001Hey EA, I'm Roxanne Perry, website and social media manager here for the district and today we are talking to Joe Cassidy. who is the president of the school board. So, thank you for being with us, Joe. >> Yeah, thanks for having me, Roxan. I'm a huge fan. >> Well, thank you. Thank you. There's so many of them out there. Um glad to have you. Um we have the budget vote coming up. We also have a couple seats that um are up for reelection. So, we were really excited to talk to you about that um today. If you don't mind answering some questions for us, >> I would love to. >> Awesome. All right. So we will jump right in. Um the first question is what positions are actually open to vote on this year? >>
002Right. So we have seven members on our board of education and there are uh they we serve three-year terms and so three of the members terms are expiring uh at the end of June. Uh and so those terms are uh Dan Brunson's Paul Blauers and uh the term that was initially Jessica's but that Judy Malice is uh serving now that uh Jessica has moved on to the town board. >> Right. Okay. So we have three open seats possibly. >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. So, what if somebody is thinking or listening to this podcast and they're thinking, you know, I really do want to get more involved, what does your typical day look like? Like what would their day look like? How does that kind of mesh with the rest of their life? >> Yeah.
003If only there was a typical day, right? It's uh you know, it's to to take a quote from Forest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates. You know, you never know what you can get on the school board is this same thing. So, um I would say that uh daytoday emails are consistent, right? Okay. Uh we have we have just like all the kids, we have Chromebooks, uh and we have uh Gmail accounts for the uh EAK12 uh.org. And uh and so we're constantly getting emails whether it be uh within the district uh or from some of like our associations like the Erie County Association of School Boards, the New York State uh school board association or uh even sometimes from you know some of the law offices that we use will send out
004updates and information or invitations to uh to webinars and that sort of thing. So, it's it's maintaining that and keeping up on those communications. Um, a lot of the time outside of meetings is spent uh working in committees. Um, so we all ser choose to serve on certain committees uh throughout the district. Uh, and not all the committees meet, you know, monthly or anything like that. Some of them are maybe three times >> uh a year. And so keeping up on those, getting ready for meetings, uh uh reading your materials, and sometimes there's some um you know, just housekeeping type things that you're you're working on through email, but then attending the meetings. And >> and the meetings uh you know, for any given committee could change when we hold them. it's based on the
005the committee members availability. >> So, and then obviously the um the work le the week or so leading up to a board meeting uh we get our materials for the agenda and we spend a lot of time reviewing those and uh looking at all the attachments uh and sometimes submitting questions if we have them in advance so that we can get answers at the meeting as opposed to bring the question right >> to the meeting and then get an answer later on. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> Yeah. It's a it's a lot of a lot of meeting and reading. >> Meeting and reading. Okay. That's a very important meeting and reading. >> Yeah. >> Um so you're getting information about a scenario, a situation, a decision. You ingest it. You understand it. >> You probably have
006bylaws, right, that you're going by. you have the uh board docs, right, that we go through to say, "Okay, what kind of board policy um are we looking at to decide does this fit within our culture and our laws?" >> And then you bring questions if you don't understand or want some clarification or >> Yeah. And Yeah. And we try not to, you know, like we we're subject to the open meetings law, so we're not discussing or deciding anything, but we can get information. >> Okay. um uh through through emails. We just can't >> work on the solution, right? That that needs to be done uh in in public view. >> Okay. >> Uh so so yeah, we we definitely will look to uh the com the uh policies uh for guidance. >> That's great.
007>> Okay. So if someone did hear this and they're wondering, you know, I think I want to do this, but I'm not sure. Do you have any advice for them? I know you had a an experience that kind of helped you a little bit, right? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I attended um school board meetings for actually five years uh prior to running for a seat on the board. And uh that in and of itself was invaluable. Uh getting to understand not just who the members of the uh board were, but the administration as well. and just being sort of almost a fly in the wall and and and being able to to view that that was extremely helpful. But then um the one thing that I always suggest to people who are talking about running
008is the Erie County Association of School Boards holds a uh annual prospective board member um I guess meeting. Uh and it's coming up on the >> 28th I think of March. It's a Saturday >> uh Saturday morning and it's down at uh uh their offices down in West Senica. >> It's great because they bring in they they they will bring in uh sometimes uh some lawyers to talk about the legality side of it. They'll bring in superintendent uh to talk about the relationship between a superintendent and a board and they'll bring in board members from uh some of the partner the the member districts uh to talk about the uh the commitment and understand that. So, I went in 2015 or 2016, I guess it was. Uh, even though I knew I wasn't going to
009run, I just wanted to hear and and understand. >> Uh, and the biggest thing is the time commitment, right? Uh, and the time commitment starts heavier uh just because you're you're taking in so much, you're trying to understand so much >> and then um as your term goes on, it's it sort of levels off. I would say here I am wrapping up five years and uh and I kind of feel like I'm getting the hang out of it almost. >> That's good. That's good. Yeah. But it is probably a lot all at once. And something like that informational session is I'm sure very helpful just to give people an idea of okay, what is this really going to look and feel like? >> Yeah. and and David Lowry down there does a great job setting
010that up and uh I really appreciate that it's available and definitely encourage anybody who's considering to get down there. The other thing is that you can certainly uh reach out to any of the board members, right, and and talk to us firsthand about our experience because it's also going to be different to districtto district. Uh and and that's something when I ran I actually did uh I set up uh time with board members and uh just grabbed a cup of coffee and just listen to them and >> it was re it was very helpful. >> Okay, that's good to know. Some really good advice for our you uh readers and listeners. >> Yeah. >> Um okay, so the board vote is coming up. We're going to vote on the budget. We're also going to open
011the uh vote on those open seats. >> Yeah. When is the the vote and what else do you want the community members to know? >> Yeah, so the vote is coming up on May 19th. Uh it's uh at the it'll happen at the middle school as it does every year. Polls open at 7 a.m. close at 900 p.m. Uh I would say that um you know for for those of you who uh have been following up along with our our budget discussions and will continue. We have a meeting uh this week uh where we'll continue to discuss them and uh just stay a breast on on those and understand the budget uh and uh come to it um come to you know with an idea of where we're at and what what we're trying to
012balance. Um I would say you know certainly ask questions. Uh I'm happy to talk to folks uh and as are other board members as well. you know, I get stopped in pretty much any place in Eastora and sometimes outside of Easter by people. Uh, and uh, and I'm I'm I'm happy to answer questions where where I'm able to. >> Uh, but yeah, the the the election is is open to uh, anyone 18 or older. They have to be they have to have been a resident here uh, I believe for uh, I think it's 30 days. Um, and they um, yeah, I think I think that's it. And then running for school board, uh, if anyone's considering that, it's a it's a one-year uh, residency requirement. >> Okay. >> Um, you can't live, uh, you can't
013have two members in the same household. Um, and it's and then it's also the voting requirements as well. >> Okay. So, a husband and wife can't run together for two seats. >> That's right. >> Right. Okay, that makes sense. or father son or whatever, however that works out. >> Yeah. So, yes, I I I guess the big thing is and there there'll be information that comes out in the challenger this spring. >> Okay. >> Uh we're required by state law uh to publish certain information and that goes into the spring challenger every year and uh that's a great place to get information on what is in the budget. >> Okay, good to know. So, be on the lookout for that. Um and we appreciate your time, Joe. This has been great. Thanks for coming on.
014Yeah. No, I'm I'm glad I was able to uh join and thanks for the invite. >> Absolutely. Thanks so much. >> All right. >> Bye. Yay.