Announcing My Candidacy for Re-election for Another 3-year Term on the Croton-Harmon Board of Education

Post date: Apr 14, 2016 8:31:15 PM

Dear Friends in the Croton-Harmon School District:

It is with pleasure that I announce my candidacy for re-election to the Croton-Harmon Board of Education, seeking to serve another three-year term.

When I ran for election three years ago, I noted that we all have great hopes for our children, for our community, and for our society as a whole, and that the greatest opportunity to affect our future for the positive lies in providing all of the children of our community with an excellent education – one appropriate to their talents, needs, desires and aspirations, providing a strong foundation for their lives.

I continue to believe that it is the job of a school board member to seek out and support the very best educational opportunities for our children. It is not enough to provide just the basics – we must teach them to be creative problem solvers, imaginative inventors, innovative leaders, compassionate friends, and critical thinkers. We must give them the mental tools that they need to be the next great generation. As a board member I too must be innovative and creative, looking forward beyond limitations, constraints and even current successes to see and support what could be done, what can be created, what should be improved.

I feel strongly that in the last three years I have been a critical part of something far greater than myself in being a trustee. I have been a leader driving the creation of great new programs in our schools, including the introduction of foreign language instruction at the elementary school, the improved math program at the middle school, and the creation of new computer science and engineering programs at the high school. These are all programs which help our students master important 21st century skills, and they have been created while remaining within tightening fiscal constraints, remaining below the 2% tax levy cap.

In my work on the board advocacy committee I have led efforts seeking improved state funding for our schools, relief from costly unfunded mandates, elimination of excessive testing, and a relaxation of state rules which attempt to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. There has been some success in this regard: Some (but not enough) testing relief has been achieved; the privacy-violating inBloom student data collection effort was abandoned; and most recently the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which deprived schools of multiple millions of desperately needed state aid dollars annually, was eliminated.

But there remains significant work to be done! I look forward to working on the creation of our next 5 year plan for the Croton schools. We must hire and retain administration and faculty who have an expansive vision of education, who stand grounded in known effective techniques, but who are innovative and creative in their approach to instruction, and in their interaction with students. Our capital plan is also important: Our students must have school buildings which are not only safe, but which are fit-for-purpose in the context of a modern educational program. A building with a set of nearly identical classrooms is no longer adequate – we must create spaces that support different kinds of learning; places for creating, innovating, exploring, and discovering. In advocacy, I will continue to remind our legislators to provide support for education, without shackling schools with unreasonable mandates or requirements.

Of course, all of this must be done while remaining within fiscal constraints. We must manage the district's finances in such a way that living in Croton remains affordable, and use your tax dollars efficiently.

As a re-elected trustee I will continue to strive to make our great schools even better. I will continue to focus on the actual education of our youth rather than on the mere satisfaction of external mandates, and will be innovative and creative in seeking the best possible programs for our children. As before I will guide our district in supporting a corps of administrators and faculty that implement creative, effective, and forward-thinking solutions to the educational challenges of the 21st century. And I will always speak out for doing what is right for the children.

I hope that you will vote to re-elect me to the Board of Education in the upcoming schools election, on May 17, 2016, as I seek a second 3-year term.

For the kids,

Joshua Moses Diamond