Dear friends and neighbors,
I am again running for a seat on the Chappaqua Central School District (CCSD) Board of Education. Previously, I served 12 years, 4 terms on the CCSD Board.
I ask for your support. I ask that you vote for me.
In the next several days, if you have not already, all registered voters will receive a ballot in the mail. * I ask that when completing the ballot, you vote for me, 1A, Jeffrey Mester.
To see where all five candidates stand on the major issues, I urge you to view the League of Women Voters Candidate Night video. That video can be found at either The New Castle Media Center YouTube Channel or directly at this YouTube link.. The School Board debate starts at around the 40-minute mark. The questions, posed by the community, and the answers by the candidates are illuminating and demonstrate the contrasts between and among all the candidates on the issues.
I outline the reasons I am running, why you should vote for me, and my positions on the issues below. For more details, a lot more details (natch), please review the website, MesterForBoard.com. The website makes clear my passion for public education and the Chappaqua School District, my desire to expand on the District’s academic excellence, my desire to address the unaddressed budget issues, insistence on fiscally responsible budgets going forward, and my desire to reach out and meet the unmet needs and wants of the 50+% of the households in the District without children in the schools.
There are four important areas where I differ from the current Board and Board Members:
· The Fiscal Responsibility of the Proposed Budget
o As detailed on my website, the Board’s proposed budget increase is out of line with our peer districts including Scarsdale, Byrum Hills (Armonk) and Katonah-Lewisboro
· Receiving Input from the Community at Board meetings
o I have advocated, publicly and on the record, for years, to have a Board practice that allowed for an open dialogue between the board and the community at meetings.
o Two of my opponents, as officers of the Board, implemented the current limiting and stifling practice.
o “best practice” does not mean doing what everyone else is doing if what everyone else is doing is hiding behind a curtain of secrecy.
· Transparency and communication with our ENTIRE community
o The School District is made up of more than just households with students in the schools. 50+% of the households in the district do not have school age children or are empty nester households.
o The district needs to do a better job of communicating with, taking input from, and addressing the needs of the empty nester households.
· Elementary school class size matters
o I am the only candidate that advocated for the immediate adding of a section to next year’s Grafflin 1st grade class. It is common sense. There is money in the budget as per the Superintendent and elementary students are most vulnerable to the difficulties of distant teaching and learning.
There are important items on which I agree with the Board:
· Experience matters
o I have more experience than all the other candidates combined.
· Being informed matters
o Watch the video. Read my website. I know of no other candidate with that much detail and that much information publicly available to the community.
· Decision making and consensus building skills matter
o Diversity of thought, perspective improves group decision making outcomes significantly. Group think leads to lemming action. At the end of the day we must reach consensus, but that does not mean we must all think alike. Multiple varied points of view inform good decision making.
If you believe the district is on the right course academically, as I do, but believe that there are better, more appropriate ways to address the budget during these trying economic times, as I do, better ways to include the views and needs of the 50+% of households without children in the schools, as I do, support and advocate for all of our students including and especially the special education students, as I do, and better ways to communicate with the entire community especially the empty nesters, as I do, vote for me. I will proactively advocate and fight for the changes needed.
Now more than ever, the community, the school district, needs leadership, diversity of thought, fiscal responsibility, transparency, relevant experience, perspective, and thoughtful creative problem-solving skills. I offer all of that. I offer common sense with an uncommon commitment.
Again, I ask for your support. I ask for your vote. Vote for 1A, Jeffrey Mester on your ballot.
Jeff
Jeffrey Mester
* Ballots must be returned such that they are RECEIVED by the district NO LATER than 5pm on June 9th. Ballots may be returned via the enclosed postage paid envelope or dropped in a secure box at the District’s Ed Center which is located at 66 Roaring Brook Road. (It is the building on the left as one enters the high school across from Whole Foods.
