The 2014 Cazenovia Board of Education election on Tuesday, May 20, will have three candidates vying for two seats on the board. Incumbents Leigh Baldwin and Jan Woodworth are both seeking reelection to second terms, while challenger Abby Hartwell is seeking a first term.
The BOE is a seven-member board with each member serving a three-year term. Board elections are held on an at-large basis. The two candidates who receive the highest number of votes will be elected to new terms on the board beginning July 1, 2014, and ending June 30, 2017. BOE members receive no salary.
The candidates gave personal and background information to the school district public information officer for use in the district’s “Blue and Gold” newsletter, and answered questions from the Cazenovia Republican concerning educational issues, priorities and philosophy.
Leigh Baldwin
Background:
District resident of 27 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colgate University. He and his wife, Susan, have three children, two of whom are grown and one who is a sixth-grader at Cazenovia Middle School.
Profession/community activities
Owner of Leigh Baldwin & Co., an investment firm with offices throughout Central New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. He is a minority owner of the Syracuse Crunch professional hockey team and a former member of the Syracuse Opera board.
Why are you running for school board?
Because a strong school district is the most important factor in having a vibrant village of our size.
What do you see as the issues that face, as well as the top priorities for, the school board in the coming years?
The primary issue for our district is the combination of lower enrollment and higher costs that are threatening our student and teacher offerings.
What are your personal priorities to achieve or subjects to address if you are elected to the board?
My priority is to have the board make thoughtful, long-term and fair policy decisions. I try to come to each board meeting with an open mind, without an agenda. I would like to see a smooth transition for the new administrators in 2014-15.
What is your philosophy regarding the annual budget and resident taxes, or, put another way, do you feel the budget cutting and tax increases within the tax cap are the correct approach, or do you favor other methods to achieve the annual budget needs of the district?
I am fiscally conservative by nature and I also feel that we have to be respectful of the taxpayer at all times. If we ever were to exceed the cap, it should be done strategically, and not done in desperation.
What are your opinions of the Common Core standards, state testing and APPR requirements? Are you in favor or opposed to them and their political reasons? Would you fight to keep them in Cazenovia or remove them from Cazenovia if given the chance/choice?
I have no problem with standardized testing but the problems arise with how that data is used and how the testing is presented to the students. Middle school and elementary children should not be losing sleep over a test. Teachers should not be losing sleep over a test. Unfortunately, this issue goes well beyond the local level.
Abby Hartwell
Background:
District resident for 2½ years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and elementary education (regular and special education) from Le Moyne College. She and her husband, Richard, have two young children who will attend Burton Street Elementary when they are of age.
Profession:
Full-time mother and substitute resource teacher in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District.
Why are you running for school board?
To support all aspects of schools and public education. The future of the Cazenovia School District can be bright, but we must navigate these troubling times of declining enrollment, upcoming repairs to district campuses and continued financial strain on our school district. A community is a place to learn and grow in a safe and respectful environment. I hope I can earn your support as a Cazenovia school board candidate.
What do you see as the issues that face, as well as the top priorities for, the school board in the coming years?
My husband, R.J., and I have chosen to make Cazenovia our home. Strengths in school programming, excellent teachers and village charm have drawn us to this community.
Most of the issues facing our school district come from a consistently declining enrollment. Our top priority is to invest in and attract young, professional families with children through affordable housing. $200,000+ new homes are not affordable to most new families with kids in Central New York. Gone are the days of buying on credit and beyond the ability to repay. Families today are paying down debt, saving for college costs, and planning for retirement. Cazenovia is economically unfriendly to the very people it needs to attract: families with school-aged children.
The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) continues to plague regional school districts. New York State’s practice of providing less aid than what they claim Cazenovia needs is not only unnecessary, it is frustratingly unfair.
Loss of excellent teachers from nationally award-winning schools is an unacceptable response forced upon our school district given our budgetary situation. Properly addressing the issues of declining enrollment and eliminating the GEA will get us started in the right direction.
What are your personal priorities to achieve or subjects to address if you are elected to the board?
- Ensure a safe, respectful and vigorous educational experience for the community’s children.
- Collaborate with a team of caring professionals in the best interests of the school district.
- Work towards reversing the decline in student enrollment and bring young, professional families with children to the area.
- Campaign to eliminate the Gap Elimination Adjustment that is withholding needed funds.
- Understand the Common Core Learning Standards to support teachers and staff.
- Listen. Communicate with school district leaders, teachers, Board of Education members and the Cazenovia community.
What is your philosophy regarding the annual budget and resident taxes, or, put another way, do you feel the budget cutting and tax increases within the tax cap are the correct approach, or do you favor other methods to achieve the annual budget needs of the district?
Cutting programs and faculty of schools that have demonstrated excellence should not happen. However, in order to limit an excessive tax burden on the community for the subsequent school years, budget cuts may be required. Enrollment drives the needs of personnel in the district. Simply put, we need more customers in school to maintain the number of people we employ as a district.
Declining enrollment hurts kids. Fewer students mean reduced programs, staff-cuts and decreased state aid. This loss makes the school district less attractive. Fewer families with children choose to make Cazenovia their home. The cycle needs to be broken.
As a community and school board, we must provide the resources and supports needed by teachers to provide authentic, engaging experiences for our children. Failure to do so would be failure for our kids.
What are your opinions of the Common Core standards, state testing and APPR requirements? Are you in favor or opposed to them and their political reasons? Would you fight to keep them in Cazenovia or remove them from Cazenovia if given the chance/choice?
The saying, “people don’t like change” is actually false — we do like to see progress and improvement in what we do. However, the path toward change is often a dreaded one. The Common Core Learning Standards and APPR are definitely changes, and the path toward those changes has certainly been precarious.
Standards-based learning can be useful to help children reach benchmarks and identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. Alignment across the nation can actually be a good thing. The Common Core attempts to standardize sets of learning objectives and outcomes for our children. The problem with the CCLS is two-fold:
—A “top-down” approach and rapid implementation.
—Misconceptions about excessive testing.
More input from teachers and administrators would have created consensus across the educational community. Poor communication has compounded problems. Testing, however, is a needed ingredient in learning whether or not kids are meeting objectives. Frequent but short tests provide important feedback to teachers. As tests become longer, they begin to assess more than content. When connected to a teacher’s professional evaluation (APPR), emphasis might be placed excessively on testing.
The APPR process can provide measurable and useful information for teachers and administrators. However, factors beyond a teacher’s control give limitation to APPR’s role in improving student achievement. Let’s slow down just a bit to give teachers and students time to adjust, plan, and prepare for the next generation of education standards and evaluative measures.
For more information on Hartwell residents may visit her website, abbyhartwell.com.
Jan Woodworth
Background:
District resident of 22 years. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in agriculture, extension and adult education from Cornell University. She chairs the board’s personnel committee, serves on the district’s High School Action Team (HAT) and agricultural advisory committee. She is involved in the village’s July 4th parade, Memorial Day Parade and other community events. She and her husband, Mark, have three children: two Cazenovia alumni and one graduating senior.
Profession:
Assistant professor in the vocational teacher preparation department at State University College at Oswego.
Why are you running for school board?
To help ensure a well-rounded, quality education to all students in a fiscally healthy district. We have had our financial struggles over the past several years, but as a board we have strived to make reductions in areas that will affect our students the least. This school district has provided a rich education to my three children, and I would like the opportunity to give back as much as I can in the form of service.
What do you see as the issues that face, as well as the top priorities for, the school board in the coming years?
There are several issues that are top priorities for coming years. First, and probably foremost in the minds of taxpayers, is the budget and, in particular, our shrinking revenue sources. Our hands have been tied with the tax cap and the GEA (Gap Elimination Act) that has repeatedly (five years in a row) reduced the funding to schools to eliminate what is now a non-existent budget gap at the state level. Additionally, we are ever concerned with offering students a wide variety of educational opportunities to prepare them for college and a career after high school. As with most districts, we are concerned with reduced student numbers and how that continues to impact our district. We strive to make sure that while being fiscally responsible, we make decisions that will make the best sense in terms of our students.
What are your personal priorities to achieve or subjects to address if you are elected to the board?
My personal priorities are those that are brought to me by district residents, and those that are glaring (such as the budget). But most importantly, my priority is doing what is best for our students — that is my focus. Retention of programs and teachers is essential for continuation of the excellence in education for which our school is known.
What is your philosophy regarding the annual budget and resident taxes, or, put another way, do you feel the budget cutting and tax increases within the tax cap are the correct approach, or do you favor other methods to achieve the annual budget needs of the district?
I feel that it’s important to stay within the tax cap and we have been successful in doing so up to this point. Even a little more than the tax cap allows can be a significant burden for taxpayers, especially those with limited or fixed resources. Our future situation is unknown, so I can’t rule out exceeding the tax limit — but it is certainly not something I would be in favor of without some compelling reason for doing so, and ample consideration of alternatives.
What are your opinions of the Common Core standards, state testing and APPR requirements? Are you in favor or opposed to them and their political reasons? Would you fight to keep them in Cazenovia or remove them from Cazenovia if given the chance/choice?
I have a lot of opinions on all three of these areas, personally and professionally. But at this point, none of them have been discussed for keeping/removing, so I can’t say I would fight for them or against them.
Politically, these are all very charged topics. We are directed by the state to follow them — so we do, as that is the role of the school district/BOE.
Personally, I see merit in the Common Core and APPR, though both have had implementation issues and “growing pains” associated with them. State testing is at an all-time high in terms of volume. Much of the testing is done to provide information to the districts regarding students that may need help and how well schools are performing at implementing standards. Unfortunately, those scores become public information and thus are used for comparisons, putting undo pressures on districts, teachers and ultimately students, which can create an unhealthy atmosphere.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia republican. He can be reached at [email protected]. Laura Ryan, Cazenovia CSD public information officer, contributed to this report.
