So, now we know that there will be four candidates for the two open seats on the Ridgewood Board of Education. Sheila Brogan and myself are incumbents running for re-election. The challengers are Gerald Clark and Christine Krauss. Click here to read the story on Ridgewood Patch.
Looks like we'll have a "campaign season" after all...HSA meetings, coffees, debate, emails, phone calls, letters. It should be interesting. I don't really understand the phenomenon that results in uncontested elections some years and contested elections other years...just another "Ridgewood Tradition," I guess.
I'll start posting the dates for various events. If you're interested, you can "like" my page on Facebook to receive additional updates. Or just come back here. I'll start posting more on the issues -- although anybody who wants to know how I feel can just read the past posts on this blog. Any questions? Post them here, on my Facebook page, email me, call me, Tweet me (@lauriegood1)...there are so many ways to get info from and about candidates these days.
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11 comments:
I guess it is too late for me to run. Wish you all the best in the campaign.
JA
Thanks. Tell your friends -- remember to vote! :)
Wouldn't miss it for the life of me.
April 27 is a Wednesday. Do you mean Tuesday the 26th?
Laurie, since you "don't really understand the phenomenon that results in uncontested elections some years and contested elections other years", please let me explain. This is not a "Ridgewood tradition" as you suggested. It is a wake up call to the BOE. We did not like your performance. We did not approve of your decision to ignore our vote for the last budget and force your choices for cuts over ours. We do not like how you are handling the situation with the Valley Hospital expansion. So we are going to do something about it.
So wake up Laurie. It's not a tradition. It's a very clear message. There isn't enough coffee in Ridgewood to dilute the stain of what this board has done.
To 3/13/11 at 2:04 PM -- nope, I meant Wednesday. This year's election is on Wednesday 4/27.
To 3/16/11 at 10:31 AM -- Your argument for this year's election doesn't really address why some years (the last two years most recently), the BOE elections are uncontested. I have not had a chance to look back at the records, but there are many, many years where no one but the incumbent(s) chose to run.
I have not heard the challengers' refer to last year's budget as their (your?) reason for running. I will be interested to hear more detail as to what specific additional budget cuts they would have made.
I'm sorry, but I really don't understand the coffee reference? And just so I'm clear, which "stain" are you referring to?
If you'd care to have an actual conversation, feel free to email me directly lauriegood at mac.com. Meantime, thank you for commenting.
"We did not like your performance. We did not approve of your decision to ignore our vote for the last budget and force your choices for cuts over ours. We do not like how you are handling the situation with the Valley Hospital expansion."
This remark references two issues that are specific to this past year Laurie, so what's so hard to understand?
The budget was defeated and yet presented to the Village Council with no recommendation for changes by a BOE that refused to listen to what the public asked for. Had you listened, perhaps the budget might have passed the vote in the first place, but this board proved that our votes, just as our opinions, don't matter.
The change to the master plan was voted in by the planning board in a most unscrupulous way. This is right next to a school that ultimately serves half the students in the town and what has this board done about it?
The coffee reference was to the coffees that candidates do to garner support which you mentioned.
And no, I'm not running. Are you so arrogant as to think that only an opponent would dare to challenge your performance? That's the attitude that will keep you from being re-elected.
I truly did not mean to sound arrogant and I apologize. That's what I get for posting a response just a few hours after getting off an airplane after being out of town and cut-off from email! Anyway, regarding the budget, as I mentioned last April, I felt that the $3 million we had cut from the budget was enough, especially following the previous year's approx. $2 million in cuts. I felt that further cuts would harm our schools. Remember, by law, my responsibility as a Board member is to make decisions according to what I feel, after considering all the information, is best for STUDENTS. I take that obligation seriously. Just because we didn't make specific cuts you may have wanted (and, again, I ask you what those specific additional cuts are, and how would you handle the educational ramifications?), does not mean I didn't hear you. But I am bound to do my best to serve students.
As for Valley, the Board feels that it should operate within the process that exists in the Village. We gave our testimony to the Planning Board and will be involved in creating a Developer's Agreement, should an actual project come to pass. It is not for the Board of Education to comment on the "scruples" of another government body.
Once again, I apologize for sounding dense. I get it. You don't like my service and some of my decisions. I'm OK with that. What are the odds that every resident would agree with every decision? Zero. All I can do is continue to try to explain. (Please click on Budget or Valley under "tagged words" at right if you'd like more detail of my thinking on these topics over the past three years.) Again, thank you for the dialogue. It can be difficult to type into an anonymous void, rather than hold a one-on-one conversation, and I apologize if my words are inadequate. I'll keep trying.
Laurie, you know as well as I do what specific cuts so many residents asked for in order to hopefully save others. A one on one debate after the fact is pointless. Obviously, the majority of residents that pay any mind to the school budget did not agree with the cuts the board made. Many voters who would normally vote for the budget, like myself, voted against thanks to the board ignoring us once again at those meetings. Although this has happened other years, perhaps this year was worse, only added to by the board ignoring our mandate that this budget was unacceptable.
And obviously, we are not satisfied with how the Valley issue is being dealt with or the field lights for that matter. Too many residents don't care enough about who sits on the board until their performance gets bad enough. Many residents are excited to see fresh faces running this year. Hopefully they'll get a chance to make a difference. This board has gotten way too complacent.
And please Laurie, enough with the "dense" remarks. No one could be that dense.
Thanks. Although, I'm perplexed as to why you don't want to tell which other cuts you wanted -- after all, we heard many many different ideas, leaving me only to guess which were your favorites.
If anyone else reading this cares to explore my take on the concept of "ignoring" vs. "having a different opinion," read my post from last May at
http://lauriegood.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-can-i-ignore-voters.html
"Laurie, you know as well as I do what specific cuts so many residents asked for in order to hopefully save others. A one on one debate after the fact is pointless. Obviously, the majority of residents that pay any mind to the school budget did not agree with the cuts the board made."
Laurie, stop playing dumb. People might actually start to agree that you are.
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