001and two one good evening thank you for joining us for the annual PTA Council Board of Education candidate forum my name is Mary monzone PTA Council president-elect before we begin I would like to share Who We Are PTA council is the governing body that provides services to our local PTA units our function helps build stronger more effective units by offering training coordinating communication Communications among units engaging and coordinating and community-wide projects beyond the scope of a single unit as well as providing strength to unified planning efforts to solve community-wide issues as a public service PTA Council hosts this forum every year We Believe informed citizens are responsive citizens who will strive for better schools and a better community all of the questions we asked tonight will have come directly from our PTA units with us
002tonight is Beth Sanderson PTA Council secretary who will be co-moderator and Valerie Cadet Simpsons p-tech VAP who will be the timekeeper this evening this year we have four candidates running for two board positions Miss Lewis well I'm supposed to read them in the proper order sorry that's on this page apologies Donald Vega Ms Lewis Mr malpitano and Mrs farash Beth will now go over the format for tonight hi welcome everyone um so the format for tonight is that each candidate is allotted two minutes for opening statements three minutes for closing statements and two minutes for each of the questions asked all candidates will be asked the same questions we'll read the question and we'll go in an order that was drawn previously rotating through each person gets to go first and will rotate through there
003is no additional time allotted for rebuttals you can use your closing statement for additional comment or rebuttal um opening statements will begin with the person drawn first which is Mr Vega we're sitting in the order we will go in and please note that this forum is being live streamed and recorded to be shared on any and all formats available to ptas including social media thank you okay um we'll start with opening statements Mr Vega two minutes good evening everyone thank you all for coming here tonight and I see like there's at least 20 people here maybe so that's a that's a great turnout for New Rochelle so I appreciate you all for all coming out tonight every student in our public education system deserves an equal chance at realizing their potential no matter what their
004background is whether they're a special ed student that needs special services in their District whether it's a student that lives on a certain side of town and maybe their English is not their first language where their student lives in another part of town that's not near any school and it lacks those resources there I've I've been a parent in the system now for more than 12 years my son is a special ed student Lucas he's been from Barnard to to Columbus to Isaac to the high school and now at BOCES and I've seen um the experiences especially for special ed students which will be my priority on day one but we have an opportunity now we have a new superintendent we have funding to really lead into a lot of things really giving more resources
005for in the classroom uh specifically even more pay for our student aides who haven't received a raise since 2009 to to getting fully in compliance with special education for our district and that also would include all of the students getting any kind of IEP to give more support to our teachers to give them more uh professional support this this is the time where we can we can really lean into those things and create the feedback loop where we can really exchange more with the community board of education's job is not to tell teachers how to teach or to interfere in the classroom our job is to create the support structure the infrastructure to really give students and the teachers the resources they need so we can help students especially the students that are in most
006need I ask you to join with me in this campaign so we can make this change Miss Lewis hello everyone first and foremost thank you for all for for coming um I appreciate being here keep the finger okay um I'm I'm from New Rochelle as many of you are probably aware um I knew Albert Leonard I went to Ward I went to the high school and so um I think I bring a unique perspective of what it's like to go through the school system here um and I'm not terribly far removed as you probably can tell I look fairly young um and so those experiences I keep with me and have been my guiding star in terms of what I would like me and Michelle to be in the future as well of course is
007talking to all the parents and students that I've met along the way in this journey so um excuse me so I think I've been Innovative since then um way back in the day I was elected Treasurer at Albert Leonard I was elected president of Geo when I was in the high school and I'm here before you to be elected one more time to serve uh for a community that I love um and then I've been a part of my entire life I left a course to go off to college I went to UMass Amherst where I had the chance to be Innovative there and I started programs to encourage students to study abroad I also went to teachers college to get my Master's Degree at Columbia University in higher education Administration and so even there
008I was I went to Barbados to speak to their education Board of Education and see what they do in terms of innovation in their schools and so my idea of what we can do is international including the experience that I had myself when I studied abroad and now that I'm back I've worked in educated education this entire career I've worked in the boarding school and Day School fields and of course I work in public schools and I've worked for the Board of Education now for New York City where I've taken a lot of data and given really innovative solutions to problems that superintendents are facing so I work directly with superintendents and principals and Advising coaching teachers and supporting teachers particularly our new teachers in their first year and onboarding support to make sure they
009have everything they need to be successful in the classroom Mr mafitano I gotta hold it okay all right uh well good evening everybody miss monzon and PGA folks thanks for hosting this uh it's always good to see that try to get some people out here uh it is a shame that after three years our school district hasn't figured out how to get the Optimum cable system working a lot of senior citizens don't know how to live stream so a whole audience is going to be deprived but that's something I'd like to work on if I got elected but in any case a little bit about me I got my bachelor's in education from NYU in 72 Masters in special ed College of New Rochelle in 77 my superintendent certification from Ace and then my law
010degree from Pace my family and I have been in town for about 45 years our children attend our schools many of you know me as a long time very active Community member and see me at many board meetings and elsewhere I'm very active with our community and a lot of a lot of of its endeavors I'm an attorney recently retired after about 40 years as a classroom teacher School administrator with New York City very involved in strategic planning on issues involving security curriculum I was part of the committee with the small school movement in New York City For Better or For Worse a lot of in-depth Hands-On kind of work all of us want our kids to be safe in school and to grow in a community known for good schools school board members must
011be willing to to engage and work with parents and all new rashalians to secure safe and vibrant schools more than ever we need open-minded people on our school board with diversity of thought after my many decades of participation I am retired I have the time I was able to meet with practically every school leader in New Rochelle to go over some of their concerns they've all advised me of some of their issues and I hope to talk about them tonight Miss farage hello everyone and thank you for coming tonight uh my name is Lydia farage I'm a proponent of strong education system because it lays the foundation for our future it feeds the passion in our children that it's needed to create a word that reflects values instilled by their teachers Role Models couches and
012parents I am a mom of two children and a long time resident of New Rochelle together with my husband present here we raise two successful children in this beautiful city my daughter attended and graduated from Northeastern University and is now a doctor of physical therapy at her young age of 25 she is the only physical therapist full-time on a 120 bed rehab facility my son is graduating Friday from Purdue University Indiana with a degree in civil engineering I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to raise my children to be confident and successful with the ability to choose and create their own future I was not myself so fortunate having been born and raised in a communist country Romania we are restricted in many many ways and constantly monitored by the government for subversive
013activities which in my time were reading listening to music and thank you and within books uh if if lucky enough to be elected on this board I will work in a collaborative way and engage income with Community leaders parents and Educators to identify and remedy issues at the early stages of the educational process promote Common Sense curriculum and rigorous education for all while recognizing each individual needs I will include I would like to have included in the curriculum healthy values such as respect that's time thank you Miss fresh all right so we'll start Miss Lewis you'll answer question one first this question is for all the candidates is there a particular interest or issue that motivates you to serve on the board of education in your opinion how would you characterize the relationship and the
014role of the Board of Education with respect to the administration two minutes uh thank you that's a great question I'll answer them in in pieces so for the first question um I know that I've come across many different uh concerns that parents have had across this uh and our students as well in terms of overcrowding I think um when we think of uh busing when we think of transportation we think of there's no school in the Lincoln School area we think of um city hall now being available and what we can do to support students who like Donovan mentioned there are in both of you students who want to be a part of BOCES that can't aren't able to and just expanding the opportunities that we can give our students across New Rochelle and I
015think in terms of working with Administration it's all connected right so when you're thinking about how you work with the superintendent as I mentioned before I work with superintendents during my day job but now that we have someone new that's coming in it's really imperative that we all work together as a team to really think about the Strategic plan that's already been put forth on the budget that's we're voting on on May 16th and think about where the the areas are of opportunity within that to create a brighter future for New Rochelle and see where the opportunities are moving forward so we do have I think a great a great Advantage I think the board has done a great job this year in terms of doing those two things and if you can use that
016to leverage us moving forward we can get uh to a place where we don't feel as though our schools are overcrowded where we are comfortable with the busing situation near Michelle where we are comfortable with the opportunities we have in terms of building Equity into what that looks like and making sure that everyone still has a similar School experience across New Rochelle and they have a chance to partake in all the all the advantages that we that we had that I had that I would hope that the Next Generation has in terms of being part of that community and feeling like this is all one Euro even though they might be in different parts of New Rochelle Mr mafitano oh yes a couple of things most of my background was in special education that's my
017training and my work that's an area of a particular interest for me as you may know for many years our special population was about 10 of the total but it's been climbing rather rapidly to now about 16 percent I was in a meeting the other night in this room where a few parents complained about bussing uh Blessing by the way is the largest item increase in our budget a 25 increase uh we need to get some answers about that but the real question about this is Donald Trump getting served with the busing buses don't come all kinds of issues and in terms of the services provided so I might be a strong advocate in that regard but a couple of other things that do concern me um mostly uh dealing with time on task I
018call it I know that Albert Leonard had to recently revise their start time by a half an hour uh period begins at nine o'clock rather than 8 30 because again busing issues kids can't get there on time okay uh now miss Thomas and others worked on it and they didn't extend the day but what they did do was take away four minutes from every class period now is that a monster problem well I'm told well we meet the state requirements is that good enough for New Rochelle so there are issues we need to look at okay a lot of issues that's only the beginning of them one other area that really uh concerns me uh is our advocacy for State change something as simple as and I'll ask you this and maybe address it in
019more time later do you have the right to speak at a school board meeting the answer is no you don't only if they graciously give you the privilege I suggested amending the open meetings law to require every public meeting schedule a minimum of a half an hour okay thank you I'd advocate for that Mrs farage same question sorry can you repeat the question sure I'm sorry is there a particular interest or issue that motivates you to serve on the board of education in your opinion how would you characterize the relationship and the role of the Board of Education with respect to the administration thank you um the reason I want to serve on the board it's of the Civic nature I feel like I've been so lucky and I'm so grateful to having had the
020opportunity to live in this town and to raise my children in this beautiful beautiful city of ours um that I I want to give back to the community um in any way possible um New Rochelle schools were once a Blue Ribbon Schools I don't know the designation still it's still applicable so that's my motivation for for for serving on the board in terms of the relationship between the board and the administration I think that there are many many many issues that my my my coming to place in terms of the collaborative work between administrative Personnel parents and Educators um additionally I feel like I would like to see um Community leaders getting involved and assisting um with their expertise um in educating our children and bringing forth some of their knowledge from their own businesses
021and experiences to uh enrich the board's collaborative action thank you Mr Vega oh thank you oh yeah this is this is the easiest question for me so I thank you for that right at the beginning because it all has to start with special education and any student that receives an IEP in the district we cannot call ourselves any type of worthy School District if special ed students are not getting their required Services as per as per outline of their IEP the students are getting their services in the hallways because there's no space that we have a sensory gym that's been in Albert Leonard now for three years and no one's put it together that it could have helped all the students the one well not one out of that 25 cents out of every dollar
022of our special ed dollars is being shipped out of the district nine million dollars for the next year because we can't give them the services in our district so we end up going to pay multiple times now to pay for that outside of the district and touching upon their role of the of the board in terms of the district is a perfect example because the board is responsible for special education and making sure that the entire district is following the state policy that includes reporting that includes making sure that every single student has their services they make sure students every single student has their space they make sure that every student has the same access to everything in the district that a typical student would like the pool and the fields so there is a
023spec that that is my special interest and when I say that I'm committed to this that day one there'll be a full review of special education in this district for the board to ensure that we are in full compliance with New York state law as soon as they swear me in I'll be making calls that night because when I see the next kids coming and I'm hearing it from others too my son is not even a district anymore and I'm hearing it from other parents the same thing that my son went through and I went through thank you thank you okay Mr mofotano you'll have the first question now name one thing does a nurse shell Boe has done that you think is strong and you want to make sure it continues name one constructive
024criticism of the New Rochelle Board of Education that you would like to con tribute to improving if elected oh Mr mofitano okay well this may sound like a simple thing but the one thing that seems to be working very well is the home call system now that's not a major item but uh I did a call look Mr mouth your daughter was not in first period there was a problem with attendance and then you get an email okay I hope she wasn't in first okay well that's a simple item but some of these some of the more important items that uh I think we do need to take a look at is our uh I I mentioned it a minute ago and you can't always know the problems that pop up but wouldn't you like
025to know that abortive Ed would not be permitted to shut you out from your own board that you'd actually be able to go there and speak your mind for a few minutes with civility but I've asked and I've gone to the advocacy committee and I've asked them out of the many things they Advocate they refuse to take it up I I it doesn't cost any money Advocate to your state representatives to change the open meeting law so that you citizens and residents of New Rochelle have the absolute right maybe for half an hour of time to be allotted to speak at a public meeting Mr Ryan Uzi when he became board president actually told the audience something which not many people knew but I did and here it is quote New York state law does
026not require that we permit you to speak at our meeting well what if there's a topic on your mind that you'd like to speak about but this particular board doesn't really want to hear you so let's open our community and make it transparent and welcome our public by advocating for that I'll ask our board members I'd like to work with them as a team player that's and try to get this done Mrs farage while our kids have been out of the school system for quite a few years since they finished college but I recall that one of the attractions to this particular school district for us when we moved here was the magnet system that existed in all the elementary school S at the time we were in Davis they had a great Arts programs
027I believe the Sila program was was fabulous I'm sorry we did not have a chance to participate into it but those were programs that I really really appreciated uh additionally I feel neural shells school system in general I uh it's a very very safe system a school system um I know there have been incidents of violence in schools and outside schools however we have not had the uh the magnitude of the violence that flagged other school districts all over the country So to that respect I'm very grateful for the job done by everybody around in terms of what I'd like to see more happening will be the board should select a superintendent who hopefully will stay longer than few months or a year in in in place and we could return to a more merit-based
028approach in our education not just passing students for quote-unquote efforts education should be more rigorous and standards should be held higher the education bar should be raised up and not lower to accommodate everybody we should work harder to bring everybody up thank you Mr Vega yeah thank you and the board report a nice people right we like the board and we're not um it's not a knock on the board because if the problem was the board then over the past five or ten years then problems would have changed right because we pretty much we half of the board has been um replaced more than half of the board it's been replaced in the past just a few years what the board does well is what boards would typically do right hire a higher superintendent pass
029a budget little make sure the line items are in the budget as as they should be the the basic things that we see around the district and I'm not saying basic into knock it you know because there's a lot of great things going on right and a lot of students have benefited from it especially the high performing students right and we see that and we want to lift them up what the criticism would be not having that acceleration seems like that we every time that we're moving forward but we're still like kind of digging in sand that we need to be a little bit more faster and smarter and how we engage the community and also like like we talked about building infrastructure around the district based on the community's feedback we need more more
030of that feedback loop going where the community could even write letters to the board or let the students write letters to the board have non-voting student representation on the board having having some more of that engagement because then you'd really be able to say well where where are the challenges in the community and how can how can we address them as the board the board is only supposed to represent the interests of the community not like what I think this is not like my campaign this is a campaign based on all the issues that we've been talking about for the past few years and we just don't seem to get enough traction on it that's what we that's what we need to happen and that's what I'm promising to be committed to thank you it's
031a good crowd by the way I'm I'm pleasantly surprised Miss Lewis um I'm actually going to be expanding on the answer that Don just gave I I had the pleasure of attending both the uh the SEPTA and the youth Bureau events this past week um and for me being able to see the community come together across New Rochelle and really celebrate all of our teachers celebrate our students for doing amazing things I think at a very micro level we take a lot of pride in your show and so it was great to be able to see people um you know just really emphasize that in in public and in showing for all the support for other people so the word gets out and showing what we do and I think in that same vein what
032I also enjoyed have been attending the board meetings and seeing and when our worst school we go to the school that the board meetings held at presents on what they're doing and that what they're they're proud of right so they share with the board all the things that they've been accomplished lately and and some really big things and everyone seems to really enjoy that and so um in in line with that I think moving forward what I would like to see is really just a sharing of those ideas ideas when I when I attend those meetings I think like you know what it would be amazing if this presentation wasn't just for the board but maybe there was a separate day where all the schools get together and share amongst themselves so that Jefferson's talking
033to Barnard and Ward is talking to Davis and they get to innovate amongst themselves and and get to share these ideas that it's not just within the board and that the board is hearing but all of new shells getting to hear and I think in that with in doing that we'd also free up some of the agenda time I know I've spoken to a lot of parents and students about the length of the time of the the board meetings and really wanting to focus that down so I think that's an area where you can do that you're making room for Innovation you're you can put up QR codes to save some paper there are a lot of things that you can do in that space um and at the same time you'll still be able
034to to to kind of think about redesigning how those work so that people don't have to worry about the board meetings and in very late because they'll get all the information they need to know within a certain time frame and that they can trust and that time frame and know that it's transparent and that transparency is going to encourage Young Folks to run in the future is going to come convince other folks in all parts of your shell to run as well knowing that they can trust that thank you all right question three Mrs farage we'll start with you how would you help to make the board more transparent and engaging with the community and stakeholders great question [Music] um I think that one way to make the board more transparent is to have a
035greater audience to the board to the board's meetings to the board agenda to the board's resolution I know people try to avoid coming to boring long meetings but maybe it will be a way to broadcast the uh the meetings and maybe mailings to the to the residents regarding the minutes and the issues also I feel like in some ways from what I'm hearing here today um it's not a great representation of the whole city of New Rochelle I feel like um there are issues specifics to some areas and it doesn't seem that we are addressing the the whole the whole District as a whole and not just parts of it so um I feel that invitation should be extended to the whole Community when the board meeting meets and the issues that are being addressed
036should be listed uh clearly so everybody can uh have a say in it thank you Mr Vega yes thank you the best the best way to be be more transparent and more engaging is just to do it you know to be more transparent and make it a lot more easier for everyone there's we kind of we kind of get into you know a cycle where it gets kind of harder things get harder even like to make a public meeting they schedule both meetings on the same date you know when it's the city and a school board you know it we have to make it easier for parents to engage right we can't tell them well you got to show up at this meeting we can't tell teachers right you got to work harder we can't
037tell the students well you need to work harder it's your fault we have to make we have to get smarter and everybody that we do things and if we give more information to the community in basic language right like just like the budget the budget should be something that's like you know a 10-page PDF and then you could just forward it to to any parent and they would be able to read it and really understand what's in the budget you know and then there should be a separate one that highlights special ed or highlights a certain a certain area of the district we don't we don't see enough of that if anyone has seen the budget presentation I've seen multi-billion dollar companies have investor calls that are simpler and more easier to understand than the
038budget presentation it's not it's not that complicated to do and when people see that you know even public we're talking about public comment who wants to go public comment at 9 30 at night you know I'm not even this fired up at 9 30 at night I'm ready I'm ready to go to sleep at 9 30 at night and if we want people we want parents to show up we want teachers to show up students this is this is what kind like hinders engagement just like if city council schedules a meeting on the same day as a Boe meeting that God just hinders engagement we have to make things easier more convenient let let people like like we said write letters to the board send me a text and then read it to the board
039if if we do these things then parents will begin to appreciate teachers begin to appreciate because they're going to say oh my opinion matters oh I Was Heard and that's how you're going to get more people engaged in the process itself it's time okay Miss Lewis yes I I know I just briefly uh actually answered that question so I'll try to build off my previous answer as well I think um I agree that we need to meet parents where they are uh in my previous job I've worked with parents who had multiple jobs that did not have the time to to come down to the office and meet with us but it was imperative that we spoke to them about their students and what they were doing well what the needs to improve upon and
040so we brainstormed and collectively as a group as I would like to do moving forward as well to filter things collectively is think about where and what you can do to to meet them where they are so it looked like at that point it was a text message listener we're at the beginning of the school year our schools asked for the parents cell phone number and then every six months they would check in and say like hey did your number change that's it that's the only question you have to answer for me um and then that text message chain basically just send out flyers that were upcoming or announcements that they need to know very brief one-liners less than a tweet um so that people would be engaged and I think if we can start
041with something that's very simple even in terms of putting what we put on the website sides and make it very clear about what's upcoming as well it could be a text message it could not be but I think if we if we take the time to think about what parents are looking at maybe they're not on Facebook anymore maybe their kids are on Instagram or on Tick Tock and then their kids will come to um you know if they're in high school can tell their parents what's going on I think there's different ways to get Innovative making sure the agendas are are clear and are easy to read and accessible as well on the website would also be another way to make sure everyone's getting the same information and has a chance to ask questions
042I think generally when I speak to folks it's hard for them to understand what's going on at the board they don't really know what's what's new what's latest and so making sure that they're we're sharing information as often and as easily as possible and again uh shortening the time of the meetings making them easier to understand and people for participating you can call in even in terms of videoing when I I tried doing it myself on zoom and you can't actually see the screen when they're sharing the budget video and so if you're calling on Zoom thinking oh I can't make it but I'm going to use it soon it doesn't work thank you Mr malfitano yes well unfortunately we're bearing witness to the lack of Engagement as we speak uh this meeting will not
043be seen by many people in town because our Cable Systems don't work only Verizon came up recently the system has been down for three years a lot of folks don't stream and the entire population uses cable is out of the loop the election isn't a week you know ridiculous this is folks but you're happy with it the eight or nine percent of you do vote that really run this place you're happy with it you don't want to change it because you're successful it's not very helpful to the Democratic process but I understand it and that's how it works but if you're happy with the results we've been getting in our district if you have no concerns and you're happy with the status quo Mr Vega and Miss Lewis will win the election the various political
044forces in town will see to that and that's okay that's that's democracy so-called but you might want to consider some of those alternatives to try to bring a little bit of other thought to our board if the students who need our help the ones who can't afford the tutors the kids that live on Horton Avenue or Winthrop really want a full day of school you might want to elect a guy like me this is how it's going to be if you want engagement let's change the open meetings law doesn't cost a dime and make sure people have the right to speak why don't they want to do that they want to have the ability to say to this community I'm so sorry we're going to have to cancel public speaking if they get offended by
045somebody who comes and talks about bussing or special education or some other issue is that the board you want is that the board members who are going to get elected they won't carry it I don't think but look this is your board if you're happy with a secret election in a 20-day notice you go right ahead people listen to the same old folks thank you Mr Vega you're first this time okay the question when you hear inclusion diversity and Equity what does it mean to you how can you use your role as a Boe member to ensure inclusion and equity for all children this is a great question because I'm actually I'm proud I'm proud to say I support diversity um equity and inclusion I don't know why there's some some places that that seems
046like it's some sort of a dirty word diversity inclusion and Equity means that the special education student gets what they need even if that is going to cost twice the amount that a typical student would take who's going to tell me that that student can get that that it's unfair to some other student Equity is equity says that if some kid on one side of town gets something that is not on at the expense of some other kid on the other side of town which we seem to have that sort of Canard here in every shell that that every time that somebody gets that it's at the expense of somebody else that's just a myth that's just a way to just keep us you know spinning we got plenty of money money is not a
047problem in their Rochelle that's the one thing that we got to our advantage and compared to other districts when you hear inclusion diversity in equity yeah inclusion and diversity the other part of the sorry is that we need to hire more teachers that look like our students and look like the student base that we have because the data shows that if you do that you're going to that's when you're going to get that incremental difference the same way the same that when I was a kid we had all we had all women t-shirts but then we had a couple of male teachers and those those teachers were the ones that were like the role models to me and to the other the other small you know boys or young men so diversity equity and inclusion
048it's not a dirty word it means fairness to everyone depending on your circumstances we need more of this in our education system we need more of this in our country instead of making it as if somehow is to divide Us in some way thank you very much Miss Lewis I'll actually start this question where we're done left off and so um as I mentioned before I work for the largest school district in the country and currently in the last two years I had a chance to be to be co-lead on a project that created resources for principals and this resource created principle or created document for principals that helped them hire equitably across all grades and so this is the first of its kind document this takes them from the interview process in terms of
049how they find candidates to interview in the first place all the way through onboarding and so making sure that the entire process is Equitable throughout so I don't see why um Michelle can have something similar why we can't support our principals in in that decision-making process I don't know if anything currently exists but it could take a look at and see if there's any improvements that could be made along that and on that path and there are two other things I want to mention for for this in terms of equity the first is that I was speaking to the parent about um the free lunch program and she was mentioning that even though I will as you all know 56 of our students are economically disadvantaged but her student as well has freelance program and
050she was saying that was really hard because he had to stand in the separate lines to get lunch and I was thinking that you know that that really story really stuck with me because it's really disheartening that even though you need to you need help you have to stand in a separate line like all of our students are equal and I think that you know doing things on the board to show our students that we consider them equal is one of the small things that we can do to make their day easier and give them one less thing to think about one less thing to worry about at school and the other thing I wanted to mention is that I spoke to another parent about IEPs and supporting learning students with learn disabilities I also
051established a coalition that supported teachers in terms of making sure that they're onboarded properly to support students with IEPs and to support students with special education concerns and this is also brand new and a brand new initiative and so making sure that we have teachers that have all the access and resources that they need to support students who have IEPs that they're not just simply getting the designation but teachers know what to do once they have that designation thank you Mr malfotano yes I'm a very strong supporter of diversity equity and inclusion the question is uh how do we Define all these things of course and that's where the devil is in the details but I'll just tell you a little story many years ago when I graduated NYU in 72 I thought I'd become
052a social worker so I applied to some schools I went out to an interview at Stony Brook out in Long Island sat around a table with about 12 other applicants a couple of present students and a professor who went on and on talking about the school and what the kind of student they're looking for and they kept using a phrase that's popped up a lot in our district change agents we're looking for people to be agents of change and so on and so on okay so it went on a couple people started asking questions and I raised my hand so you know can you please tell me what do you mean by a change agent and he says well what prompts your question I said well I'd like a little more detail as to what
053you're talking about he says well how do you mean and I said well I can think of a lot of people who would agents of change the Disciples of Christ or agents of change but so were the black shirts and brown shirts of Mussolini and Hitler I said who are you talking about so when I hear scoreboard members saying upon their elevation to office I want our children to become quote social justice Warriors unquote okay who are you talking about what are you talking about you know everybody wants to be treated fairly and equitably but I go back to Dr King's old words Judge Me by the content of my character not the color of my skin it should neither be a sword nor anything else Judge Me by the content of my character thank
054you Mrs faraj thank you um if it comes to the Dei issue I probably represent the mouse Dei candidate possible I'm I'm a recent immigrant not only I'm an immigrant but I'm an immigrant from a communist country uh once my generation dies I don't think I'm a kind of like a relic it will not be anybody left to remember how it was to be growing up on the on the on the Communist conditions um speaking of that I don't think that Dei can be achieved by policies I think Dei should be achieved by education uh educating everybody to their potential and expecting from everybody their their best um people who will people will rise to the occasion I'm I'm sure of that I've seen that happen um and so yeah it's a it's a concept
055that that um it's so charged with so much controversy because it can be in so many different things to to different people um you talk about sex gender color educational background history backgrounds and so on and so forth so I don't think we can have a policy that what's that forth thank you all right the next question we'll start with Miss Lewis volunteering as a public servant is hard you will have to dedicate your time resources and skills selflessly to a district of approximately 11 000 students that need stable and dynamic leadership what have you done in the past that indicates you are qualified to serve in this capacity uh thank you for that then um I think uh as I mentioned before I've done a few things in terms of brainstorming new ideas and
056bringing new solutions to the Forefront my time as I as you all know it's it's difficult to be on this stage it's a hard process to be here but um we don't take this lightly and I think in terms of what it is what it means to serve it means to bring back um those same UniQue Ideas those same opportunities for brainstorming bracks are the place that I love um like I said before I've worked directly with in terms of taking data and using that data to create new Solutions I'm also responsible for the new teacher onboarding support and so that means that every new teacher that goes through me I have data for which means I can turn to principals in terms of two contendants and say like hey I know that you are
057trying your best but you have a small Gap here in terms of what your teachers are saying about their experience and here's what we can do to help and so I think in that mindset and that frame of mind is what I'll be using in New Rochelle as well to think of like hey this is the data that we have there might be gaps in that data what does that look like and making decisions based on that data to help our principals and help our incoming superintendent so that he feels secure in the decisions he's making that our principles feel secure in the decisions that they're making and that we all as a team are brainstorming those new ideas I don't see any reason why Innovation shouldn't be at the Forefront of all of what
058we do I've done that so far and I plan on continuing to thank you Mr malfitano well I know Amanda qualify is that but my life's work has been this stuff uh after work I've always volunteered many hours as a tutor God knows how many other things in New York City Schools as I said I nearly 40 years as a full-time teacher administrator but also in in my private life with my legal background I many many hours of pro bono work many hours of trying to help folks you know I don't really make a big issue of it but perhaps the the thing that may serve a bit and maybe it doesn't stick with some of you I I go to so many board meetings and Community meetings and speak and offer thoughts constructive ideas
059I hope to try to make our schools and Community better for all of us I show up okay I'm there I don't know about everybody else whether it's a recent calling but for nearly 30 40 years you've been seeing me at board meetings offering my opinions and ideas plus I'm retired after my life's work I'm don't get around as easy as I used to but I've lived in town with my family for 45 years and I would like to offer my service to this community with my years of experience and my concern for this town as a single guy I saved my money and bought a small house down by Shore Road I hope you think about some of these things rather than just political emails we might want to try something else to help
060our town folks there's a lot of issues that need work and don't know if everything's been working with the same old same old every year thank you Mrs farage as a mom of the two children that were in school in New Rochelle I volunteer a lot while they were in school I I was a very very involved parent I never missed an activity never missed a parent teacher conference never missed an opportunity to to serve on committees um and now that I am um we are empty nesters and the children are accomplished uh it's the same sense of community that I would like to give back to to the neighborhood and to the city that we we call home um I think my uh my experience of being an immigrant and succeeding in this country
061will be uh beneficial and um some of the uh oh obstacles I uh I Concord will be inspirational um for the community and help make a inspirational for others to serve not just just myself but I feel like I would want to inspire other people to serve alongside thank you Mr Vega yeah um thank you and yeah just in terms of professionally I've managed multi-million dollar budgets I'm a media buyer multi-managed multi-million dollar budgets for more than 25 years um large-scale projects in the private sector where there's a lot more accountability and moreover um served on committees going back more than 30 years going all the way back to uh to college at ccny but to to clarify though the board is not a teaching a teaching role right there's and the board is not
062an administrative role the board is a community board that is ensuring that the mission of the district is being fulfilled then they don't supervise any principles they don't get involved in any disputes they don't get involved in you know even even the issues with bussing and all of that that's all on the superintendent but but going to the heart of the matter nothing is going to change really unless we all come together as a community based on the issues that we've been talking about for the past few years and make that change we've already seen that we've had eight superintendents in nine years we've had plenty of people churn through the board we need more Community engagement between or the organizations in the community to come together all each side of town and really nail
063down the issues that are going to help the most in need students quickest then we'll start seeing this incremental change that we're talking about and an improvement over uh the long run and as a as a proud change agent and a proud social justice Warrior you know I'm proud to say that I will be that change for the board and actually make some of these things uh happen thank you and next question Mr malfatano we'll be starting with you this time ongoing two-way communication between the school district and parents is key to building strong partnership and Trust in your opinion how important is parent input and feedback in shaping the district policy well it's very important they recently established an office of community engagement and that's a good thing I know the board and the
064superintendents and the various ones I've tried to reach out to various uh efforts they've had the town meetings which seem to be nice but again as was said earlier and Mr Vega is correct the board does not organize its meeting in a very engaging way if you go to City Hall the citizens to be heard it's at seven o'clock you can speak and you'd be out of there by 7 15. now many people like myself and others have for years employed the board please please make public speaking maybe before you have the presentations maybe people just want to come and get home to their family instead of sitting there until 9 30 10 o'clock at night now I've done it my wife is a very uh forgiving person but for those of us in our
065community don't you think our board can take a look at the structure of how the agenda is placed it doesn't seem like rocket science so let's work on these things I'd like to work with the board to try to make our schools more accessible more open more transparent to everybody like I said this election in and of itself speaks volumes to how the plaque has filled the arteries of change in our community this will not change the powers that be do not want change they want Power vote for change Mrs farage I think the relationship a good relationship between parents and teachers is Paramount to the education of the child and to the well-being of the child in our own experience we had many many divergences between what my children were being taught at school
066compared to our own values and influences and many times my daughter would say you don't know anything all you do is stay home all day my teacher knows best middle school or Elementary School are formative years for the children and I feel like the parent should have a greater voice in one way or another we must find a way where the parent's voice should be counted for more in terms of the education of the child um recently I read several articles about famous people being surprised about certain topics that the kids were exposed to and they had no idea about how much information was given to the child that was not always in line with what the parents were expecting from the Educators uh teachers are not de facto parents to the children uh parents
067are still responsible for making all the choices for the children and they are more vested in the child than the teachers are so again the collaboration between the parents in the teachers it's Paramount to a to a healthy development of a child thank you Mr Vega yep ongoing two-way communication between the school district and parents is key to building strong partnership and Trust in your opinion how important is parent input and feedback in shaping the district policy well it's hard to you know when you say how important of course it's going to be very important it's not it's not about the degrees in which you measure the importance it's about well how are you going to channel that right how are you going to gather that how are you going to better engage the parents
068in the process you know no one's going to say that the the parents role should be limited because of of you know because it's too hard we have that we have to create ways to create those streams of information as I said earlier the feedback loop with parents to say well if you can't if you can't come to a meeting or if you can't engage then let's collect everyone and one person will come to the board meeting and read everyone's statement let's have some subcommittees on certain issues like hiring like special ed of parents who have gone through the process so we can get their information how many parents have actually gotten any surveys from the board in in the past years just asking about their students asking about the school asking about the services
069in the community specifically we've gotten any any surveys have the students ever been surveyed in terms of what they're looking for what kinds of programs what kinds of career opportunities they would be looking for what kind of activities and interests that we could start building on that will make them you know more excited to come to school more excited to go to class more excited to get better grades we have to get smarter about things we have to use technology we have to use the resources that we have like our our infrastructure but also the people are going to be the best resource the more people that we get just like in this room how great it looks to have even this amount of people if we get more and more people is part of
070the process I guarantee you that things will change and also parents will feel a lot better because even if things are kind of you know then at least they'll say well at least I know you know at least I'm part of it at least I I'm getting that information back from the district about what's going on and that's really the biggest complaint that I hear that we when we hear we're canvassing it's like well I called them they don't call me back oh I don't know what's going on oh I don't know what's over here over there I don't know where to go so communication is key that's time thank you Miss Lewis I'm sorry I come from a long line of Educators my grandfather was an educator um in New York City and my
071father currently is a special education teacher a title one school and so many evenings I'll come home and hear my father in the den calling parents uh day after day to see if they can share their input and let him know what you know what he might not know about their own students so for me I think from day one has always been shown to me that parent input is important and I think in terms of how we include parent input in terms of decisions that we're making it's going to be just as imperative right whether we're talking grades in the classroom or what we should put forth at the school board one example of that I was speaking to another parent and they were saying that they were very happy that the board had
072put money towards Capital Improvements to fix up the high school and Barnard but they still had issues at Ward School a nearest deliver men problem and they had problems with AC and air conditioning and I wouldn't have personally known that had I not spoken to our parents right so even though we have great intentions of putting Capital towards fixing our buildings we might be missing a few things you might be getting at the high school and Miss Ward for example and our parents will also be the the currents one of us thinking about how we think about our social emotional support for our students right we're coming out of a post-covet era we can't forget that right our students are still trying to readjust to this life and and come back into a new space
073that's going to feel different it is different and so our parents are going to be a part of that equation to make sure that they're you know mentally supported and that mental health is still at the Forefront of what we're thinking of as we get into this new era thank you Mrs farage we'll start with you for the next question if elected what do you see as your learning curve how will you Foster a spirit of collaboration between your colleagues how will you strengthen the relationship between families and the district thank you I feel like my first uh my first priority reflected on the board will be to learn about how the board operates to learn about the issues that the board is facing and to prioritize those issues in in in in in an
074order that they can be addressed um Mr Varga mentioned the special ed Mr malfamante mentioned freedom of speech so there are it's a variety of issues that the board uh has to deal with so I feel like that will be my first my first priority would be to learn um and to help prioritize the the issues um also meetings with the principals um learning from past experiences in terms of the hiring process for the superintendent and of course speaking to parents about their priorities and their need for information additionally the board it's mainly concerned about education but let's don't forget that in this community we have also a whole host of other individuals who might deserve our attention such as senior citizens or retired people whom I need to have access to um continuing ads
075classes for enrichment or just for socializing um this will broaden the participation of the community and hopefully help think get things done thank you Mr Vega yeah that's that's uh that's an interesting question I think that really and to be honest my my biggest learning curve would be kind of a lot of the social the social aspects like the cocktail parties and the the Galas and you know all of that yeah because I was at one the other night and I was just I was like I didn't know what to do with myself because like like I said I'm more you know more focused on work so I think that a lot of the other things will be more along my lines like uh illegal policies and the board bylaws and the processes and Robert's
076Rules of Order and such because those are things that I've been doing for many years but but yes trying to have that also to build those relationships but with with people to strengthen those relationships to try to like I said to try to build more of a coalition amongst different organizations in different communities in New Rochelle so then we can actually get change done no again because no one board member is really going to come in and and just start making changes it doesn't it doesn't work like that and again like like I said earlier families families in the district it has to be more convenient for them it has to be easier you know think about before because I because you know because I'm you know I look younger than I am but but
077when I was we didn't we didn't have like the computers and the internet we had computers we didn't have the internet like yeah right so a lot of things we do on the Internet it's like it's easy you can join the PTA you can send a message you can go you could watch this watch this forum on on Zoom there's a lot of things that we could do to make that got easier for us right to give us easier access we have to lean into that more to say well how can we use those tools and other tools to say let's make it easier for the parents let's make it easier for the teachers let's make it easier for the students to all better engage and then this way that we can get back to
078the fundamentals because the work is supposed to be done really in the classroom right not like us trying to struggle in terms of how to talk to each other thank you thank you Miss Lewis uh yes that's very interesting question I think for me um though I do like networking and The Gallows um I for me mine would be the the educational law um I am familiar with education law but I think we'll be able to get a really deep dive into what that looks like um and how it plays out in real life it's one thing to see law on books and then see how it plays out in person um right in our school so I think um figuring out what that looks like in New Rochelle specifically versus just education law abroad
079at large um will be my learning curve but I'm excited to dive in and learn all about that I think for me my strength is listening um whether that's listening to or community members the current members of the board and their historical knowledge right you're joining a team and so they're joining a team of people who've been there before you and so um getting a sense of what they've gone through and and the ins and outs of what their experience has been like would be really helpful um obviously continuing listening to the parents I've been doing this entire campaign and listening to our students all right like with they they are who we serve at the end of the day um no matter which side of the table we fall on it's for them and
080so um I think thinking about elevating their voices and and listening again I think is my my greatest strength thank you Mr malfitano uh yes well learning curve is important one of the things in our district that was always very good when I ran for the board back in the 80s believe it or not was the longevity of our board members we had board members like miss rennington another serving for 25 more years those are the people that can teach newcomers as the little ropes but as over the last several years we've had many board members quit resign leave Mr Warhead was gone uh Mr Cooper got elected he's gone in a few months and now Mr uh Peters gets elected last May and now he doesn't want the job anymore he wants to be
081a city councilman so we're we're losing our superintendents and our board people in our historical knowledge that's a problem for the learning curve so what's wrong here well I don't know you figure that one out but uh yes the board does a good job of helping our new people get trained there are workshops and everything else uh and then maybe a guy like myself I've been to so many board meetings maybe I know a little bit about how some of these things work and a few others up here but that's okay it's a matter of trusting your colleagues working together as a team player for the common purpose I don't think I'd get on the board and start making phone calls to the state of New York and asking for investigations uh with State people
082like it's been suggested by someone else tonight uh I I'd like to work collegially with my members to see if we can come to some kind of consensus to make things better for everybody now my opinions may not be what yours are but don't you think that might be actually healthy for our district our high school is now ranked in the brief there's Gentile Nationwide we used to be a Blue Ribbon School District we have many issues affecting us now Dynamic change is happening as we speak think about it folks thank you okay Mr Vega you're starting off this time what is your opinion on the current location of Huguenot Academy with the increased enrollment do you feel that the programming and space is sufficient to support the students no I think that in and
083for everyone the Huguenot Academy is the campus school and it was I guess it was moved from Saint Gabe's to the high school and then now it's in a space at Monroe College I'd say that those are our students they should be in in one of the buildings in the district we should be able to find space for them if we can't then we should be able to try to build space or find Space because we're always going to have some sort of Campus School we're always going to have some sort of alternate ultimate high school we should probably even be expanding that so then if if a student needs to you know maybe get a job during the day and go to classes at night for their GED then we can we can create
084Pathways for that uh but in terms of the Huguenot Academy it should be on one of our campuses if not the high school and it should be included again in terms of all the other activities in the district it kind of it can't be sort of set as if it's some some Far Away place you know or it's just some other building um and even where it is now is kind of by uh by new rock so it's kind of it's not even near any other really any other schools so uh I think that it should definitely be incorporated into one of the buildings my idea would be to build something in the Lincoln attendance Zone either a younger grade or some sort of specialized high school and then if you had a specialized high
085school then it wouldn't be going back to that same thing when we had red lines and then there was a black black high school and a white high school you'd have a specialized high school and then the space that you made at the high school then we could have the campus School uh at the high school itself because high school was big but you know it's still it's filled to the rim but it should not stay at Monroe I think that we're paid I think it's you know it's got to be like 20 000 plus a month that we're paying just the least the space you know so it's like okay twenty thousand dollars a month you know what what could we do for that could we maybe find space in one of our buildings
086or something or long-term building of the space long term we need a plan because uh the campus school is not a temporary thing it's always going to be part of the the district family that's time thank you Miss Lewis uh yes I agree um but I think that the uh we don't want to keep overcrowding our high school but it is a part of our school right so we don't want to alienate anyone who's a part of that as well I think um we see a lot of development going around up around New Rochelle and a lot of buildings going up and things are shifting and moving and I think this is a good time for us to pause and work um with our city to think about what that space could be and where
087it could be um I I do agree that if it's if they're able to save some money and not spend a couple thousand dollars a year and uh not just a couple but a lot of money in terms of renting space that if that's something that we can do that's something that we have to put into the plan of like the future of New Rochelle that is worth looking into um I do I do I don't want to alienate anyone in terms of Pathways to to learning right whether whether that looks uh what people consider untraditional but it's it's a it's an option and you should support them thank you Mr mofitano yes well you know as I say I've spoken to a lot of the building leaders around and I don't want to quote
088you know anybody's conversations with me the 80 or so students over there uh in that spot you know they try to survive in their own little place and they feel comfortable there but they are deprived of many of the activities and things that are associated with the campus like the high school it's very difficult to try to arrange all these things you know they don't have their own food is delivered to them and they have to go out for their activities look I'm not saying I have the answers for these things I do think the way that the same Gabe's thing was handled was a fiasco of the highest order but I don't need to revisit that with you but here they are over there on you but not straight in that in that spot
089and and they're trying to get along but what I would really hope we can do as a community is to look at these kids look at their parents and look at the the goal that we have in mind these are not kids that are you know uh to be segregated from us these are kids that feel more comfortable in another environment okay is there another way to accommodate this and to achieve the goals of a more unified kind of learning experience I would hope so money may be an issue maybe another facility there are there are things out there that we can talk about I don't have the answer for you but I'm open to suggestion I don't have an agenda I'd like to hear what people have to say I hope that's a good
090thing I worked I I used to run an alternative high school the court sentence juveniles that's not these kids so I know the sensitivity of kids who just don't seem to fit in everywhere thank you that's time Mrs farage thank you um I was thinking about the weekend at school today Academy today too and to the point of saving money I think a solution might be to to buy the building instead of renting the building and expand upon upon that building to make it more accessible to other other students as well and maybe you rotate the students I don't know the frequency again it's it's a it's very complicated and and I I'm not sure exactly what the best solution might be um but to the point of the academy we also have to think
091about um what will happen on all the buildings that are being built on in Downtown New Rochelle are going to be occupied and it's going to be a new population of students somehow somewhere we have to expand our classroom size and and uh and maybe purchasing that building might be a solution so it can be used all the time thank you all right Miss Lewis we'll start with you for this question what do you know about the special education department of New Rochelle and the recent audit of our special education department how will you support the families students and teachers who are a member of the special education community and thank you that's a great question um I mentioned a bit earlier tonight that I had the uh the privilege was attending the uh that's
092a dinner this past week and um being able to see our not just our our folks that are working in our schools but our teachers celebrate themselves and then celebrate our students um and just amplify the work that our students are doing I think in terms of what could be done better when I when I mentioned speaking to that one particular parent about IEPs and the transparency around that I think it's a great step that we do now have the opportunity for for families to get help in that field I know that it's very expensive for for parents to get assistance in terms of getting their students IEPs that the entire process of getting tested is very expensive and getting help outside the school district is very expensive and so anything that we can do
093to support our special education teachers and and the folks that accept as well in terms of developing Pathways for support developing Pathways to you know help them do what they do best and I think it's all about elevating who we already have in our schools I think that the teachers that we have are great teachers and then it might just be about supporting folks and so there's always room for improvement for any report that comes out there's always room for improvement I think we have a good foundation and we'll just use the the results of that to move forward and create a better New Rochelle thank you Mr mafitano well again uh this was my wife's work as a teacher um I did supervision of special ed in New York City and elsewhere very active
094in the field most of my life but here in New Rochelle as I mentioned earlier we have a growing specialist population when I met with some of the building leaders one of the concerns they expressed was they need more small space in their schools they need rooms for counselors they need rooms for the psychologists the people that are servicing the kids with the IEPs I I started my professional career not many years after the Jose decision that's how old I am but here in our district we now see an effort I don't know how far it'll get to try to expand our services so that we don't have to have kids bust out of the schools now that would be a big help and for parents who have a child in need a child who
095has special needs that need help you will not have a better Advocate on that board than me I have seen these children up close and personal since the 1970s thank you this is my work I hope you would trust me on that okay thank you Mrs farage I must confess I'm not aware of the audit that was done for special ed in New Rochelle however I have very fond memories of the time I stopped in New Rochelle elementary schools especially in Trinity I remember the special ed area was like extremely well organized and extremely helpful and I've seen um teachers and providers of services giving great great care to their students this has been you know many many many years ago so I feel like in terms of an answer to the to the question
096I would have to educate myself to the needs of the special ed community in New Rochelle thank you Mr Vega thank you um well speaking as an actual parent of a special ed student I'd say that um I don't even want to be I know you want to be too negative but it's a it's a it's it's not a good story you know as I said one we're sending nine million dollars out of the district next year that's 25 cents on every dollar that we could be investing in our in our schools to service more kids with special needs and instead we're putting it in someone else's pocket just like we're doing with the Huguenot Academy we're teaching we're giving kids services for special ed and other services in the whole ways of schools which
097is not only humiliating but also violation of state regulations in terms of in terms of instructing students ghosting parents that are having trouble placing their students in the high school or elsewhere and just not calling them back for a month or two we have a law firm will that let's say is not is not it's not it's a customer service it's not into resolving it for the parents best interest and the students best interests so what are we doing are we are we stressing out parents that are already going through a tough time with their with their with their kids and trying to beat them in some game because we can't handle it in our schools and we're just trying to find different places I know about that particularly because there's only a few schools
098in the probably in the entire state that could handle my son so I know that very well as a special-led parent we need a whole review of it and this is this is work within the board's scope of authority because the board's one of the primary one of the primary responsibilities of the board is to make sure that the district is following All State policies for special education and students with disabilities so like I said day one that's going to be that's what we're going to be looking at because there's no way that that I could be on a board and we're not in compliance with special education in our district thank you okay next question Mr malfatano you'll be starting current School District policy language is written in a way that is not easily
099understood by the average Community member what are your recommendations for proving understanding of the district policies well I've attended many policy meetings sort of the subcommittee of the board and I've watched them work and I know that they've been making an effort to achieve what you're talking about uh I don't want to be overly critical of of their efforts I I think they're making reasonable progress in doing so some of the policies and I've pointed this out like the code of conduct and uh uh geez I wish I could remember the other one uh the discipline code have contradictory language and I've pointed it out don't I Hope they've shake it to heart look this is not simple work to write policies that match what Ed law federal law and everything else but uh if
100you if you have some thoughts anybody in this room or the ptas I'm sure you guys communicate these things come to a policy meeting they'll let you talk for a minute or two and send them an email but yes yeah and sometimes they do look a little bit uh uh archaic cumbersome and and some are to Divine but I think the board is making an effort at that so I don't want to be overly critical of it but yes some of the policies are a little bit hard to really figure out thank you Mrs farage being a immigrant and having English as my second language uh I I'm I need to have the policies written I'm a proponent of the plain language policies in terms of having access to understanding and reading uh the policies
101that our children as and educators are supposed to adhere to especially New Rochelle has such a large immigrant population especially Hispanic speaking population we need to make sure that parents understand what the policies governing the educators are so I I think that we should address this uh and there to the plain language rule that governs many contracts that people are dealing with in general thank you Mr Vega yes thank you and I think that I touched upon it yesterday when we talked about the budget and and to me it's very simple from a from a board member let's say hypothetically that I don't understand it so I don't understand it then then I'm not voting for anything that I don't understand we're going to have everything in plain language not only in plain English language
102but in plain documentation that then you could just take and then you could translate it so you say I just took it and I translated to Creole I translated into Spanish or Portuguese what is the point of actually going through this process and then you could if you put an output that nobody can understand right who's who's the who's the End customer here supposed to be is it supposed to be the board or is it supposed to be the the community in this part of the district right so if they're the End customer they don't understand something then what did you say that you didn't you failed at something that you didn't really follow through with it everything has to be so plain that you should be able if something comes out you forward it
103to someone within five minutes they understand it and then they can have questions and they can or they can object or whatever it's too much of everything going out into different directions and not clear policy and this was also this was also kind of you know clear during during the pandemic but the pandemic's a little bit more was a little more complicated and different conflicting messages and such but on a regular basis how this should not be a hard thing we show we should all be able to have a smooth process on a regular basis and then again going back said then you're going to have a engagement better engagement from the community thank you thank you Miss Lewis um yes I agree that the the policies that we write should be in very digestible
104language and it's accessible language and in terms of accessibility I think it should go even past language whether it's a QR code or a website or some other way to translate what's being said we can also have interpreters right we don't see that often in your show as well so I think accessibility in general can be looked at in terms of making things easy to understand for our families and I think the uh for example the attendance policy was updated recently the board also mentioned some other policies that they were sunsetting and so then you know making it clear in terms of which ones were were current and almost up to date and so I think that the the board continuing to do that work the sunset the policies that are no longer relevant and
105updating the ones that are will make it even clearer in terms of what should be followed so I do want to apply them for their current work on that and I think continuing that work making language accessible thinking about other types of accessibility in terms of making sure that our folks and families at home understand what's going on is kind of like stuff one policies can be long but we're talking about policies that are used in the school building right so it's one thing for the board to know what the policy is in terms of documentation but then what does it look like when our principals are trying to use that policy when our teachers are referencing that when they're talking to parents and so making it so that it's digestible and easy to understand
106is not just for for us in terms of the board members or people who be on the board but for those who are using it on a regular basis thank you um so this is our final question Mrs farage we'll start with you everyone will answer the question and then we'll go to closing remarks how do you feel about our current magnet programs do you feel undoing the magnet program will bring some of the transportation costs down and is this something you are open to explore I feel magnet programs are great and I would not I would not want to not promote them further Transportation cost is an issue maybe the magnet programs can be be adjusted um where they would be more accessible to the population within the within the district um especially uh
107the Sila program I think was it it's it's extraordinary in terms of helping students cross the bridge and by students crossing the bridge the community gets stronger um I know it's a little hard for for students to travel you add the time um on top of their daily daily daily schedule but overall I think it's a great program and this is one of the things that attracted us to New Rochelle schools thank you Mr Vega yes thank you um what I found is I think that I have trouble with the question because I wonder why why why do we feel that we have to get rid of programs because it's a transportation issue you know we shouldn't we shouldn't let the transportation challenges dictate whether a student is going to be in a magnet program
108or not right because if they they have the opportunity to be in that magnet program we should be trying to lift them up we should be trying to find instead solutions to the transportation problems you know and we and this constantly comes up with any kind of program we have how do we have the the after-school programs right how do we have the mentoring programs how do we have more clubs how do we have all of the other activities when we have to bust a large numbers of students across town so the answer is now we should be expanding our backup program I was a bag of student as well we should be expanding our magnet program we should be getting every opportunity even to students that that struggle a little bit if they can
109be lifted to get into the magnet program then do that and then instead really look at our transportation challenges district-wide long-term how can we challenge how can we solve these things how can we alleviate these things why are why are large chunks of students always traveling on the bus and have these huge commuting times and waiting on buses that are idling with pollution and such like that why can't we really find solutions to that where we can't even find solutions to the traffic jams or on our schools so these kind of things shouldn't be as large challenges as they always appear to be to us every every District has the same challenges regarding regarding busing a lot of them they go much farther distances and they're able to figure it out we should be able
110to do that by having more of an in-depth study in terms of our Transportation uh district-wide thank you Miss Lewis uh yes I am for looking into that um and much more for me anyway much more than just for transportation issues in terms of the cost um that um of course is is a thing right we want to think about the budget always in terms of what the the dollar sign is going to cost us but for me it's more of a bigger issue so I when I think about this I'm thinking about um how our schools can partner with each other across the city to make themselves better and make themselves greater I'm thinking about um how we can um you know obviously eliminate the commutes for our children how we can also kind
111of create Community Schools if you will if I can use that phrase so when I think of Community Schools I'm thinking about serving the whole child and serving the family that comes with the said child right so whether it's a parent or Guardian but what are we doing to support them what are we doing to support the student and so if we're thinking about how to do that in terms of Community School type of format and less about Magnet School specifically then we're going to be thinking about how to how to do that how to cater to the entire family and that student and so for me I I would like our schools in terms of whether or not we we stick this with this like consider looking at it because I think if we
112think about you know using a community lens it would help alleviate both of those in terms of what we can do moving forward and also help with the budget help with the commuting time Etc thank you Mr mafitano well the concept of magnet programs is certainly uh an old one around and we've we've adopted it years ago in various buildings the concept is is good but the transportation issue is a real one and it must be addressed when I met with various School leaders that had magnets or even like Barnard is a little different the big issues with getting kids getting picked up and parents calling in no bus showed up this morning so look if we're going to have these programs which I think good we had best get our hands on this stuff
113because a lot of the parents are getting very frustrated with it and I know the superintendent the other day mentioned that to try to go out with a RFP for various different bus providers rather than one massive bus outfit for the whole District I don't know if that'll solve our problems but the concept of a magnet program is good the idea of having a specialized learning environment with teachers dedicated to that issue I think is valuable but we have to make the Dynamics of it successful for the student so I'm open to thoughts on it uh there's always been talk in town about how the lotteries work and all this other business and that's procedural stuff that with Equity I think uh the board can address these questions in in a way that makes people
114feel everybody's had an equal shot at it but I think the magnet programs that we have are basically good programs but you know like many things in life they they need to be tweaked thank you that concludes the question portion of this evening each candidate is going to have three minutes for closing statements Mr Vega will start with you well thank you and of course I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight I mean you really should give yourself you're better than everyone else who stayed home so what no I'm I'm kidding please I need everybody's vote I want to thank etac for Cole in the Forum there's only going to be two forums public forums this year today and tomorrow tomorrow's at the library so if you know someone who can't make it
115tonight tell them to come tomorrow it's going to be at the library is going to be the library candidates as well um it's very important because again there's only there's only two public ones um the issues that we talked about again we have the opportunity to to affect all of these different things that we talked about special ed more support for teachers in terms of development and in terms of in classroom support more support for even the student aides who again we talked about special ed those same student aides have been making 1965 an hour since 2009 they're in special ed classes too you don't get a dollar more for working in a special ed class again we can't give them even a dollar raise we talk about the infrastructure around the district in terms
116of programming after school programs mentoring infrastructure like buildings where we can actually we can build stuff we're going to build stuff by Columbus and we can build stuff by Columbus we can build stuff in other areas of town I actual I actually want to join in our campaign not only to vote for me but also vote for those issues and vote for those issues that are important that you've been seeing in our community for years and and not affecting change uh my website also is is Vega for the number fournurashell.com and I appreciate it and since I have an extra minute I'm allowed to rebut another candidate right in my in my final in my final comments with Mr mafatano said something about me and about forces and near Rochelle and about to vote for
117a vote for Makita and I if as if we're we're under some forces when he just himself admitted that he ran first for the Board of Ed in 1980s and ran several times in the past few years right and ran for city council as well of near Rochelle right all under the Republican party and was also in the in the Facebook group last year who were doxing people giving out people's uh addresses and such just because they were supporting David Peters and you got nerve also to come up here and say that special ed is your issue and no one else can be better as special ed than you when you go to every single Boe meeting and all you talk about is Columbus Day and why you can't write for a half hour not
118one single time have I ever seen you mention any student any special ed student or any ideas what do you know about Dynamic change you're not the change agent up here the other candidates other three candidates Lydia Makita and myself are the change you've been here for years and it's only gotten worse in our community thank you Miss Lewis all right thank you as well for for coming out tonight thank you for everyone who's at home thank you for everyone who will be watching this thank you for sharing this link um with your friends and family across New Rochelle thank you for being involved thank you for submitting questions um for today and tomorrow it's really my pleasure my honor to be here to speak to you all tonight and share some of my views
119and some of my values and some of my morals um and so you have four of us on the stage today um and you only have two elect two of us there are only two seats and so you have to choose the two people who you feel as though would represent your show the best you have to choose the two people who you feel as though would fight for you and fight for the things that you care about um and that want your shell to be the best that we can be um so a vote for me would be a vote for Equity inclusion diversity someone who's walked the walk and that has not just talked the talk um voting for me would be a vote for data informed decision making um voting for me
120would be also for voting for someone who can get along with others can work collaboratively um through difficult issues and through difficult topics and can keep our North Star which is doing what we do for our students um and you know I know I'm also someone who knows how to work in a bureaucracy I've worked for government for many years and and bureaucracy is not new to me and so um with that I want to remind you all the election is May 16th um please tell a friend to tell a friend the polls open at 7 A.M typically New Rochelle has a very low turnout so we'll appreciate going to the polls appreciate you bringing your friends to the polls and letting everyone know that this is important and important to you and important to
121all of us and so we hope to see you all on May 16th out and about um as you vote thank you again thank you Mr malfitano oh yes sure this was a little bit interesting I think you've seen the character of Mr Vega a gentleman that will win a seat to the board I think it bodes well for our community doesn't it well I never ran for city council I did run for State Legislature and yes I did Run for the board in the 80s anybody around here to remember that I was new in town I only had some years experience with the schools and during a debate like this I heard a lady speak I became impressed with said she was a teacher at Albert Leonard this and that so I went over
122to the standard star which used to be in town a few days before the election and I said I have a story for you Mr malficano withdrews from the election and endorses Mary Jane Reddington that's who I am we're finding out who mistake is I'm a team Builder I believe in progress I believe in truth but yes we are seeing outside forces come into our community to help candidates win an election a national political action committee organized by people uh from the Clinton campaign are now supporting one of our candidates imagine that something I ain't seen in my 40 some years a national political action committee coming in for our little lowly School Board election okay if that what we want that's what we get but you know the simple truth of the matter is
123I stand on my record I have never seen Mr Vega at a board meeting well it's a good game tonight and and he will win the right Lawns have the right signs on them the right people are endorsing him when he ran a few years ago when Miss uh Brooks and Manaya and he got 200 and something votes well he will win this time because the powers that be want to live for you you decide whether he is of character to be on this board all right the seven or eight percent who are going to decide this election they think he is and he's going to win and the political action committee Nationwide organized Miss lippman from the Clinton Campaign Will elect your next candidate and I don't know if the future has me ever
124sitting up here again but I am proud of my advocacy all these years proud of my commitment to this community with my Blood Sweat and Tears but those of you who are of a different mind will not vote for me okay just history as it is but you're gonna get what you vote for thank you Mrs farash thank you I want to thank everybody here first uh especially my husband who's in the audience who has always been my supporter ever since we met 30 plus years ago um I am not uh I don't have the same resume and history and experience as my colleagues at this forum uh but what I want to say that I bring to the board um will be respectful America especially the universal education system that too many of us
125uh sometimes take for granted I also bring the appreciation for my community and the desire to give back to New Rochelle I want to tell you a couple of stories because I was fortunate enough to be a stay-home mom for most of my time most of my kids younger education my son was in second grade at Davis and uh because I assigned the reading material he was crying crying crying crying and uh I got called by the teacher at school um and she showed me the book that I assigned to my son and it was Robin Hood and Abridged I tried to read that book myself and I couldn't so at that point I kind of like gave in and I gave him a a little easier book to read that he was able to
126to finish reading move forward my daughter apply to colleges she got into 12 of the colleges she applied to most of them with scholarship some of them full ride among the schools that she applied to when she got in was Northeastern University who gave her zero money uh guess what that's where she went because she insisted and she cried cried cried that she wants to look up she wants to be challenged my daughter was in the top 25 percent of her high school graduate high school class she did not want to look down anymore she wanted to look up and we mortgaged our house to pay for her education and we're very happy we did she's very uh successful she's going to be very proud of her um again I I feel like I was
127very very lucky to be able to stay home with my kids and monitor their progress not everybody it's in the same boat I understand that but I feel like if if I get to be on the board together with all the other parents I will make sure that I will work very hard to raise the education bar where our children can compete educationally with the whole world thank you very much and thank you for your vote and for your presence here tonight thank you and thank you everybody for coming tonight thank you candidates spare time and dedication vote on May 16th