001hello um my name is Megan panel I'm a senior at Boston spa High School attending the University of Connecticut in the fall to major in pharmaceutical studies my name is BR damba I am a senior at Boston spa and I'm undecided where I'm going but I'm going to major in political science we will now do the pledge a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the emergency exits are there and also there this year we will have four a four section program section one will be opening statements section two will be generic questions to the candidates and section three will be questions from the public if you wish to ask a
002question you must submit the would like to ask a question sheet to Mr Hornick student moderators will randomly select six sheets to ask questions you must accept the rules that are on the sheet to ask ask a question a microphone will be brought to you to ask your questions section four will be closing statements this year we have three candidates running for two seats on the board of education we'll now do opening statements Mr turak yes good evening my name is Tim turbak I am a resident here in the village of Boston spa and I have served on the board of education for the last three years in that role I spent the last two years on the policy committee and served as the PTA leason for the last three first thank you for joining
003us all here tonight I'm honored to be here joined by Jason and FIA to have this opportunity to speak to the community and thank you to the students for hosting this event uh we didn't have a meet the candidates night when I ran three years ago uh so I feel like I missed out on the opportunity to formerly introduce myself for those who may not know my story I moved to the area from Brooklyn with my wife Eliana back in 2019 when choosing where to live I got to hear how great the Boston spa schools are and with my wife and I expecting our first child at the time it was a clear choice to move to this District when I ran three years ago I want to help prepare the students of our community
004for the world beyond our classrooms and to help them be inspired to achieve greatness I run now to continue that vision and to help oversee an even better district for the future I look at my now two young children Ryan and Aubriana and imagine what the district will look like when they attend school I think about how I want them to have the best education possible and what that will look like for them I see a district that has the resources to build on their strengths work on their weaknesses and minimize if not remove the obstacles which get in their way I understand for that to happen for my own children it must be available for all students for that reason I will strongly Advocate that the district receives these resources so every student has
005their individual needs met while it is great to have these resources if our students are not in school to receive them they can go to waste while the occasional sick day may be required the issue of chronic absenteeism in our state is a problem which needs to be addressed there are many factors which go into play but the end result is the same if a student is not in class we may not see them reach their full potential we need to address the issues which keep students out of the classroom and develop policies and practices which not only bring them back but give them the desire to be there and want to learn if reelected I will support policy which Builds on that ideal one which develops a culture of inclusion for all students and
006helps minimize the distractions which may affect learning I feel like so much has changed in the last three years and despite several bumps in the road we are in a better spot than we were and we continue down that road to achieve even more it's my hope that you will UST me as a member of the Board of Education as we continue on this journey Miss Rodriguez hi good afternoon uh my name is Fabia Rodriguez um this is my first year um applying for the school board um for those of you who don't know me I've moved here to The District in 2018 I live in the town of Boston um I have two boys very active boys who attend Gordon Creek fifth grade and third grade um because they are very active I'm very
007familiar and involved with youth sports from lacrosse to football um to the soccer club to bark um and including the music department here at Gordon Creek um I've served on various boards in the past including Workforce Development boards um and the Hispanic Coalition of New York I've been attorney an attorney for 13 years now um and I've been working closely with families in the capito district region the Mohawk Valley and birkshire County um the law that I specialize in is an immigration law and Child Welfare Law so I deal with many families who are torn apart and my job is to bring them back together um I've also been apparently aison for the Amsterdam school district for over five years in that role I got to become very familiar with school board involvement the activities
008of superintendents principles and curriculum leaders um Amsterdam has been a targeted school and I got to be part of the process to help them with plan planning on how to better involve their parents and students um and address some of the issues they have with attendance and involvement um I also was um a grant writer um both both in my uh work at nonprofit at Central civico but also with the capito district Bose's grant writing Department um if those of you who don't know Capital District Bose's has a very um wellestablished grant writing Department who's available to help all capital districts school districts um and finding different resources um lastly um you know outside of my involvement with families I'm a very invested mother um and enjoy my time here in state New York and
009not I came here and fell in love with the town of Boston because of the property I have but what really sold me was my realtor showing me the data here of Boston spa School District she showed me the data and I was convinced that this was the culture that I want to raise my family in so thank you for the opportunity tonight to get to know me and um look forward to meeting many of you Mr fno good evening it's been my pleasure to serve on the board of education for the last six e e e please explain your long-term vision for Boston Spa Central School District across all grade levels Miss Rodriguez so the question asked for long-term Vision um and this is something I've actually been pondering a lot um when I
010first moved here to the district my kids were still very small um but now as they are a fifth grade and third grade it's becoming a little bit more reality when you see these New York State Testing results when you see their interest when you see the development start to to move on and flower um so long-term District Vision that I see um is just really to support the mission right now the mission is to produce some well-rounded boss and Spa citizens um to have them prepared for the next level of their education or Workforce either or so my vision longterm is to to make sure that all students have the the resources the tools right not just students but the staff and coaches that are working with them um so it's very important as
011we begin to modernize I think Co um was a big reality check to me that technology is so important um and tools are so important to provide our students and train them early right get them ready early because we saw how many people were just completely lost with the technology um technology era that I call it in 2020 um so my long-term vision is to just prepare and predict the future yes I said predict the future prepare and predict the future get our kids ready always Advanced ahead of time um be a little bit better better and above the competition that we're putting our kids through Mr fno my number one priority for a long-term vision is to raise the overall academic achievement of all our students at all levels this incl includes graduation rates
012this includes standardized testing score this includes our own internal Assessments in the last four years the district has introduced several new uh instructional um programs at the elementary level one of these uh was even ahead of its time in terms of the phonics based reading which now has been uh mandated at the state level that all districts will follow and so with this and the introduction of a formalized mtss multi-tier system of supports for our students we would like to see a continued shift to higher performance at each grade level the board asks Miss Kathleen Skelly our instructional leader to give us reports each year showing uh midyear beginning of year midy year and end of year um improvements and scores in the uh District as part of that we need to continue our investment
013in the health and wellness supports including parent and caregiver support and then I understand we need to continue our broad portfolio of extracurricular activities Mr turbi yeah so like I had uh mentioned before I have uh two young kids Ryan and orbana aged four and two respectively so when we talk about long-term Vision I'm really in for the long-term vision of this District um you know what I see is the long-term Vision well obviously we continue the support of our current curriculum you know they help develop the resour bring out the resource sorry excuse me providing the resources that help bring out the best in our students you know every student has their own individual needs have those resources available to them you know we have to attack the obstacles we can control we have
014you know a lot of students in our district who may not be as advantaged as others so if we are able to provide those resources to them to help provide that equ Equitable chance to achieve a meaningful diploma we must work towards that Mr Rodriguez do you have a rebuttal um my only rebuttal is just to point out that we have great uh graduation rates at 87% right now and almost half the students are getting Advanced region so I think uh when it comes to higher performance we're already doing it um so maintaining exactly what we're doing with more of a a a look into our culture to make sure that we're maintaining the culture um and that we're properly supporting kids at different levels um our region scores show you that all kids are
015learning at different times but by the time they get here in high school they're ready for that advanced region and and that's what I love about Boston um Everybody learns different speeds but they have the support to get to the finish line so I would say um you know keep up with what we're doing um and just seeing what's working making sure we're keeping what's working we're keeping it at the presence Mr fno do you have a rebuttal I have no further comment comments on Mr turak do you have a autal none one of the most important things which a school board does is prepare the yearly budget please explain your budgeting philosophy when it comes to writing a school budget and how that would impact taxing and spending within the district Mr F now
016each year our assistant superintendent for business Brian serani puts together the budget timeline puts together the steps of the budget so um there are a set of District priorities that are presented to the board and from that there is then the work that goes into the analysis of what are costs that we just have to include everyone here knows that gas prices have gone up utilities prices have gone up Insurance prices have gone up those are realities for the district at that point there is a um analysis and a review of how do we uh face the realities of increased costs from year to year against what our instructional needs are and what our proper allocation of uh resources proper allocation of um staff for class rooms that work goes on uh My Philosophy is
017that I love what our district does and that we are very evenly uh keeled each year to year to year we don't have a year where suddenly there's a 10% increase or there's a big budget Gap we have uh consistency and our district residents have um a uh Comfort level of uh continuity and know what to expect from us Mr TR turc yeah so uh When developing a b budget philosophy um you know a lot of it you have to consider much like what Jason said a lot of the costs that go into you know like our gas our insurance rates and you know we have to ultimately take that to consideration when being pH you know being fiscally responsible um but at the end of the day we still need to consider the needs
018of our students so we have to continue to build on the successes that we have we have to find solutions to address where we may be coming up short and you know how can we do that without being a burden on the taxpayers as well you know M Rodriguez my strategy with school budgeting I'm unlike my incumbents I don't have experience directly with a school budget but my strategy would be um first obviously receiving the the the structural bones of what we need just to operate right you begin with those um and try to plan for the future with that we all know our light bill went out this year we know gas is going up we know a lot of things are going up materials have been going up in order to to repair
019make repairs um and then we just have to keep up with the economy so we're we're never able to really plan that um so unfortunately you know the past couple years that that's exactly what's going on we can have a booming economy next year and maybe things will even out for us but year to year it's constantly um first starting with the bare minimums what do you need in order to operate um so running your own personal home is just like that I know we have parents watching viewers so I'm trying to relate to you in your own language um what does it take to operate your home like what are the minimum things um so that's where I would start then um I would look into maintaining our staff right so that's the next
020level of what is it how much will it cost to maintain our staff um one of the most popular rumors about Boston spa is how amazing our staff is and I can tell you from Gordon Creek I have that personal experience that they are amazing um and so maintaining staff would be my second priority seeing what we need to do what do the numbers look like in order to maintain um obviously we know that deals more with conversations with unions and what pay raise scales are involved with that um but working together with that for a collaborative um success lastly we we can't expect what what's going on right now which is our um fringe benefits right we don't know what goes on day uh year to year with that so that can increase um
021but constantly working towards um finding Alternatives is my biggest um plan for school budgeting is you know school budget doesn't happen in April we can have conversations September and October look for other resources um one thing we talked about was that our light bill went up well what what are we doing as as a district to be proactive in that you know what um funding is there on the state level to help us go green to help us save some some type of um you know cost in that sense what led lights do we need to put in ETC um you know I think we're one of the only school districts with a football field without LED lights so that's just one example right it's time up okay Mr fno do you have a rebuttal
022I just wanted to add that it's very important for people to understand how the investment in our school district actually pays dividends and comes back to you financially in terms of the budget in terms of the taxes you pay so each year our school district's area's tax base has grown for this year it's 2% so when we have our tax levy the increase in the tax base helps offset that so that the real uh increase to an individual's taxes is lower so having businesses uh relocate to our area having businesses come to our district because of the school district actually is an investment for all of us Mr turx you have a rebuttal uh yeah just one thing to add you know when we vote on the budget uh voting yes is committing to basically
023providing the supports that the and the resources uh the district need so that we can help students uh maximize their potential and we you know we try our best every year so that we do it within within fiscal responsibility and Mr Rodriguez do you have a rebuttal um just one last point is that I know our budget primarily um we spent on our staff and I just want to make sure people remember that our graduation is very rate is very high and that's very um inviting to new people who are moving here from who are get relocating for work um opportunities so um something to keep in mind that relocation um being you know inviting to new people to come to our community heavily weighs on our graduation rate and we only achieved those thanks
024to our staff some budget years like this one are more difficult than others when budget cuts have to be made please explain what philosophy you would use to make Cuts Mr turbia yeah it's you know when you have to make budget cuts it it weighs heavy because you think about who it affects and how it may affect them you know you think about when you cut teachers you know what students you know who's teacher was that student's favorite teacher and you it it it weighs heavy on you um but you know we ultimately as a board have a responsibility to all our students to the community to the district to make sure that we provi we're able to provide them the best opportunities within a sense of fiscal responsibility that doesn't burden taxpayers and you
025know in a time like now where you know things aren't as great as they were and we try to um have to make the difficult decisions and but you know ultimately it has to figure out how what we have to do that we're still providing the best opportunities for all our students Miss Rodriguez um for budget cuts one of the you know this is the part where I I think a lot about budgeting start back in September October the conversations need to already start happening um I'm very big on shopping around for services so the first thing I will look at is our contractual Services how can we rebid things um who what networks can we tap into what local municipality can help us with what state funding can help us with there's tons of
026Grants out there tons of resources we can tap into um and really good people in our community who I know would help us um the mayor has been very vocal for the school district comes to every um opportunity he can he's there for the kids um a stronger partnership with him and the county in general is where I would start um to see what we can do for those contractual Services um sometimes other school districts use Partnerships for services in order to say have some cost savings so that's where I would look first but again that conversation can't happen in April those are things that we have to start working on September October and November Mr fno uh the board and I support our business office and the Very uh excellent work they do in
027terms of making sure that we have as low costs as possible with the best value for our taxpayers uh we are joining in consortiums with other school districts we are looking at long-term contracts with favorable terms for us and we are looking to maximize State reimbursement for all our per purchases so this um has to do with the timing of purchases this has to do with the uh timing of them um and the uh formulation of the contracts to make sure that we lock in a price that we like but not necessarily lock it in for too long if we think potentially there there's the opportunity for more favorable um circumstances so this is part of the calculus that gets us down to reductions in force allocations of instructional staff so each year there are
028some reductions in force and there is some hiring of new positions within our district this again is trying to make sure that we have the best possible environments for our students this year we have some reductions in Force at the elementary level I can share that still 50% of our grade levels at all our buildings will have Elementary class sizes under 20 students and we will not have any uh class sizes over 24 at any of our elementary buildings for a district this size this is very advantageous to us last year we added a uh autism classroom for uh students so that we did not have to Outsource them this year in the special education realm we're adding a 121 classroom bringing more fiscal savings to our district Mr turc do you have a rebuttal
029yes I just want to give a lot of credit to our business office um you know they working hard all year around uh to negotiate contracts uh filing for Grants you know and essentially maximizing every dollar possible for the students of our district and for the making sure that you know we have what we need and we we're doing it within using every dollar to make sure that it goes to our students and to our to our community Mr Rodriguez do you have a rebuttal um just an extra comment one thing I didn't mention was um a lot of districts sometimes lose money when Medicaid reimbursements aren't properly done on time um so that would be something else I'd be looking into um before making any budget cuts Mr fno do you hover rebuttal I
030do not there are several large labor unions with our school district uh we are faced with bus driver shortages and pending Statewide teacher shortages please explain your philosophy when dealing with with labor negotiations especially when it comes to the attraction of qualified candidates and the retention of those candidates Miss Rodriguez I have some famili familiarity with um the transportation Department's Union um with CDTA um I used to run the transportation department for the city of Amsterdam and so I had constant negotiations um with their Union Leader uh one of the most important things when working with unions is first making sure we're respectful of the their safety um so teacher unions and and bus safety as well right um so one of the strategies is always to look at what's first you know what are
031required for their safety when you provide them with a safe environment um they're going to be happier to come here um it's my experience that unhappy employees are mainly because they don't feel supported by their District or they're in an unsafe environment that they're fearful to go to work right um or going to work becomes more of an emotional stress than anything else so that's usually my Approach when working with labor unions is first making sure that their their uh Representatives feel safe coming here feel included um feel supported and understanding a little bit more about the tools and resources they need in order to to add to do what we're asking them to do um when it comes to salaries there I know there every District's different um but we do I think we
032do a really good job at making sure individuals are compensated for their experience and their qualifications and like I said it shows um tremendously in our our scores um so I think that that would be my Approach with labor unions Mr fno we have an expectation for our superintendent to continue the excellent relations that we have with our associations this doesn't just happen sporadically this happens 365 days a year our relationships have been longstanding we have excellent leadership Kim pusateri our president of our Teachers Association has been incredibly valuable for us in terms of putting together our professional development opportunities for our instructional staff Ms bolster the president of the administrator Council Miss Macwan the president of the association of teaching assistants and Miss Patrina president of our CCA Association have all been welcoming and
033open to dialogue and conversation with many facets of our District's operations this is where now we don't have any surprises for anyone we keep them informed we keep them part of the process and again this is an expectation that our superintendent will maintain and continue these relationships the other part of it is making sure that our contracts with them allow us to attract well-qualified staff to our district Miss uh Mr oh yeah so uh much credit must go to our superintendent for the great relations we have with our unions and our associations it allows us to uh maintain this relationship that we're able to you know have that openness and have you know have them make them feel able to approach with any issues and any problems allows for that negotiation so that not only
034are the teachers that we have with our district happy but we're able to attract new teachers to this district and to build you know was Miss Rodriguez do you have a rebuttal no rebuttal Mr fno do you have a rebuttal I have nothing more to add Mr turak do you have a rebuttle no explain how you see global foundaries expansion impacting The balson Spa Central School District Mr fno certainly it's positive to our district in terms of our tax revenues the pilot revenues in the case of uh the global foundaries facilities but it's also a huge opportunity for us to leverage that develop velopment and our partnership with them to uh classes at our PC facility over in Malta through the wonderful um partnership that we have with Hudson Valley Community College and potentially other
035relationships um for uh you know um opportunities for for student involvement there or opportunities for their staff to be uh involved and to serve as mentors for our school District so I I see it as as nothing but a positive and again it goes back to the investment that we make in our school district is the investment that we make in our community and it makes us a very attractive place for business opportunities like this Mr turak yes so you know the relations we have with global foundies from you know they've came after they came before I moved to the district so but I've heard nothing but great things um in terms of what they've been able to provide to our community and to our district um the revenues that they bring in uh with
036our pilot programs brought in great Revenue to our district and the potential uh for a new plant to be built uh in the near future provides additional opportunities uh for uh for money for money to be brought into our district um um you know the Investments we you know we have had with um the the investment uh in that we've had with global foundaries um I'm sorry I'm done Miss Roder gr so Global foundaries coming to um our school district is a great opportunity um it's definitely going to bring more people right more people working here means more people having lunch downtown it means more people shopping here more people going to our post office more people um using our businesses so economically it it sounds and it looks amazing right but what the elephant
037in the room that nobody speaks about it doesn't mean that those people are going to live in our school district so as long as um both the government and the school district um are ready to embrace all those new workers and be inviting and be um enticing is the word I want to use for them to resettle here in in our school district that's where we're going to see the greater gain because now our property taxes are going to rise our local taxes which is our income sources right and there we're able to balance the the level of tax levels that we're we have in our budget for All um so it's a great opportunity to have new families move in um definitely job opportun unities there amazing families will probably be looking at us
038but it's also highle competition because our properties here in Boston spa are no different than the properties of our competitors in surrounding towns um so what are they going to look at is what do they get here in Boston spa what do they get with the Boston spa school district and compare it to competitors because living in neighboring towns is only a 15 20 minute commute for them so it's a great opportunity but the elephant in the room is is what are we going to do to get ready for that what are we going to do to be a welcoming Community what are we going to do to be an enticing Community Mr fno do you have a rebuttal I I just also like to recognize that part of global foundaries uh being here is
039something called the global foundaries foundation and that Foundation provides grants uh to some of our um District groups from the ptas to uh the schools themselves to um programs with within the schools uh some of the extracurricular programs and uh we just like to very much thank them for their uh their partnership Mr turak do you have a rebuttal no Mr alz do you have a rebuttal no how do you believe you can help address the diverse socioeconomic needs of the district across the grade levels as a member of the school board Mr turak yeah so uh one of the greatest areas of diversity in our district is uh is our socioeconomic one and you know we have over around 35% of our student population is um economically disadvantaged and you know you really have
040to realize that you know not all of them have the opportunities to um achieve the same as uh their counterparts in school you know they may not have the resources at home it may need they may require to you know complete homework or they may not have the ability to partake in after school activities and you know we as a district you know we owe it to them that you know we need to provide them the resources so that you know they have the same opportunities to achieve that meaningful diploma um as their counterparts do Miss Rodriguez could you repeat the question again how do you believe you can help address the diverse socioeconomic needs of the of the district across the grade levels as a member of the school board um well my professional
041background is working with families who are um low low income or high needs families um that's been my 13 years professional experience so I bring that voice um to the board I also bring um a wealth of knowledge of networks that we have in our community um part of my work is to connect my families to the right Avenues so that they can get the support they need in order to reunify with their children so I bring that voice to the board um also my grant writing experience they are primarily for underprivileged um school school board or sorry school districts um or high need school districts um our numbers are at 38% right now economically disadvantaged so um when it comes from a grant writing perspective we are in a very good place um to
042to be um to be recipients of funding so I bring that voice to the board Mr fno so our district is more economic diverse than other districts that are close to us but I have the expectation and I hope to see this through in the next three years that we don't have to say that we're good enough because of our socioeconomic diversity I think that we can be better and rise above that I'm setting the expectations again that we should be able to support all our students and our families so that we can raise academic achievement as I mentioned before we need to continue our health and wellness supports which include parent and caregivers support if we have students in crisis in our district it's because their families are in crisis and we need again
043to do everything that we can do to support them and to support our students in ter and one of the ways that this shows up is in terms of attendance if students come to our high school they're going to graduate most of our graduation issues are in fact because of attendance so we can do everything we can do part of that is partnering with our uh Community governments and trying to make it as best as possible I have expectations that we can do better Mr turak do you have a rebuttal um so one of the things I advocated for strongly last year uh was free meals uh throughout New York State and um thanks to uh Federal um mandates we get to see that here in balson spa and that's just one of the way
044many ways we can provide opportunities to our economically disadvantaged students to help them achieve everything they can Miss Rodriguez do you have a rebuttal um just a few extra comments um as as a boy Mom I'm very involved with sports and I've seen what they do with Eng aging kids and keeping kids um one of my best motivation to get my child to go to school is the day he has gym so um my voice to the board will also be addressing those needs I think um no matter what's going on at home they should feel welcomed here they should feel excited to be here and even if it's not math or science that they're excited about they're excited for that 230 Bell 3 3:30 Bell because they know they're going to see their coach
045and their teammates Mr fno do you have a robutt I do not are there any other sheets of people who would like to ask a question Michael BL um I'd like to commend the board for allowing the public to have one question this year as opposed to last year where there were no questions allowed and I think that's an important point because none of the statements we've heard so far provide any insult sight to uh the parents or grandparents here as to their child's future and the major educational issues of our day you just haven't addressed them at all um having said that I'd like to ask my question do you believe a 13 to 18yearold child is capable of making a non-revocable decision that they wish to change their identity either through castration breast
046removal puberty blockers or otherwise give up their option to have children in their adult life Miss Rodriguez since this is not specific to a book or a lesson um I'm going to address it as general as I can um I believe that it the question you asked is is a bit out of scope of what a school board member has influence over but if you were to address the question specifically to something that a child is doing here in the school building my main question will be does it cultivate a safe and supportive learning environment for the child to you um and that will help me I guess better answer your question but while kids are here we should be providing them a safe learning environment they should feel welcomed and they should feel supported
047to learn all their options um we what happens at home is not what our Educators can control and it's not what the school board can control but what we can control is that they feel safe here and that they feel um supported so if if learning is um do not under any threat Mr fno I have no response Mr turak my friend belief that our schools must provide a safe and inclusive learning environment safy J Jason uh gitler good evening uh thank you for taking the time uh to hear from us there is currently a proposal from the New York State Legislature dubbed as the Equal Rights Amendment to be included on the November general election ballot known as prop one which would allow for the codification of among other things allowing biological males to
048Pat and female sports based on gender ideology today that proposal was deemed unconstitutional and has reached an appell Court pending appeal to be returned to the ballot do you believe that biological males should fairly compete in female sports in our district thus erasing women's rights eliminating female competition and essentially squashing young girls aspirations to exceed in women's sports Mr fno in order to serve as a board member the board member has to take an oath that says that they will support the Constitution and the laws of the state of New York and I took that oath and as a board member and when I serve as a board member I will uphold that oath Mr turak I think the state of New York uh has pretty clear uh laws and guidelines with regards uh to
049this matter and uh as a board member it is my duty to fulfill those despite personal beliefs M Rodriguez as an attorney I trust the court system sometimes I don't like the response um you know there was a very controversial woman's right um that was demoted recently thanks to the Supreme Court so sometimes we don't like what the court system does but I fully believe and support our court system um and I also believe in the power of electing your elect uh Representatives so that is a great question and very important when somebody is voting at the polls for their local government Representatives who will decide on a state level what a school board is mandated to to follow so thank you we will now have a three minute closing statements Mr perno this year
050and speaking with our instructional staff I'm starting to hear that students are really starting to recover from basically the lost two years and maybe even a couple of uh recovery years after that from the covid pandemic I think it's very important for our district now to make sure that we focus and take full advantage of our students basically coming back to being students again full-time we also have a upcoming Capital project which will impact all our community impact our schools impact our students greatly I am committed to seeing that Capital project through I think it's very important we will in fact involve Community input we will in fact have numerous stakeholder input in that and we want to make sure that we are fiscally responsible but also have the best that we can for our
051students and our community and so we have that to look forward to and I'm very interested in making sure that we have the best possible outcome with that Miss Rodriguez um we are in some really great awesome Innovative times um we're finally dug digging out of Co I'm very excited about the future of Boston spa School District the town itself um Global foundaries coming in it's such a great time for leaders to to work it's a great time um there's a lot of options uh what I love the most about Boston spa though is the great families that are here I've really gotten to know hundreds of families and I'm not kidding with the hundreds because of all the sports I'm running around doing um and all the different needs they have every kid is
052so different so unique as a mom of two I'm seeing it right now and it's difficult um what works for my oldest does not work for my youngest um so I think it's very important to be a school board member to bring that voice um I come from a family of Educators as well my dad was a 30-year bus driver my mom was a 10-year bus driver my sister's been a teacher for over 20 years so the topic of education and Child Development has definitely been a part of me for a very long time um supporting the families I support I just I greatly believe in that when you you provide kids what they need to flourish here at school you know we can combat what's going on at home we we can't control that
053that's just the facts we can't control what goes on at home but here we have full control of what the environment is like for the child what resources they have in their fingertips what they're learning um I'm constantly press to see the things that my fifth graders comes home to and shows me that he's able to achieve at such an early age so it's a great time to be active um if those of you who are listening online please be vocal talk to your teachers talk to your guidance counselors talk to your principes um tell everybody what do you need you know um I I'm fortunate to see many of you um but I'm not sure if my my colleagues are able to so it's important to speak up let people get to know your
054kids that's the best way teachers and staff can support you so um that's the voice I bring and um don't forget to vote May 21st thank you Mr turak uh first of all thank you all for joining us tonight uh thank you Jason and fbia for sharing your visions and hopes for our great District uh being a member of the board for the last three years has been an eye openening experience I've learned so much about our district and how it operates I've seen so many highlights and successes that have been achieved by the students and staff more importantly I've learned so much about our community and I've felt the support it has given our schools uh it's been honored to serve you all to advocate for our students and I hope to continue to
055serve you in the future our district has a clear mission to provide an excellent education that maximizes the potential of each student to partner with families and the community to help our students become responsible and well-rounded adults all with the ultimate goal of a meaningful diploma for all students we have a budget which outlines the commitment to maximizing the success of all of our students and when we come together to vote on that budget as a community on May 21st we decide to join in on that commitment to our students as we venture into the future we can already see what challenges lay ahead for us and I'll be the first to admit it can appear as daunting at times much daunting like public speaking so but I have the utmost faith in our district
056and our public and in our community that we like many times before will join together to ensure the best possible outcome for all our students sitting on the board gives us the ability to oversee our district as we make our way towards tomorrow and it is my hope that you will once again bestow upon me the wonderful opportunity to serve on the board once again and see us into that future thank you thank you for attending tonight's meet the candidates night a reminder that school board and school budget elections are next Tuesday May 21st the polls will open from 7: a.m. till 9:00 p.m. Milton and Boston residents will vote at the high school and Malta residents will vote at the malta Town Hall all