The following individuals are seeking a seat on the North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education. Four candidates are seeking three seats; Board President Pat Carbone is not seeking reelection, and the seats of Scot McClintock and Michael Mirizio are also up for renewal. The election will take place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 20.
Sandra DiBianco
Sandra DiBianco has made her home in the North Syracuse Central School District since 1974. Her children are graduates of the district.
DiBianco has had a lifelong interest in children’s education and development. She first sought election to the board of education after 15 years of active involvement as a parent teacher organization and district-wide Parents Awareness Council officer, volunteer, tutor and substitute teacher. She served on the board of education from July of 1988 until June of 2013.
During her 25 year tenure on the board of education, DiBianco inaugurated, and for seven years, chaired the Legislative Action Committee and the Policy Committee and sat on the District Advisory Committee and the Executive Committee. She represented the BOE on numerous other committees, among them: the Committee to Develop the District’s PART 100.11 Plan for Shared Decision Making, the Committee for Academic Intervention Services, the Safe Schools Against Violence In Education Committee and the Universal Pre-Kindergarten Committee.
DiBianco was one of the founding members of North Syracuse Dollars For Scholars and served on its board for 16 years. She currently serves on the North Syracuse Education Foundation’s board of eirectors, the Friends of the Can Teen, the Community Connections Advisory Board, Early Literacy Volunteers and the C-NS Optimist Club.
DiBianco has been a member of the Central New York Reading Council, Literacy Volunteers, the Board of Directors of the Cultural Resources Council, the New York State Council for the Arts and the Syracuse
Stage Guild Board of Directors. She currently sits on the Everson Museum of Art’s Members’ Council board, CAVORT and the board of directors of Chadwick Residence, which provides shelter and needed services to women and their children.
These are trying times for public education and for educators and their students. The concerted effort of all stakeholders is necessary in order to meet the economic and educational challenges facing our schools. During the last several months, DiBianco has been approached by a cross section of members of the school community and the surrounding communities to run for re-election to the Board of Education and to resume her efforts
Sandra DiBianco on their behalf.
Elizabeth Kasch
Elizabeth Kasch resides in Liverpool with her husband Mike. Kasch’s three children, Michael, Jr., Matthew and Nicolette, attend Cicero-North Syracuse High School and Roxboro Road Middle School.
Kasch earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology and master of arts in counseling from SUNY
Oswego. She is employed at OCM BOCES as a substitute teaching assistant.
Kasch was PTO president at Allen Road Elementary School for four years and is an active member in the Roxboro Road Middle School PTO. She is an active booster club member and currently chairs the Parent
Advisory Council. She is a past member of Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, District Advisory Committee and a past board member of North Syracuse Little League.
Kasch feels that every child should receive a quality education in the North Syracuse Central School District. She believes that the students should be afforded as many opportunities as possible to help them
be successful in our ever changing world. She believes that she can help students and parents achieve this by participating on the board of education to help ensure that academic courses, extracurricular activities and athletic programs be offered while staying fiscally responsible to the taxpayers.
Michael Mirizio
Michael A. Mirizio is a 2010 graduate of Cicero-North Syracuse High School and an upcoming 2014 graduate of Le Moyne College, where he is studying political science and pre-law. He has served on the North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education since 2011.
Mirizio has been involved with a number of district activities and clubs for many years, and currently volunteers his time with students. Mirizio has served as the president of the North Syracuse Junior High Tech Crew and has now been appointed a voluntary advisor for the club. He has helped to bring many advances for the various shows and performances in the district. Mirizio has received numerous awards and achievements throughout his school career, which include multiple Optimist Awards and numerous outstanding character and achievement awards. He also received the Andrew Cuomo CCC Award for most likely to succeed in his graduating class.
Mirizio is currently employed with Apple as a technician at the Genius Bar. He also helps out at Sacred Heart Church in Cicero in their technology division as well as volunteering for church events.
Mirizio is the son of Anthony and Sharon Mirizio, who reside in Cicero. He had attended school in this district since kindergarten. He has one sister, Maria, who attends the North Syracuse Junior High School, and one brother, Stephen, who is a 2013 graduate of Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Over the past three years, Mirizio’s involvement on the school board has helped shape the district to accommodate the numerous new mandates that our school district is facing. Through collaborative efforts, he has been involved in many different committees throughout the district and the community to help make the most effective and most reasonable changes to the district that has had to be made. While the school district has faced financial setbacks, Mirizio has felt that his input has influenced decisions made to do better with less without effecting our children’s education.
Mirizio feels that his unique knowledge in technology and its usefulness in the classroom today comes as an advantage to the school board. With the new fast paced learning standards and the necessity for students to become 21st century learners, his experience helps the board make well-informed decisions. As someone who recently graduated, he feels that his “inside-out” look on the schools can also be more than beneficial to the school board.
Scot McClintock
Scot McClintock has lived in the North Syracuse Central School District for 37 years, currently residing in the town of Clay with his wife Lori, a second grade teacher at Allen Road Elementary School. Daughter Sara is a speech pathologist in Boston, daughter Holly is a registered nurse at Upstate and
daughter Lindsay is an associate account services specialist for Partners in Health Systems and a district taxpayer. All three daughters have benefited greatly from the district’s fine academic programs and a girls’ cross country and track program with the emphasis on each athlete enjoying success through hard work.
McClintock graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 1970. He completed a BS in civil engineering in 1974 and a masters of engineering in 1975 from Cornell University. A licensed professional engineer and certified value specialist, he is the head of value management for Faithful+Gould, applying the concepts of value management to provide essential functions of major projects or programs at the minimum life cycle cost.
McClintock has used his knowledge of the district’s facility needs and value management techniques over his 21 years on the board to help the board of education make necessary, but cost-effective, decisions. McClintock’s goal of being part of a successful referendum to renovate our school facilities has been met nine times. He has led seven value management workshops on the district’s technology plan, as well as the renovation plans for Cicero-North Syracuse High School; Allen Road, Roxboro Road, and Smith Road elementary schools and both Gillette Road and Roxboro Road middle schools, resulting in savings of nearly $8 million. He also recognizes the need to continually improve communication between the board of education and the taxpayers so the community can understand and support board recommendations and budgets.
As a taxpayer, McClintock is proud of the district, but concerned about improving our student’s academic performance while state aid is continually threatened by the economy and New York state politics. We have been forced to cut positions and services due to state reductions in funding to education while capping what districts can raise in taxes. In addition, our county no longer shares sales tax revenues with school districts. The difference can only come from school taxes and/or cuts. McClintock believes that the district, meaning taxpayers, students, parents, administrators, teachers and the board of education, must work together to solve these problems and many others. He requests your support so he can continue to work for you on your board of education. As said by Irish Poet William Butler Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
