Open Letter to Community

By Jeffrey Mester

Letter to friends and neighbors detailing my decision to run.

Three years ago, I asked you to support my candidacy for a seat on the Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education. With your support I was elected to a three year term. That term expires at the end of June of this year. Following months of careful consideration and conversations with many community members, I'm proud to announce that I am running for a second term on the Board of Education. I again ask for your support. I again pledge my unwavering commitment to the district and our community. Simply put, I offer common sense with an uncommon commitment.

The four main reasons I ran three years ago still hold true today. Three years ago in a similar letter to the community announcing my candidacy I wrote: "I am passionate about education and its importance to our future. I believe in the obligation to serve or contribute to your community. I believe my life experience, professional experience and education give me a unique but fundamentally important viewpoint needed on the Board. I want to give voice to the silent majority; to those who live in the community but are not part of the 1,200 who typically vote for the budget and the Board."

I continue to be passionate about education, our district and its importance to our future. Whether or not we are parents of children in our schools, we all appreciate that there is no greater legacy that we can give to our children than an outstanding, well rounded and varied education. To the community, the strength of our schools is a direct function of our property values. Education's importance to our future is not simply to give our students a running start into the rest of their lives; the community needs to have the proper balance between fiscal austerity and maintaining our academic excellence in order to support the premise on which our community rests.

As my first term comes to a close, I am confident that I am a better candidate today than when you elected me in 2007. After three years on the Board, I remain committed to the obligation to serve and contribute to your community. The community trusted in me and patiently afforded me the time to conquer the steep and long learning curve. The Board needs knowledgeable members who are able to make well informed contributions and decisions that only come with experience and service.

The Board consists of five members who share one common interest, an unwavering belief in continuing to keep the CCSD one of the top districts in the country. While we coalesce around that goal, we often differ in what that means and how best to achieve it. I believe that the Board is strengthened by having members who can approach issues from different angles, who can disagree as a means to challenge assumptions yet who can, in the end, unite on behalf of the community.

And, I continue to be unwavering in my belief that the community we serve is the broader community of not just parents with children in the schools, but residents without school children too. It is not just the 1,200 who vote but the more than 10,000 others too. The times in which we live have also served to highlight the fact that despite the perceptions, we are an economically diverse community as well. The challenge as a Board member is to serve all the community, not simply any one part of it.

Unlike any other potential Board candidates this year, I can stand on a three year record of accomplishment. As part of the five member Board of Education, I am proud of our stewardship of the district. In brief, last year, with a record 82% voter approval, the Board developed a budget that had zero spending increase and had a 0% tax increase. This year, although the budget is not yet finished, as it stands now, the budget increase would be 1.9%. As important, during this two year budget cycle, the district was able to maintain its outstanding academic and extracurricular programs. No other district in Westchester can boast of a better two year record of a combination of academic preservation combined with budget and tax austerity.

As President this year, I have continued the Board's policy of transparency and communication. With guidance from the Board's communication committee, the district will be unveiling a new, more user friendly website by the end of the school year. I have added to the website new features such as "Ask the District" that provide access to district information and resources. We have upgraded our recording equipment so that Board meetings can be better viewed online for the 99.8% of you who cannot make it to meetings.

Just as improvement is important, it cannot be disputed that the challenges that lie ahead for our District need the continuity that only I can offer. So, in closing, I ask again for your support so that I can continue the work I began three years ago on behalf of the students and all residents of our community.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jeff

Jeffrey S. Mester