By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
Two seats on the Cazenovia CSD Board of Education are up for election on May 21. Three candidates — Kathleen Benedict, Jennifer Parmalee and Kathy Hahn — are running for the seats.
On May 15, the League of Women Voters of Cazenovia held a candidate forum at the high school.
Kathleen Benedict
Benedict moved to Cazenovia in 2001 to start her family.
She has been a high school science teacher for 17 years and has an “intense passion” for educating children. She is also a parent of an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old.
“I know what education can do for children, and it’s something that I have been devoted to for my entire adult life,” Benedict said.
On fostering communication between the school and the community
Benedict noted that because there are so many modes of communication in today’s world it is challenging to convey information to everyone. However, she added, attempting to do so should be a district priority.
“I don’t think we should focus on the mode of communication,” she said. “I think it is imperative that we focus on making sure that we are communicating with parents and the community . . . communication is one of the biggest ways to make our children successful in the classroom.”
On specific concerns to be addressed in the future
Benedict hopes to see the district become even more transparent in terms of its decisions. The only way to ensure that transparency, she believes, is for the district to increase its level of communication and to form partnerships with parents and the community.
On equitably supporting the district’s varied constituents
“The people that make our district so strong need to keep doing what they’re doing,” Benedict said. “From my experience . . . classrooms are equitable. The teachers are ensuring that there is no disparity between the students within the classroom . . . coaches are also making sure their team members are in an equitable environment.”
Benedict encouraged the district to continue to reach out to students, to make sure their needs are met, and to never make assumptions about a child or their situation.
On the middle school writing program
Benedict recognized the importance and challenge of teaching good writing. She advocated supporting instructors to effectively teach writing skills to students.
“Writing is a lifelong skill that you develop,” Benedict said. “It doesn’t happen in an isolated situation or through isolated experiences . . . so the writing curriculum is a big concern for me . . . at all levels.”
On opting out of state testing
Benedict explained that while she does not like the fact that many parents have opted their children out of testing, she supports their right to do so.
“I would never presume that I could understand their child and the kind of stress and anxiety that the test might cause . . . I would never want to take that option away from parents,” she said.
Speaking as a teacher, Benedict noted the importance of testing as a means to measure learning. She also commended the district for implementing computer-based testing and said she hopes to see the state continue to improve their testing to include additional measures to gauge student learning and to help the district improve their program.
On bullying and vaping
“The least effective way to address bullying is to tell students not to do it,” Benedict said. “The most effective way to address it is to build and strengthen their characters . . . when you find and foster all of the positive characteristics and qualities that our children have, bullying doesn’t happen.”
The challenge, according to Benedict, is that character development is an ongoing process. She also acknowledged that in today’s society, bullying is more covert than ever before and children can experience bullying any time of the day through social media.
According to Benedict, the number one approach to reducing vaping is education. When children know more, she said, they make better decisions.
Jennifer Parmalee
Parmalee has served on the school board for four years.
She is the mother of a nine year old and a 12 year old.
“My passion is [making sure] that every child can succeed in life,” she said. “We need to have 100 percent of children walk across that stage. We need to have 100 percent of children passing their classes. When you set that bar, it means you have to do things a little bit differently.”
In her role as deputy commissioner for the Department of Children and Family Services in Onondaga County, Parmalee oversees the Children’s Mental Health division and the School Based Initiatives division.
“I spend every day thinking about how we identify kids who may be struggling, how we can support those kids, and how we can get them to a place of success . . .[by working] in partnership with schools and parents,” she said. “I am excited to have brought that expertise to the school board, and I feel there is more work that we can still do . . .”
On fostering communication between the school and the community
“The only way for a child [to achieve true success] is to ensure that the district, the teachers, the principals and the whole school community is in alignment with the parents,” Parmalee said.
She also said the district could improve the critical partnership between the school and the parents by being more proactive in its communications, by increasing the opportunities for dialog and by continuing to be highly visible and approachable within the community.
On specific concerns to be addressed in the future
Parmalee’s goal is to see the strategic plan move forward in the next year. She is particularly excited about three components of the plan: the development of a deeper level of communication; the promotion of “curricular evolution” and the pursuit of higher educational standards; and the advancement of health and wellness initiatives.
On equitably supporting the district’s varied constituents
“It’s really about not making assumptions about kids and what their needs are, but instead putting together a system within the classrooms and within the buildings that ensures that we can identify what those needs are and address those needs,” Parmalee said.
She also noted that as chair of the policy committee, she continually considers the impacts of each policy on the disparate populations within the district and works to specifically address those concerns.
On the middle school writing program
Parmalee said in order to meet the standards of the Common Core, teachers have been required to transform the way they teach writing by adopting “exciting new practices.” She believes that the district has worked hard to provide the professional development and support its teachers require.
“Now it’s really about that hard implementation part,” she said. “At any school, in any culture and in any organization, it can be really hard to implement new and complex practices. I think the district has done a very fine job in considering what those practices need to look like, how they are supporting the teachers and the administration, and how they can hold [them] accountable. I’m very excited to see some cool writing coming home from my kids very soon.”
On opting out of state testing
The state has done a really good job of breaking apart student performance and teacher performance with respect to testing, according to Parmalee.
While she supports the right of parents to opt their students out of testing, she personally believes that opting her own children out would deprive them of an important opportunity.
“It would be a missed opportunity for them to go through that process of figuring out how to make it through a test, figuring out the mental rigor, and testing themselves in terms of their character,” she said.
She also said the district has done a good job of communicating the changes made by the state to develop a more comfortable testing experience for students and teachers.
On bullying and vaping
Parmalee said the most effective way to address these issues is by developing a universal culture or climate of inclusion, community and support within each classroom and within each school building. She also advocated working more individually with students who appear to be struggling within the new environment.
According to Parmalee, the best way to tackle the vaping problem is to educate students and families about its negative impacts and to work with students to help them understand and address the reasons they feel the need to vape.
Kathy Hahn
Hahn, a graduate of Cazenovia High School, has been a district resident since 1979. All three of her children completed their K-12 educations in Cazenovia CSD.
She served on the school board from 2010 to 2017, an experience she said she valued.
“The school board has to shape and mold the district to help our children to succeed,” she said. “It’s a difficult . . . undertaking, but it’s important because the future of our country depends on the education of our children.”
On fostering communication between the school and the community
Hahn said because there are so many ways to get information, it is important for the district to try to understand how the Cazenovia community prefers to gather information. She also stressed the importance of working to identify what pieces of information are most important to the community.
On specific concerns to be addressed in the future
If elected, Hahn said she would focus on tailoring the academic curriculum to meet the needs of the 21st century to provide students with the tools they need to succeed in the future.
On equitably supporting the district’s varied constituents
“The diversity that the Cazenovia School District has is one of its greatest strengths,” Hahn said. “Our students know what it’s like to be immersed in all different socio-economic classes, and I think that is an asset to our students and our community.”
Hahn noted that at times in the past, the district’s attention has shifted toward college readiness and away from career readiness. She believes that in order to address the needs of all students, a balance needs to be struck between the two.
She added that although the district already offers programs for students with a variety of aspirations and provides networks of support for children facing difficulties, there is always room for improvement.
On the middle school writing program
Teaching sound writing skills is critical, according to Hahn. She believes that the role of the school board is to equip teachers with the tools and resources needed to adequately educate their students and help them develop into effective 21st century writers.
“For a while . . .the focus [across the country] was on STEM,” Hahn said. “While that was definitely important, I think that in focusing on STEM, the teaching of writing skills suffered somewhat. It’s time to balance the scales.”
On opting out of state testing
Hahn said she views state testing as an important tool for evaluating both the competency of the students and the effectiveness of their education.
“It’s a shame that students are being pulled out and not taking the test, because that gives us the gauge on how well we are doing and where we need to improve our curriculum to better meet the standards,” she said. “We need everyone’s participation to really understand the effectiveness of our courses.”
On bullying and vaping
According to Hahn, the most important approach to addressing bullying is to equip teachers, school employees, parents and students with the skills to recognize the early signs of bullying and to intervene.
She also advocated helping students to recognize and address the root causes of bullying and vaping and to understand the impacts of such negative behaviors.
To learn more about the school board, visit cazenoviacsd.com.
