Candidate focuses on fiscal responsibility and accountability to taxpayers
I am running for the Shenendehowa Central School District Board of Education. I am asking for your support and vote on May 18. I will bring a fresh and new perspective that will challenge the status quo and help to put our priorities in order. My candidacy and campaign are focused on three pillars that I strongly believe in — quality education, fiscal responsibility and accountability.
I live in Clifton Park along with my husband Brian and three children, MaryAnn, Lisa and John. I believe in quality public education and all three of our children attend Shenendehowa schools. Over the years I have been an active volunteer in the schools and have seen some of the greatest teachers in the nation at work. I am fully vested in my children getting the best quality education possible. I also believe that an ever-increasing school budget and higher taxes do not equate to a better educational result and this is why I am running for the school board.
My candidacy is not about pointing fingers but about proposing solutions that bring some balance back to the school board. For too long when it comes to dealing with fiscal responsibility, fingers are pointed and people are accused of not caring for the children. This is not productive and being a parent of students I challenge anyone to question my devotion to our children. I will be your voice in bringing fiscal responsibility to the school board. Our school budget continues to rise out of control disproportionate to student growth and academic results. This trend must be stopped.
Great schools are what makes a community great, but only when there is a generational balance. Ever-increasing school taxes are forcing many of our neighbors on fixed incomes out of their lifelong homes, which is a travesty. The public has a right to know where the district is spending its money and this is why I am proposing that we put the school district’s check register online. There are over 821 school districts in 37 states already doing this, and taking this step would make the district’s spending truly transparent. I further will propose and will personally sign an ethics pledge that prohibits any financial gain from board members or their family relating to school district business. Once elected I will fight to make this pledge a binding ethics code.
Once we know where the money is spent, we need to be accountable for every penny and produce a budget truly focused on delivering the high-quality education our community expects. I will not be a rubber stamp for the ever-increasing administration that budgets to cut 22 teachers compared to four administrators in a district with 36 administrators making over $100,000. This tactic of hurting the classroom to guilt taxpayers to accept so-called bare-bones budgets will never be acceptable to me as a member of the school board. I will be open and honest and will actually respond to questions and suggestions from the public.
Please visit my Web site at www.telesh.com to read more about my ideas or to ask me a question. I humbly ask for your vote on May 18.
Rebecca S. Telesh
Clifton Park
