FOCUS Special Edition Featuring BOE Candidates

A Blind Brook High School Student Publication

Blind Brook Board of Education Candidate Interviews

Issue #5 May 2022

This is the first contested election for the Blind Brook Board of Education in several years. The 2 candidates selected will join the Board of Education, and will be instrumental in making decisions that will impact the students of Blind Brook. Josh Rosenblut, our Editor-in-Chief, conducted interviews with all 3 candidates, focusing the questions for the most part on matters related to the high school. Please read the interviews of the candidates, take into consideration their thoughtful answers and, if you are eligible, be sure and vote on May 17th. The candidates submitted their own bios, which have been edited for space considerations. Enjoy!

Rick Buzin

Rick Buzin has been a resident of Rye Brook for most of his adult life. Dr. Buzin attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received both his B.A. as well as his D.M.D. Dr. Buzin was a member of the Blind Brook Board of Education from 1997-2003, 2006-2009, and 2021-22. Dr. Buzin’s additional community involvement includes, Village of Rye Brook Trustee, Village of Rye Brook Recreation Commissioner, Chair of the Village of Rye Brook Council on Parks and Recreation, Co-President of the League of Women Voters of Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook, and Board Member of the Blind Brook Community Coalition. Dr. Buzin is also part of the Read/Write Tutoring Program at the BMP-Ridge Street School, the Blind Brook UFSD Budget Advisory Committee, the Blind Brook Middle/High School Athletic Advisory Committee, and the Ridge Street School New York State Compact Committee.

Naomi Schaefer Riley

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a resident fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute focusing on issues regarding child welfare. She also writes about parenting, higher education, religion, philanthropy and culture. She is a former columnist for the New York Post and a former Wall Street Journal editor and writer, as well as the author of seven books. Ms. Riley’s writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications. She graduated from Harvard University. She lives in Rye Brook with her husband and her 3 children, two of whom attend the Blind Brook schools, in grades 8 and 9.

Samantha Smith

Samantha Smith grew up in Rye Brook and graduated from Blind Brook High School. She moved back to Rye Brook with her family 9 years ago. She has three children, aged 13 (8th grade), 12 (6th grade), and 8 (3rd grade). Ms. Smith has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan as well as a Masters degree in special education. Ms. Smith has been a class parent and is an active member of the Blind Brook PTA. She spent several years teaching both preschool and school aged children. Currently Ms. Smith is a real estate agent.

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What do you see as the strengths of Blind Brook High School?

Richard Buzin: “My family and I moved here when my kids were in elementary school because it was a smaller community. We had actually seen a video of the prior year’s graduation and I looked at the kids who got up to speak at graduation and I wanted my kids to be like that when they graduated. We perceived a certain level of instruction and importance put on education that was better than where we were living at the time, we said this is where we want to go, and I still see that same Blind Brook today. Education’s evolved and as a result of that so is what is being offered in the high school and you know, whether it’s the DICE program, the shapers program, science research, there are a tremendous number of avenues for kids to go on regardless of what they’re interested in. There’s a lot more than there was, and offering more and better programs is always terrific. There has to be a real balance between having a strong basic curriculum as well as those options that they can have for exploration outside of that basic core. The core needs to be strong, you have to beware not to weaken the basics that the kids need to go on to higher education.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “I think the size of Blind Brook is a strength, the focus on core academic things is important. The sense that the community feels very invested in the high school, that there is only one high school, you know people have gotten behind it.”

Samantha Smith: “A sense of community in terms of just there’s so many different options for students’ interests, after school clubs, which range from more academic to community service type of things. I think we have an amazing theater program, I always enjoy going to the shows with my kids. The size of Blind Brook is a strength, we are a smaller district and I think that’s a positive thing, you know everybody, I think the teachers know everybody.”

What are areas which require the greatest improvement in Blind Brook High School?

Richard Buzin: “Overall, district-wide there has to be a reset of curriculum K-12. Part of that unfortunately has to deal with the major influx and outgoing of new administrators, in particular at this time, there’s been more out than in. We really need to make sure of my previous point that the basic curriculum is strong and in place and given to everybody. The focus throughout the district must be to make sure that we have a curriculum that allows the building of skills all the way through high school. We need stability, for example, we 2

just recently hired a new athletic director because we have had turnover in that particular area. The percentages in the high school of students who participate in athletics are off the wall high and therefore we need some stability and some leadership in that particular area and hopefully they will be a leader and stay for a while and continue to develop the athletic department. Faculty in certain areas, such as languages and sciences have been particularly difficult to hire when necessary. It goes to recruitment, but it’s been really hard to find people. Blind Brook has had a history of getting the best and the brightest faculty-wise, but now we’re competing in a limited market.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “The reason I am running is because I think that with regards to particularly the English and Humanities curriculum I don’t think that it’s strong enough, I don’t think its rigorous enough, and I don’t think it’s formalized enough. I think that the lack of differentiation among classes, among different levels of students is a problem in the earlier grades of the high school in particular, and it presents a challenge in terms of ensuring that every student is challenged and every student’s needs are met. More recently, I am increasingly getting the sense that staffing is a problem, I hear lots of reports of teachers being absent regularly, of a real shortage of substitutes, and I would say that just talking to people over the last few weeks, that has kind of risen on my list of concerns.”

Samantha Smith: “I think communication has been an issue district-wide for the past couple years. I think we as parents really want to know what is going on as soon as possible so I think we can improve the communication. I think community involvement is also something important, I think we all need to get involved more. I talk to parents with kids of different ages and they complain, but most don’t do anything, and I think instead of being part of the problem let’s all be part of the solution and get involved. There are different ways to get involved, like going to meetings. I think the Board of Ed meetings are very poorly attended, Zoom allows people to watch, which is great, but if you go to the meetings not a ton of people are there, so I think people should really know what’s going on at these meetings. The same with regard to PTA meetings, what the superintendent has to say, what’s the latest for who won an award, as well as helping the PTA with their programs. Also, the college application process, I hear from parents and students that this is something which could use some improvement.”

I’m not sure if you saw, but earlier this year FOCUS published an article regarding the recent frequent turnover in administrative staff throughout this district, how would you address this concern?

Richard Buzin: “Right now we are right in the middle of that situation. We have an interim business offi3

cial, an interim athletic director, both an elementary and a middle school assistant principal in their first year, and a high school principal who is coming into her third year. There is uncertainty, and part of the reason that I decided to keep going and run for the Board is because I’ve been involved in bringing on people over the years. I think I have a good sense of what we need and what we as a district are being offered by people who are applying for the positions. I’ve been through it in this venue as a Board Member, I think the experience helps. In particular I am really, really focused on finding a curriculum director, to me that is right now the most critical position that we have out there and it will affect all three schools, students K through 12, and we’ve got to get it right.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “You have to pick people very carefully, not only people who are good at their job, but people who have a commitment to stay in the district. Just really picking carefully and keeping in mind that you really have to dig to find out why someone is not at the previous job because a lot of districts don’t want to publicize the problems with the person because they want the person to leave. This is always a problem, and it’s a problem in other places besides education, but you really have to do your due diligence and figure out is this person being pushed out of their current position, how satisfied were the people in the last district with this person, and that requires a lot of investigation on the back end.”

Samantha Smith: “I think it starts at the top so I think you have to have someone who has a clear vision and good communication skills and gets along with everybody and I think you start with that stability and then I think it will trickle down. When there is an opening I think there needs to be a committee made up of several different constituents, staff members, parents to help choose the next person, to help make that decision. I think by improving everything in our district hopefully it will encourage administrators to stay in our district. I think it needs to come from the top down so hopefully, now that Dr. Byrne is in that position, he can help create a better environment for everybody which would attract stronger candidates and maybe people want to stay here longer.”

What is your reaction when I tell you that this year’s graduating class had 2 students accepted to an Ivy League University out of a class of 90, in the past that number was at least a half dozen. Using this as a metric for where the supposed “high achieving high school” is at, what are your thoughts on this number and what would your proposal be to address this deficit going forward?

Richard Buzin: “Part of the reason I first ran for the Board 25 years ago, different cohorts of students

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different abilities and I think to use [Ivy League acceptance] as a metric is sometimes a little deceiving because you don’t know what admissions a specific cohort of students will get. There are always going to be classes that seem to have more students who excel than others, and as a result, I think it’s the kind of thing that you have to look at on a long-term type of basis, rather than an individual year. When I ran in 1997 I spoke to my friends’ sons who were all freshmen in college at that time, and asked them, Are you prepared? Do you find the work hard? Many of them said they were well prepared, compared to their friends. My gut feeling when it comes to educating kids who are going to go on to college, if they are prepared for college then we’ve done a good job. The kids who were at Ivy’s, SUNY’s, and everywhere in between, all said they were prepared, and that’s exactly what I want to hear as a Board Member, it’s all you can ask for.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “This year is definitely an anomaly because of the number of kids who did not apply last year because of Covid and so I definitely wouldn’t take this year as representative; that being said, when I hear people in the district talk about stopping the emphasis on assessments, that is very concerning to me because I don’t think that that’s going to help kids in future years to achieve the goals that they want to in college admissions. I also think that the writing skills of Blind Brook kids are not where they should be, I have heard this from parents who had kids start college and they find that, despite having attended a high-performing district, the kids are not necessarily prepared to do college-level writing.

A concern I hear from some people in the community is that kids are stressed, and for me, the answer to stress is making sure that students are prepared, it’s not, well, we have to dial back our expectations and our standards. The world is not dialing back its expectations and its standards and so I don’t think it is responsible for us to dial back our expectations.”

Samantha Smith: “I think that the guidance department needs to look at what’s going on there and are students getting what they need out of it, are families getting what they need out of it. Maybe they need to do a better job helping the children navigate what are the best schools for them and what’s realistic. And asking students that have been through the college process what they could have used to help them navigate the process a little bit better.”

Many extracurricular activities get little to no funding while many of the athletic teams are better funded and have more robust budgets.

While extracurricular accomplishments are seen throughout the high school and often have more success compared to the athletic teams, they still get far less funding. What is your reaction, and what would you propose to address this inequity?

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Richard Buzin: “When a sports team makes a sectional or a regional game our coaches get paid additional money, we have additional costs, we have buses to bring them up there and maybeeven put them up in a hotel. That goes straight through, there’s never a problem. I’m a little disappointed to hear that there is that kind of discrepancy between athletics and extracurriculars. I believe one of the beauties of Blind Brook is that you have these opportunities and you can be an athlete and you could be in debate. I’m big on the extracurriculars, they should be funded to the degree that is necessary, just like athletics.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “In terms of the right balance for the extracurricular activities versus the sports, I think probably my gut reaction is Blind Brook is never going to be an athletic powerhouse in those areas, which is fine, I mean if people were looking for that they would have sent their kids to another school, but obviously you know there’s nothing that is preventing Blind Brook from being a mock trial power house or debating power house or anything like that, and you do want to reward the school’s strengths to the extent that you can.

There is definitely an argument for awarding the strengths of the school and ensuring that we also send the message through our extracurriculars that you know these intellectual interests of our students are really important and that builds on what they’re learning in the classroom, especially in the cases of something like mock trial or a newspaper or debating.”

Samantha Smith: “Things should not be favored over the other; it should not be more difficult for a club to get funds compared to an athletic team. I think a lot of life is about what you do outside of school and whether it’s the theater program or football or the debate team. I think it is a really nice thing to interact with kids in all grades and within a small school district extracurriculars allow for that and you get to know different students in different ways. I think maybe you’ll do something [through a club] that will help you decide what career to go into, so I do think it’s very important to fund clubs and athletics equally.”

What is your comment regarding the entire Blind Brook School District audit committee resigning?

Richard Buzin: “The Board of Education admitted to a lack of oversight in making sure the audit committee was provided with the necessary information to do their work. The Board apologized multiple times, both privately and publicly, while also commending the members for all the help they provided regarding the building project. The Board assured the committee this would not happen again, as stability in the district’s business office has now 6

been achieved. Despite the Board’s efforts, the members of the committee chose to step down, as is their prerogative.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “The resignation of the audit committee deeply concerns me. But I am even more concerned that the Board did not see fit to share with the community the fact that (if Mr. Kaplan’s account is accurate) Ms. O’Neill was absent from her job for three months and files were discovered to have been missing after her departure. This is a very serious allegation and the Board’s lack of transparency, both with the audit committee, and the community at large, is disappointing. Given the fact that there were allegations of improprieties at Ms. O’Neill’s last position, I think the community deserves a more thorough explanation of what happened.”

Samantha Smith: Ms. Smith chose not to provide a response.

Why do you deserve the vote of the people of Blind Brook?

Richard Buzin: “This is a bit of a unique situation. We have three candidates who are running at a time that is critical for the school district mostly because the district is so thin administratively and is going through a particularly difficult time with what went on at the elementary school and construction. Now is the time where I think it’s helpful to have experience.

I’ve been there, I’ve gone through all these things, I have the experience. I don’t need to go through what is a very, very steep learning curve not only about the district, but literally about the actual nuts and bolts functioning of a Board of Education. It takes time, there are rules, and those issues day one when I was appointed, I didn’t have to learn, I knew what they were. I’m invested in this community and I’m not going anywhere. There’s still a passion to make sure that our kids are getting the best education they can get.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley: “I’m the only person running who is really running on a platform that is concerned with academics and the curriculum. To me that is the core function of our school district and it’s a concern for people with kids in the school or grandkids in the school, and it also determines Blind Brook’s property values. We have this reputation as being a high-performing school district and I worry that if we slack off as I believe they have been over the last few years, that is going to start to chip away at the reputation of our school, and chip away at the education that our kids deserve. I feel as the school board hopefully gets past Covid, the construction stuff, and as we move into this new phase of the district’s life, I think that our focus should really be on returning to the academics and the curriculum.

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I think that as someone who has a background with regard to education, and it is a topic that I’ve studied for a long time and it’s something that I’m very passionate about, I think that given those things, I’m the best person for the job.”

Samantha Smith: “I grew up here and I moved back here with my family and one of the main reasons for that is the school district. I’m a product of it, I loved it, I had a great experience, I want my children to have the same great experience. Over the past few years with Covid and construction there’ve been some things that concerned me, and I started going to meetings and I started to get more involved. I thought, how can I help make things better and help do my part and I decided to run for a position on the Board. As an educator with a master’s my background is beneficial. I also have 3 kids in the district which helps because I have the interest of the kids, which I think is the most important part of being a board member, and I think I will make good decisions for the future of the district.”

BUDGET VOTE AND BOARD MEMBER ELECTION PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE Tuesday, May 17, 2022 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School – Old Gym

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