Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District

The taxpayer financed public school system is a pillar of our democracy, and, I believe, one of the greatest contributions of the United States to Western civilization. In turn, the standard and quality of our children's education in our public schools is dependent in large part upon the willingness of responsible taxpayers to get actively involved and donate their resources, skill, and time to District affairs. I feel duty-bound to step up to the plate.

Further, I have a child in the elementary school. As such, I have a personal stake in the quality of education we impart and the school's performance rankings. My experience as a parent with our older child enables me to understand and empathize with the anxieties of younger parents while simultaneously being able to see the bigger picture objectively. In addition, of course, I am also a taxpayer concerned with skyrocketing taxes over the past decade. Thus, I have strong personal and philosophical reasons for running.

With respect to my qualifications to be a school board trustee: As someone who has been educated and lived in different societies and cultures, I believe I bring some unique perspectives to the discussions and issues before the Board. My professional background, training, and analytical skills as a lawyer are also very helpful.

I am solution-oriented, focused, and a team player. During the past 8 months that I have served in the Board, I worked as a team with the Board on the serious fiscal challenges we faced. We cut the budget by over $3.1 million dollars as compared to the previous year. That was a 5.91% reduction, the largest in Westchester-Putnam School Districts. We did so without increasing class size, without laying off teachers, without cutting programs, and without cutting athletics. In other words, the core curriculum and educational offerings stay unaffected despite a steep reduction.

I also take bold, resourceful initiatives with skill and determination. I have launched the SEDLIC (Student Exchange, Digital Learning, and International Collaboration) initiative. Utilizing the School District's existing technological capabilities, this initiative seeks to partner with a school abroad to develop institutional relationships for student exchange and faculty collaboration. It would be international in scope, enable curriculum expansion into new areas, permit our students to collaborate with their peers internationally on projects, and be a resource for research areas in empirical and social sciences as well as "soft power" fields. In short, this initiative will add a whole new dimension to education in our schools in the next decade, and will do so at very little cost. For further details, please see my presentations to the BOE on April 5, 2010 (http://media.briarcliffschools.org/boe.). I believe SEDLIC will enhance our School District's standing considerably, open new vistas for our children and faculty, and make our School District a trend-setter in education.