Joshua Diamond for School Board

My name is Joshua Diamond and I am seeking re-election to the Board of Education of the Croton-Harmon Schools on May 17, 2022.

Because every child deserves a great education supporting their talents and desires.

To Our Community

For the past nine years, I have served our community as a member of the Board of Education. I seek re-election for another term because I want to continue my work on behalf of our community’s children.

I believe that we must support each and every child with an education appropriate to their talents, needs, desires and aspirations. Beyond providing basic knowledge, we must teach them to be creative problem solvers, effective team members, compassionate friends, and critical thinkers. We must provide every student with a strong foundation that will empower them to affect their families, community, nation, and the world for good.

I am committed to making our already great schools even better. I will focus on the actual education of our youth rather than on the mere satisfaction of external mandates, and will advocate locally, in New York, and nationally for education policies and initiatives which support our students. I will strike a balance between the need to properly fund education, and fiscal responsibility, understanding that high tax rates can be devastating to retirees and to families of limited means.

I will always speak out for doing what is best for our students.

I hope that you will vote to re-elect me to the Board of Education in the upcoming school district election, on May 17, 2022.

Don't forget to vote for me on Tuesday, May 17, 2022!
Polls will be open from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM at Croton-Harmon High School.

My Top Six Goals

Here are the topics that are most important to me as a school board member right now, that I will continue to pursue if re-elected to a new 3-year term on the Board of Education:

Fostering brilliance: We must create an environment in which students are empowered to go beyond the questions that they already thought to ask, and are exposed to new ideas, new possibilities, and new perspectives, which will allow them to go beyond the limits of their current thinking. Brilliance is when students can bring their critical thinking skills to bear on the problems that they never even thought of before, to achieve amazing results.
Providing the best possible education to every student in our district. This includes addressing the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on learning over the past two years, and of course, ensuring that our curriculum resonates with all of our students, no matter who they are, where they come from or what they look like.
The physical well-being of our students: We must give students greater opportunity for physical activity, foster healthy lifestyle habits, and build teamwork, through athletics, physical education, etc. We must invest in improving our athletic facilities, and in building a highly effective corps of coaches and athletic staff.
Supporting the social and emotional well-being of our students. It is important that we teach students how to be confident in their own abilities, sure of their chance for success in life, resilient in the face of difficulty, how to be kind and passionate friends, and that all human beings are worthy of our respect and kindness, regardless of our differences.
Teaching our students to be creative: Art, music, engineering, drama, writing, etc. are among the ways in which students learn creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills — inventing new possibilities. We should invest in support for these endeavors.
Sustainability: We must bequeath our kids a world that is livable, and we must teach our kids to be effective stewards of the planet. That means making sure that everything from our bus fleet to our ventilation systems to our use of resources like paper and fuel and electricity is as efficient and clean as possible.

Please let me know your ideas on these topics - and please let me know if there are others that you feel I should be thinking about!

My Key Beliefs

All human beings deserve fair opportunities to succeed, regardless of their family background, culture, religious affiliation, or personal characteristics.
Knowledge, history, and science should form the foundation of public school curricula; they should not be driven by assertion, superstition, politics or religious dogma.
Social and emotional learning is key. Every student has differing needs with respect to their mental, social, and interpersonal health.
Freedom of speech, and academic freedom, are paramount. We must not limit the destinations which our students seek, nor should we limit the materials that they can use in that pursuit.
If we fail to teach about the past truthfully, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes in the future. The past is imperfect; history is often uncomfortable. Schools must support discussion of those uncomfortable truths, so that our students may be empowered to grow beyond them.

My Results

Supported a focus on every child, leading CHUFSD to continued improvement in school ranking in NY, and in the US as a whole.
Maintained a strong focus on academics and knowledge, driving budget dollars to where they matter most.
Insisted on fair funding for drama, art, music, and other co-curricular activities while also supporting strong and vibrant athletics.
Led a complete revamp of district policy on electronic device use and use of technology in education.
Led advocacy efforts seeking to bring additional state and federal funding to our schools.
Participated in the hiring of several new administrators, including two superintendents, an assistant superintendent for curriculum, an assistant superintendent for business, principals in three school buildings, and other directors and managers.
As chair of the communications committee, presided over major improvements to the transparency of CHUFSD operations, and the implementation of effective channels of communications to parents and other community members.
During my nine years on the board, I have learned in detail how this and other school districts operate. I stand as a resource and mentor for new board members as they grow in their board service.

Other areas in which I am involved:

Technical Program Manager at Google, Inc.
New York Destination Imagination (Eastern Regional Director)
Congregation Sons of Israel
Advocacy for walkable communities, public spaces, good public transport and safer roads.