know that I'm getting something a good product in return I'm getting students who are coming out of school who are ready to either join the workforce go to college hopefully come back into the community and raise their families here that being said you
065know I think the budget needs to be looked at I know I've brought up before I live in the neighborhood right next to West Middle and every day there's a bus that comes through our neighborhood to pick up students to go to West Middle and every day not one student gets on that bus so why is this part of a route still if it's happening in my neighborhood I'm sure it's happening elsewhere so areas like that I'm not an expert in transportation perhaps there is a rationale behind that but I want to sit down with the heads of those departments and really ask those questions and get the answers and see if there is any wiggle room or see if there are any changes that we can make to be more fiscally responsible without the
066taxpayers funds as an educator and as a taxpayer I think that gives me a an understanding of why money is spent in a certain way when it comes to an educational budget it also gives me an advantage in looking at the programming that we have in the district and being able to help make the decisions on what is essential and maybe what things that we need to look at more closely and how we're spending the money I think that we do have a fiscal responsibility to make sure that just like our home budgets our school budget is reflective of what our our needs are and sometimes those wants as well but in order for us to make sure that we have those successful programming options for our students we have to kind of maintain some
067things that are part of what makes West Seneca so great for our kids but we also need to look at what sorts of things are we spending money on and why excellent thanks guys next question we will start with Trek school board members are required to make decisions regarding educational policies and procedures what training education or professional experience do you have that makes you an informed decision maker for our district well I mentioned that I'm an attorney um the grimacies in the audience that tell me that you know that's the opinion helps true but part of what I do every day is gather information and create a strategy moving forward using that information in order to provide a goal depending on what I'm doing you know those goals change but I'm not an expert in
068any one field when it comes to the issues that I face in the case as I said earlier I'm not I'm not a teacher by trade I'm not an administrator for the school district by trade but what I do very well is bring in information together in order to create executive decision making um at every level we have information that's available we just need to listen to it we need to compile it in ways that make sense and we need to create decisions based on that information there's an expertise here there are new and creative ideas from people who are starting out in their fields that have been doing this for forever that we can tap that potential and that's the benefit of having so many good Minds that are there to benefit the kids
069my job is to create a role of communication come talk to me about it let's figure this out so I can walk into a board meeting with all the information necessary so that we can create the best and most Creative Solutions possible to solve these issues this great opportunity here we just have to be willing to listen to it and think creatively about it um I have a background in this uh secondary education I went to Canisius so I have the teaching background but not in the classroom as of right now and what we have at the board we have presenters and we have those that the school has hired to present to us different strategies and different um groups of what's going on in the school so I would want to make sure I'm
070asking the appropriate questions to them to get the correct answers in regards to the different policies I want to add different policies for such as bullying we do have the opportunity to change these things to make it better we had to listen to other parents and the community of what needs to be changed to make it better for our students so it's not just um who's on the board we had to listen to everybody that's involved students we either listen to parents we have to make sure that everybody is heard to make these policies appropriate registered nurse of 41 years an old nurse I guess you would call me um you know when I was the assistant director of the health center at Canisius College it gave me a very unique perspective on things going
071on in the world college kids like I said before have a way of making you think a lot differently in opening your eyes in your mind and some days they listen to me some days they didn't and then there were consequences that some days they'd show up in the health center and some of their decisions were poor decisions and we helped them work it out I believe that we do need to work for the parents and the taxpayer the children we have to work together and I think you know we don't do enough of that we don't do enough listening when I told you I went door to door um it was amazing to listen to families because we all think a lot alike we're not that far indifferent from one another we care about
072our families we care about our communities and you know once we listen to each other we're a lot more together in things than we are not thank you [Music] um what I feel makes me a good candidate is that I bring a special ed background to the table and that have also been so heavily involved in volunteer work within the community I also know when something's not in my wheelhouse and it's beyond the scope of what I know and I'm open to listening and learning from my peers and working together towards a common goal um I believe in strengthening relationships with all stakeholders and explaining why decisions were made not just saying it's a no because I said so but really getting down to why the decision was made in the way that it was
073and giving people that rationale will some people still be upset with you absolutely but at least then they can understand why the decision was what it was think that this is an area that I do have a unique perspective because I've sat on committees as a parent as a teacher and as a school administrator and being able to look at the policies and procedures I'm very familiar and spend a good amount of time reading through both local and state policies and how that impacts schools because that's my daily life I'm living that with my own children and with the students that I work with daily I have you know sort of a background in in being able to do the research that goes along with what is needed for the district when it comes to
074the changes and policies that we currently have but I also think that that aspect of listening to stakeholders of communicating the what and why in decision making is a huge part of what is going to make a successful board in a successful community my professional experience with policy and procedure is that I do them almost on a daily basis in my job reviewing current policy to what we need to have uh in regards to nursing so it has to do with state requirements uh and just within my own company that I work at so constantly revising them but in order to do that you have to talk to your subject matter experts I am not the subject matter expert of everything so I go to those who are I go to those who are the
075boots on the ground the people doing the job every day what is their challenge I use empathy first and foremost I use empathy I think our world struggles with apathy right now which is that they don't care so we have to come at it from empathy of what is it like to be in their shoes and we can make all the policies we want but unless we put ourselves in the shoes and listen to the people who are in those shoes to really make a change nothing's going to be positive so that's where I think I have the professional experience of doing policy creation and evaluation and revamping and I listen with an empathetic ear and then the key to that and being accountable is you have to then see did your policy work you
076have to re-evaluate it come back around what worked what didn't work and let's take another look at it you don't just put it in stone and walk away you have to re-evaluate thank you this is a question specific to redistricting how do you think the school district should be reorganized going forward and how would you plan to strategically organize and oversee the redistricting the the redistricting process and we'll start with Jen well thanks um I think that we definitely need to look at restructuring our our schools I know that there's a lot of students that live in the Potter Winchester Potter area that actually drive past the school to get to Allendale I think that Community Schools need to be coming to come back to the where we were and make sure these kids go
077back to where they're close to the schools and I want to make sure that the parents and the stakeholders are well aware of every single step that the planning of redistricting is without being surprised because that's the um one issue what I also think that we should do is for our eighth graders of hypothetically if we did this Latin next year our eighth graders that are going into ninth grade they should be um grandfathered in to that specific school or their seniors or Juniors going to seniors they should be grandfather into a specific school so they can continue finish that the school that they should be in but I don't I think we need to make sure that everybody is well aware of what are restricted the restrict redistricting process is so I'm not as
078familiar with the whole redistricting processes Jen is and I do believe that and and I will quote her as well that you know kids need to be in the district and for a bus to drive by a school I mean that just doesn't make any sense and I'm not a transportation person um but I think we can absolutely do things a lot better along those lines and I'm going to do my homework a little bit better about the redistricting um to be honest with you because I don't know enough about it but these are important topics and I don't pretend to be the expert on this one thank you um redistricting has been something that's been on the mind of many I'm sure for a number of years we've heard it but we haven't really
079seen any progress I know that we need to look at space available look at the numbers of students in each building the number of teachers you need the number of therapists and make sure that we're making an equitable and fair long-term decision I don't think changes should be made abruptly I think that they should be made slowly over time because you know it is important to these kids I have a son who's a sophomore at West right now if next year he was told he had to go to East he wouldn't be happy about it you know nothing against East but it's just it it's important to these kids but there are ways to do it and I think that you know just talking with the stakeholders figuring out a plan what is the most
080sensible plan and then moving forward with it with the realization that this is going to happen again in our lifetime it's happened previously my my mother was you know in the midst of redistricting with West Seneca schools so is my husband so they will survive at the kids but I think we need to be transparent and make it as smooth of a process as we possibly can so as a parent living in an area that historically has been part of the redistricting movement back and forth I've taken a vested interest in understanding the what and why of the decisions that are part of this and I will say that I do think there's a strong Community aspect especially in elementary school that needs to be considered when we look at how we redistrict I think
081that we need to look at population projections over the next five to ten years because this should not just be a decision that we're making based on the current numbers in schools but what are going to be the long-term numbers in schools and what are the going to be the Staffing retirement things that are related to the support and Facilities of our school buildings what are these capital projects going to do to change the nature of the schools and how they're used and how is that going to have an impact on the way that students are distributed amongst our schools I think that this is something that can't be done in a single year or in a immediate process but it's something that as a board member I would look into what research is already
082existing for board members to consider when making these decisions and how would that impact our students and do what's best for the availability of resources for all the different populations of kids that are in the different school buildings I mentioned before that as a board member I would look to the subject matter experts I know that there has been teams and committees and that there are experts who look at the actual sizing the population projections uh that's key you can't do that without this information as a parent and a taxpayer five years ago when my daughter was in kindergarten I absolutely made the comment of you need to redistrict because she was shipped across to the east side because of Winchester um and just now it took four years four years for that more than
083that because I wasn't invested until she was in school so there's a whole school in this District when Chester Potters those families have felt this need for years I have lived in West Seneca for 10 years and I think that's probably when that happened so there are parents and taxpayers in this community who have seen their children and at least four different schools because this has not happened I was told at that moment that's a four-letter word don't say that well I'm going to say it it needs to happen it needs to happen smart and fairly and not like you said not a knee-jerk reaction we need to think this through it's going to take some time but not too much time because it needs to happen so fairly and with the subject matter experts
084at hand I would listen to that information and come up with Creative Solutions as a team well this this starts from the central concept of do what's best for the kids um we have to focus on the resources that are available uh how we're going to distribute features what classroom sizes look like what geographic locations look like what the money looks like for the taxpayers it's a long-term process and it's one that has to we have to go delicately into this process with all the information humanly possible but this comes down to a very simple idea we have to do with specialty kids and busing them across districts busing them to schools you know that are nowhere near their houses may not be the best solution but we also can't forget that we have to
085equitably distribute the resources if no kids should wish that they went to a different school for a better education so as part of this redistricting we we also have to focus on providing the best educational background that we can every kid has the right to a good education and so we have to be smart about this we have to we can't go about this simply for shutting down one school or moving one school and putting 35 kids in another classroom we have to be better about this and more creative about this because we can't afford to do this wrong and realize it five years from now when we've negatively impacted kids in one area of the district and not another we can't afford to have an oops moment because that will have detrimental effects on
086our kids and on entire portions of this District so we have to be smart about this thank you and of the questions that were submitted by our community members and once again I would like to thank the community members who submitted questions through our web form and through social media at this time we would like to open the floor to questions from our audience members questions must be directed to all candidates if you are interested in asking a question please line up at the mics in the aisles and we'll get through as many as we can and uh we'll take it from there so if anybody's interested step right up for you candidates that believe in not Banning books just to let you know I'm an atheist but I'd like to know if any of
087you believe in banning the Bible in the school let's start I'll start no I don't believe I don't believe in banning any book I don't believe in banning any book some of my best friends are Christian or Muslim there's great there's great benefit to reading and being exposed to multiple forms of information it helped to perform my beliefs it helped you know change how my my worldview works so again I don't believe in taking information off the table believe that we should take away any book but um we need to make sure that the type of book is appropriate to different levels of the school so the Bible High School um if you want to have a secondary smaller different book for a secondary for the middle school and Elementary it would be appropriate I
088don't believe in banning the Bible or any of the books um I would not be in favor of banning the Bible or any other religious work um from public to education there are students of all different faiths that attend our schools and I think that they're all equally important I don't believe in banning any books and I think that there is a historical relevance to religious texts and so that's something that is something that is sometimes explored in classrooms it helps students to develop their own perspectives be able to be exposed to those different types of texts and make them available and we want them to be able to create their own unique experiences and perspectives on various topics so part of that could include religious text your question hi my name is Courtney film
089um the town of West Seneca is planning to eliminate all Recreation programs which have staff and six hundred thousand dollars of American Rescue plan funds are going to be spent to complete the community center and that includes remodeling existing facilities to be self-serve and unsupervised when concerns about the incredible learning and socialization losses kids have suffered in recent years have been expressed some Town board members have indicated that they expect West Seneca Central School District's continuing education program to fill in the gaps that West Seneca Recreation is going to have this is particularly true for programs and swimming lessons are any of you prepared to Advocate against the West Seneca Town board passing the buck or in this case the tax increase onto the school district yes I am this comes back down to smart
090decision making um Town board for West Seneca they they have a budget of their own as well and we can't simply just pass the buck on to the teachers or the administrators and because the town board doesn't want to deal with the hard issues it comes down to communication and it comes down to understanding of it's not about bigger government smaller government it's about a fishing government and an understanding where we need to do better by all of these decisions and that involves getting in the room and not passing around who gets to do what we have to come up with better Solutions um that was a lot of information um but um I think that we need to work together and for instance you um I was walking around and I was talking to
091a parent and um she mentioned that when she was in high school um the seniors did um took lifeguard classes during swim class so we're bringing that back to help alleviate some of the stress of the town to get those lifeguards for different purposes for this for the town but we need to work together as a community to get things done well we can't pass the book I mean it's got to stop um you know these tax increases the one that's proposed is significant and as I said there is a lot going on for people right now and we have to come up with better Solutions and the town Board needs to sit down and everybody needs to work together because this is it's unacceptable yeah I'd agree there and um I actually remember you
092coming to the basketball games and getting West Seneca parents to sign to keep the pool open um and I've I've been trying real hard to get my three boys to take that lifeguard certification course and you know it's it's a good job to have it's a good skill to have um as far as the the town passing the buck onto the school district I don't think that is um right or fair at all but I think there are ways that the town in the school board could work together and offer more programs through Community Ed so that the um the usage of the pool in the community increases and hopefully you know kids will start to learn to swim and want to come back and want to use the facilities again and we would have
093the staff to open them I agree that this is something that needs to be a continued conversation I know that as a student growing up in West Seneca I definitely participated in my fair share of Community Education pieces but I also want to make sure that I understand all the information why those decisions are being made so some sort of collaborative discussion between the town board and the school board to see what is available for our students outside of school would be absolutely something I'd want to to look more into to really understand what is available how are we making best use of our facilities and resources and what are we going to continue to provide for our community I think it's important for us to remember our boundaries and as stewards again of the
094district's money it would not be appropriate for uh for those to cross over so there does need to be open communication and accountability so just as the school board has a budget that they have to adhere to the town board is going to have to be creative in their ways as well and absolutely I stand behind supporting keeping that open the the kids need it and for those of us who volunteer with so many of the kids we see what they need I spoke earlier about have them with their you know heads in a cell phone all summer they need to be in recreational activities through the community so yeah no I'll absolutely stand with you on that things any other audience members would like to ask questions hi my name is Chris Hart and
095I just wanted to ask a question to the guitar board in relation to the whole issue of book Banning can any one of you name a specific book that mentions rape sadomasochism or anything in that nature a name of a book because I would be particularly interested in to know that thank you it is and I don't have the I mean I have several books at my own home that um I have been given I can't give you the exact name of the book that has that in particular um but there is a book and several books and like I said when I showed my own children and my oldest son is going to be 35 years old he just looked at me and said Mom I mean this is like child pornography we'd be
096arrested having this in public and it's I don't know why we're taking the innocence of children away and it's uh to me it's a very disturbing Trend I don't like what I see and uh as a grandmother in November I will do everything in my power to fight um there I believe there's a list of 45 books that I am aware of but that whole rating from one to five not even one I you know what I should have brought you would think that that struck you deep in your heart as being offensive and disgusting which I would agree that it seems like you would have that ready and say well this is an example and and maybe the other candidates have knowledge of that I that that would be of interest to the public
097and particularly I'm sorry I don't have the name of the book off the top of my hand I should have brought my list that would have been a lot easier so I apologize they're in West Seneca okay and Orchard Park thank you you're welcome I don't know of any such books in the West Seneca School libraries I'm not aware of specific books I know that with my own daughters we discuss the books that they're reading and what the topics are and we look at things like that so I haven't come across anything that they've shown interest in that would be something that I'd consider an inappropriate topic but obviously if I um you know if I wanted to look more into the actual books offered in the library I have a familiarity with some things
098that I know would be adult and theme but we have to make sure that there's a variety of books available to students it doesn't mean that we have to do sensitive topic books um or or anything sort of banning of books simply because certain you know certain topics are more difficult for some that's a conversation again that has to happen at home yeah I'm not aware of the name of any books um and again as a nurse I know that there's some things that other parents feel are is too advanced for them but in this day and age they are learning more from their peers and on their phones and they need to be taught the proper terms and top proper things that I don't believe I have not seen these books uh I would
099I would like to take a look at them if they exist in our schools but there's a difference between knowing your body and knowing what is appropriate touch what is inappropriate touch what is an appropriate conversation so if that is a book or a teaching that's happening that is appropriate that that children are aware because like we said they're learning more from their peers and on the bus and on social media and I think that parents should be more concerned about monitoring social media than they are about banning books I can't name us a book but I do think that it's important to remember most of our teachers are parents most of our teachers have families so the concerns of the parents aren't exclusive to the concerns of the teachers and then we need to
100go we need to remember that the teachers do this because they love making sure that the kids are growing they love most of these teachers have children that have either come through West Seneca or gone through public education um so I I find it hard to believe that these teachers are somehow teaching books that are so horrendous in our Public School System but also and something I'll I agree with with Lorena um it's the difficult topics also have the propensity to grow most experiencing difficult topics and then asking the question why they make you uncomfortable or what you're supposed to take away from them that has incredible value we can't forget that sometimes the most difficult conversations lead to the most growth and taking those away because the information because it's easier to take the
101information away than have the conversation only leads to detriment later on we're not here to teach the kids what to think it's how to think okay um so I just want to clarify you want to know and a title yeah that would be very helpful the one book is called lucky it's in West Seneca um it's a senior in West um lucky thank you and it's at east and west and I'm uh but I don't agree with Banning books I agree with appropriate content and what Lorraine said is the social media aspect too um there it needs more guidelines in regards to the the kids in the school because that's where everything happens my daughter is getting bullied because on social media so social media is a major thing but to answer your question lucky
102is the name of the book you're welcome thank you all right seeing none um first of all just thank you audience members for asking those questions I appreciate you coming forward and I appreciate your candor and being willing to ask the questions publicly it's really important for for this kind of dialogue and so we really do all just appreciate that and we appreciate you being here um at this point in time we will go ahead and open it up to our candidates one more time for their closing statements and what I would like to do is reverse the order and start with Laura thank you for sharing this time with us I I think it's so important to have Community engagement opportunities and be able to not only hear from candidates but also have an
103opportunity to potentially represent our community on the school board educational and training opportunities are very important to me I think we need to ensure that we provide our students with diverse skills and resources to be successful in the future careers and opportunities that they have that are Ever Changing many of these thoughtful decisions that we've talked about tonight regarding the health safety instructional value and Facilities of our buildings overall program planning is essential to the future of our community and of our district and I'm prepared to participate and Lead thoughtful discussions regarding those strategic planning conversations I think that the communication aspect that I discussed earlier with stakeholders is an essential component of our District's success and I'm prepared to ask those questions and have and create those opportunities to have those conversations in preparing
104for decision making as a district I'm invested in West Seneca schools I'm a Community member I am a taxpayer I'm a parent and I'm an educator I see the needs that we have and I'm willing to learn and grow with the district we have three daughters who are in two schools right now soon to be three different school buildings and so having many years to still continue to see our children learn and grow in the school system I want to make sure that they have those successful opportunities available to them we want to make sure that all of our students in West Seneca have great educational opportunities programming that's appropriate student-centered support and programs available so that they can become productive members of our community as well thank you everybody for coming tonight at the
105end of the day I'm in this for the betterment of West Seneca schools and creating well-rounded individuals that come out of West Seneca schools my kids are half of them are already out of West Seneca schools so I have no personal stake to gain I'm not doing this for any personal reasons other than wanting to see our schools and our children Thrive and survive I look forward to working collaboratively with other board members I look forward to making responsible sound fiscally responsible decisions in the future looking at the long term and not being so short-sighted so again I just appreciate everybody's time tonight and I hope you come out on the 16th so thank everybody for coming out tonight and thank the candidates and everybody who put this program together these are really great people
106they stepped up and a lot of people don't do that it's easy to sit in our bubbles and not do anything and and hope somebody else will speak for us but I'm a mom my husband is buried here I'm not leaving the community and I'm going to be a grandma and I really really do care about what goes on in this community like I said I'm not leaving we need to be accountable to our children to the taxpayers we all have to work together and there's not enough of that um like I said when I ran for New York State Assembly when you sit down with people on their front porches and I was really blessed to do that it was a an amazing experience and there's so many wonderful people Tony used to say
107to me Sam there's Western New York is unique because you can be in the grocery store with somebody and in five minutes have a conversation with them and know their whole life and you don't get that across the country my husband went to school out in Iowa and uh you know we have a unique Community here and I know I can do a good job I'm not afraid of hard work I'm not afraid of sitting down with everybody and discussing things and again thank you very much for your time this evening I appreciate you listening to me thank you um when I go back off of her thank you so much for your time and patience with us I have worked two years to get into this last year I ran I lost just I'm
108shy of um getting on the board but in that meantime I learned so much I'm not in this for me I'm in this to help our community in our schools I see the potential that West Seneca has and I want to make sure that our students can exceed in what we can provide them and I want to um we have amazing candidates here and I hope to see you guys on May 16th quote the great Marv Levy where would you rather be but here now thank you to everyone that did take the time and energy to come out tonight on a Thursday night on the 16th is going to be an election three people are going to end up on the board the education I'm sorry I'm at the school board for West Seneca um
109and the question comes down that it's more basic form to who do you trust to work on behalf of your kids and the kids in your community there are a lot of big issues there are a lot of issues that are going to affect this community not in the next just in the next year but in who we raise that will be in these spots in 10 years I'm a product for public education 10 years ago I wasn't sitting thinking about sitting here but it's time to give back to the community that I grew up in that means in 10 years someone who's going to be sitting in these seats is going to be on the same path who do you trust with your kids do you trust someone who is going to trust the
110teachers it's going to put the information in the hands of people who have spent their entire lives learning how to do this and how to make the best decisions so that we can raise the Next Generation in this community at the end of the day we're all up here talking about the same things communication transparency putting this back together in a way that makes sense so that we can build a community for the next 30 Years at the end of the day this is for the kids everything that we do is going to be for the kids so think about what you would want for your kids hopefully we can whoever you vote for you have the faith and the trust that they will do what's best for your community and your families in this
111community I hope to see all of you out there I hope to see all of you vote and if it's for me I would welcome that opportunity if not you have to do what's best for your kids and I can appreciate that I'm going to try to wrap it all together here of a book that I wouldn't ban is a cookbook in a cookbook there are recipes you might need a quarter cup of sugar two cups of flour but all you have on hand is a one-third cup because the other ones are dirty that's Algebra I do Algebra every day that's because I was taught by amazing teachers Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 I struggled with that was not my thing I was an Arts kid that was hard we thought geometry would be easier
112it was shapes no that was hard I vowed I would never do that somehow I became a nurse there's a lot of math it's nursing math but it's there I'm a girl scout leader there's algebra and how many cases of Girl Scout cookies will fit in your car and depending what kind of vehicle you have there are there's mathematical equations out there for it so I love public teachers I love education and I use every bit of it every day I try to instill that in my daughter the first thing we did when the pandemic brought us home was homec I think we all did homek what did we make banana bread I have the pictures I think we all did it do you put nuts in it do you put chocolate chips in it
113we do both we're all here for the students we're all here for our community what is so clear to me is that West Seneca is just a passionate Town that's why we moved here it was a bonus of the Arts in the music education that are here that just speaks so to my heart and I promised myself that I would not do this but just to wrap it up I believe the children are the future teach them well and let them lead the way okay there you go that's all you're gonna get all right once again on behalf of the West Seneca District Parent Council I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight both in person and online thank you to our candidates not only for running but for participating in this forum
114we really appreciate you being here and being willing to talk with all of the people I would like to thank Jeff Pacer for all of our mics and live stream tonight that's really fantastic to make sure that we have so many people who can watch if they cannot be here as a reminder election day is Tuesday May 16th right here at East Senior polls are open from seven to nine and I'd also ask that you please consider supporting East seniors PTO that day with the purchase of a barbecue dinner from three to seven or until it's sold out and the proceeds from that barbecue do benefit East Senior pto's programs for scholarships and other great activities for their students thanks again everybody for being here and good night [Music] foreign