Rick Tannenbaum — candidate for Nyack Schools Board of Education

My name is Rick Tannenbaum and I am running for a seat on the Nyack School Board. The election is May 20th.

This year’s board election is the most important in recent times. The contract with the Nyack Teachers’ Union expires next year and negotiations will begin in earnest this fall. Opportunity exists to negotiate a contract that is fair to teachers, students and the community. Past contracts have been generous to teachers and have left the community with a heavy tax burden. Teachers are now well-paid, have job security, and a broad panoply of benefits. The next contract should be negotiated with students and the community in mind. Every stipend and expenditure should be reviewed for necessity and value. The next board will have to negotiate and vote on a multi-year contract that will have implications for tax levies for years to come. I want to be part of that negotiation and make sure that taxpayers have a strong seat at the negotiation table.

Most students have abandoned the meals in the cafeteria. Less than 40% of the students eat food prepared by Aramark, and of that amount a large percentage receive free or reduced price meals. Few participate by choice. Study after study show that students that eat healthy whole foods (those that skip added sugars, preservatives and additives) are easier to teach and manage. Student and parents are effectively boycotting the cafeterias. Yet, the District is considering renewing Aramark’s contract again and this time perhaps for several years. The renewal would permit a continuation of the same-old poor quality, sugar-laden, chemical-heavy industrial food that students have suffered for years. The cafeterias are self-sufficient and are largely funded by state and federal payments. No taxpayer money is involved. Opportunity exists to renegotiate the contract and make real changes and offer the student body healthy whole foods going forward.

Budget and tax increases are on everyone’s mind. Seniors, those on fixed incomes, and middle class homeowners have a hard time keeping up. Heating oil, gas, health insurance, county taxes, etc. — everything is going up at a pace that unfairly pressures the community. Teacher compensation is about 75% of the school budget and every effort needs to be made to limit future increases and require teachers to share more of the cost of their benefits. But more can be done. The School District owns under-utilized real estate that it leases out at below market rents to Nyack College and to BOCES. These properties are worth millions of dollars. The District touts the income but ignores the expenses of the properties, especially their upkeep and maintenance. At the same time, the District is awash in debt, dating back to the 1980s that is scheduled to continue to 2021. Millions of dollars of the annual budget are related to debt service – principal and interest. These underutilized properties should be sold and the money used to pay off existing debt. That would provide tax relief to the entire community for years going forward. It would also add taxable property to the tax rolls and help lower the tax levy. The existing board will not consider this tax saving idea. New thinking is needed.

New York State has done away with the “local” diploma and only New York State Regents diplomas will be issued going forward. Nyack has an abysmal 4-year graduation rate. About 20% of all students that start 9th grade do not graduate in four years. Some go on for a fifth or sixth year and some eventually get a GED, but without the “local” diploma there is genuine concern that our low graduation rate will get worse. To give this perspective, if 200 students enter the 9th grade each year, about 40 of them do not graduate on time in four years. That could mean that 40 students per year, year after year, are being put back in the community without a high school diploma. Opportunities are slim for young adults without high school diplomas. Some will inevitably turn to gangs or drugs. Nyack can no longer deny that it has drug and gang problems.

Resources need to be re-allocated to help students who are not graduating and are not meeting expectations. Our 3rd through 8th grade English Language Arts and Math performances consistently come in 6th or 7th out of 8 school districts in the County. The District is obligated to educate the entire community, and can not give up on students who struggle or are on the margins. This community has been without voice for too long.

There are many more issues facing the new board and the District. New thinking is needed. There is no benefit to having seven board members who all think alike and who all defer to the District administration – most of whom do not even live in the District. I hope you will consider my candidacy and vote for positive change on May 20th.

I will also make this promise. I will do everything I can to open up board meetings and explain the issues facing the District. Too much of what the District does goes unexplained. If elected, I will set up a blog and explain what every substantive resolution means to the students and the community at large. Business as usual would not be acceptable.

I have no road signs and no newspaper ads. I was not endorsed by the teachers’ union (and I am proud of that). I am always available to discuss these thoughts and other issues. Please feel free to email me at oppknox21@aol.com.

Also see: May 14 Journal News letter from the candidate, May 2008 Nyack Villager