It’s a grim fact that voter turnout for school board elections hovers at about five percent in the city of Buffalo. Going into a year in which the board will be deciding how to slice up a $768 million-dollar budget, it is mind-boggling to think that with only days to go before the election, that sliver of voters who care enough to go to the polls are only now beginning to see a final list of the candidates that will appear in the voting booth on Tuesday, May 1.

Can you name them?

If not, it may be because things changed last Friday when Central District candidates Edward Daniels and Jayne Rand, along with Ferry District candidate Kinzer Pointer (who’d recently been named to replace ex-board member Betty Jean Grant) were removed from the ballot after their signature petitions were contested by various opponents and subsequently disqualified.

Candidates are required to collect 500 signatures from voters in their district in order to be registered as official candidates, and it is commonplace for challenges to be mounted in our school board elections in an effort to thin the field. In this race challenges appear to have been filed by both obvious opponents as well as by people whose motives are not so cut-and-dried. In other words, almost anyone can file a challenge to any candidate’s signatures, to suit their own political agenda. Buffalo’s system is both antiquated and complex, and savvy operatives can sink the honest efforts of well-meaning candidates whose main fault is inexperience with the procedure.

It is also fairly commonplace for challenges to be successful due to a number of various technicalities. But in elections that typically draw only five percent of voters, write-in ballots can play a substantial role in shaping election outcomes. Virtually anyone can win a seat provided they collect enough write-in ballots—as long as they reside in the district in which they receive the votes. (See sidebar for instructions on how to register a write-in vote.)

This whole drama has made the Ferry District race a one-candidate affair featuring Pamela Cahill—and unless Jayne Rand is successful in appealing her disqualification (a process that is very much alive as we go to press) her name will not appear on the list of candidates inside the voting booth, though either way she will remain a write-in candidate running along with Mary Ruth Dapsiak and Joyce Nixon for the Central District seat.

Gregory Olma survived a signature challenge from incumbent Vivian Evans to remain on the ballot in the East District, and the Park District remains a three-man race between Kevin Becker, Louis Petrucci and Gerald Quinn to replace departing Jack Coyle.

In another surprise development, North District candidate Catherine Nugent Panepinto—who was personally invited by outgoing board member Donald Van Every to run for his seat—was scheduled to run unopposed, but now faces a challenge from write-in candidate Fred Yellen, a retired Buffalo teacher who hopped on the bill in time for a debate at the Polish Cadets hall at Grant and Amherst Street last Monday night. Also responding to questions that night were West District candidates Clarissa Acosta and Ralph Hernandez—who’d also defeated a challenge to his signature petitions last Friday. Hernandez and Evans are the only incumbents in the bunch.

Confused? You’re not alone. One thing that’s sure is that the Buffalo School Board will have at least four new faces come next Wednesday, though there could be as many as six if Evans and Hernandez lose. They will join at-large members Florence Johnson, Catherine Collins, and Christopher Jacobs, whose seats are not up for election this time around.

These nine people will be responsible, along with Superintendent James Williams, for the effective distribution of three quarters of a billion dollars in this year’s city school budget, and they will help set the tone for a district hampered by labor unrest, violence, struggling test scores and some degree of scandal. While it’s a common maxim that you can’t fix problems by throwing money at them, it just might be possible to make real improvements with the thoughtful assignment of funds. And it is also essential that such funds be accounted for later if we are ever to determine their positive or negative impact.

Since the election is next Tuesday, we thought it would be a good idea to see where the candidates stand on a few issues. We sent out a handful of questions to Joyce Nixon, Mary Ruth Kapsiak, Vivian Evans, Gregory Olma, Pamela Cahill, Catherine Nugent Panepinto, Louis Petrucci, Kevin Becker, Gerald Quinn, Ralph Hernandez, Clarissa Acosta and write-in candidates Jayne Rand and Fred Yellen. Below are the responses we received back by the time we went to print, edited for space.

Every candidate will tell you they’re doing it for the kids, and that’s an excellent start. But since the children themselves have no vote in the matter, and since only five percent of registered voters typically show up for school board elections, why not take a few minutes to read what these candidates have to say and form your own opinions?

Better still, make the effort to visit your polling place on May 1 and show the kids by example that the democratic American ideals we seek to teach them in our schools are not lost on us as apathetic adults. It might even illustrate, at least to some of them, that the adults in their city actually do care about them. That too, would be an excellent start.

WRITE IN YOUR NAME HERE

The Erie County Board of Elections has supplied the following instructions on how to register a write-in vote:

Writing in a Name

The machine is equipped with a horizontal row of numbered slides, one slide directly above each office column. Behind these slides inside the machine is a roll of paper upon which the voter can, by raising the slide, write the name of any person whose name does not appear upon the ballot.

CAUTION: Do not lift a slide unless you intend to write-in the name of a Candidate for Public Office. When a slide is lifted, the voting levers controlling the Candidates’ names below are locked out. The number appearing on the Title of Office is duplicated by the same number on a slide directly above said Title.

OUR QUESTIONS:

1. Recently Superintendent Williams proposed implementing a new approach to evaluating student performance. What is your position on that?

2. A series of incidents in past months has drawn attention to violence in some schools. What kind of policies should the district pursue to make schools safer? Do you think the new alternative school has been a success? Why or why not?

3. Are you pleased with the progress of the joint schools construction project? Why or why not? What might the district do to improve its outcome?

4. Are you pleased with the performance of James Williams as superintendent? Why or why not? (Or, if a little of both, what have been his successes and failures, in your opinion?)

5. What impact do you think charter schools have had on Buffalo Public Schools?

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the Buffalo Public Schools today that you, as a school board member, could directly address? What would you do about them?

THEIR ANSWERS:

Central District

Mary Ruth Kapsiak

1. The new report card that has been developed better reflects how students are achieving academically. The report card must be parent friendly. The grades are changed to numbers, and parents are accustomed to letter grades. The district must take responsibility to educate the parents, and that will make it much easier for the parents to accept.

2. The district has hired a police officer to train our security people; this will help tremendously. The three-year student support plan developed by Mrs. Diane Collier, Associate Superintendent for Student Support Services, has been piloted in several schools and the report is it seems to be working at Grover Cleveland High School…

3. The Joint Schools Construction Project is viable in making our students and parents feel proud…of the school they attend, and new homes being constructed in those locations make us all very pleased to be a part of the neighborhood…

4. I am very pleased with the performance of Dr. Williams as superintendent…he has demonstrated that he is interested in student learning and achievement…

5. In the past funding was taken away from public schools for charter……I also believe that there should be separate funding for charter and public schools.

6. I think the answers to questions 2,3, and 4 gives my answer to question 6, because I support these endeavors.

Joyce Nixon

1. I agree with implementing a standard based report card. This will provide a more detailed and accurate information to parents, teachers and students…[and] work hand in hand with the three-year academic plan and support plan.

2. Our schools are out of control…I have a plan that I will fight to implement when I am selected to represent the Central District. My plan is much too detailed to present to you on such short notice and make your printing deadline…

3. I don’t have enough information on the Schools Construction Project to comment.

4. I don’t believe that it is fair to evaluate someone until you become his boss.

5. I believe that healthy competition is good for everyone.

6. I will support the Three Year Academic plan to increase the level of education for all students. I will implement a plan to work more closely with at-risk youth to decrease the level of violence in our schools.

Jayne K. Rand

1. I absolutely agree that providing parents with more detail about their child/children’s progress is a good thing. However, the superintendent’s proposal should in no way discount the importance of personal parent/teacher collaboration…

2. To quote Superintendent Williams: “Education is about character, about intelligence, about dignity. If the children come to school without those things, it’s our responsibility to work with them.” The issue of conduct is critical and deeply rooted in racial, social and economic problems…Initiatives currently being implemented that will help the problem include: expansion of the athletic opportunities, character education programs, ending social promotion and extending school day/school year. This is not enough…I think we need to give the alternative school more time. This approach to handling conduct problems tends to be reactive and punitive, however, it meets many of the challenges of keeping the mainstream schools safer.

3. …The school reconstructive project must be completed. I would like to see phase four back on the table.

4. I support Superintendent Williams. I believe that he is in need of strong leadership on the school board. I will provide the leadership that will back him when he is right and challenge him when his actions are questionable. As a member of the school board, I will insist that contact with the media be issue-driven, I would hope to replace the rhetoric and personal attacks with constructive debate, and I would work tirelessly to move the administration and the BTF away from the confrontation and toward cooperation. Dr. Williams must be a collaborator with all the stakeholders!

5. Maintaining a healthy charter school system in conjunction with a progressive public school system is good for Buffalo. Too many families would leave the city if their child/children were not in a particular charter school. Other families would put their child/children in private schools…

6. Among the challenges [are] the serious problem of diminishing student population and the tragically low graduation rates…As well, teachers must have contracts…Finally, we must do a better job at integrating the immigrant population.

Park District

Lou Petrucci

1. We need to develop new and different approaches for evaluating students. Not every student does well on standardized testing for a variety of reasons. If all we do is teach students to take tests then all we will graduate are children who are proficient test takers…

2. The kneejerk reaction is to suspend the offending party. This is effective in the short term but the number of students that are suspended during any given month in the BPS is both daunting and appalling. We need to address the underlying causes…The present alternative school is not working because of the limited capacity and policy.

3. As we move forward and the money becomes more scarce, I would be concerned with the amount of “value engineering” that is done to contain costs. The district needs to work closer with other City agencies to ensure that vacant properties around our schools are demolished in a quick and efficient manner…[and] coordinate with the Department of Public Works to make sure that the sidewalks, streets, light standards, etc., that surround our schools reflect that money that is being put into the buildings themselves…

4. Superintendent Williams is a strong and polarizing figure. I believe that Mr. Williams recognizes…[that] we are in competition with both private schools and suburban school districts. He improved communication to parents greatly…He has improved our sports programs…He erred by imposing health care changes on the teachers. You cannot arbitrarily change a contract…He made another major misstep by returning the students to Performing Arts…I had high hopes for Superintendent Williams but he has not lived up to my expectations.

5. Charter schools have worked to keep families in the City of Buffalo…[but they] are not a panacea…Instead of creating additional charter schools, we need to change the way the BPS operate.

6. We need to create a safe and secure learning environment for all parties involved in the BPS. We need to develop curriculum that both interests and challenges students, that prepares them for life after the BPS. We need to improve our graduation rate and give greater respect to the vocational and special training programs…

Gerald T. Quinn

1. …I don’t believe that “standards-based report cards” will solve the problems of “social promotions.” I believe it will only mask the real problem that the kids are not making the grade in the curriculums they are in. Because all students are not the same and are not college bound, I would be more in favor of initiating aptitude tests and installing more vocational curriculums so the students would be more suited to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

2. …If elected, I will stand against putting chronic violent students back with the mainstream body of students after they committed a violent act unless there were convincing evidence that the offender was contrite, completely reformed and committed to conform to the rules with little chance of a reoccurrence…I will be in favor of developing the alternative schools to be more effective at helping these troubled kids, using more counselors, social workers, and using a one-on-one mentor program. I will be pro-active and in favor of developing a comprehensive training program for all students on character building starting at the Pre-K levels.

3. I don’t have enough information to make a responsible comment on this one.

4. In my opinion Dr. Williams has done a generally a good job until the Performing Arts violence issue. The issue with the teacher’s union must be settled soon. They are an integral part to the successes of any programs and must buy-in and become a partner.

5. I believe that charter schools have shown some successes but there are too many hands in the pot with state charter schools. All public schools should run under the same rules and regulations. I would be in favor of taking the parts of the charter schools that work and installing them into newly developed board-based charter schools.

6. Besides the violence issue, which is top of my list, I believe that the other challenges are settling with the union…bringing back neighborhood schools so that neighborhood kids have preference in attending neighborhood schools, and initializing more vocational and life learning curriculums, teaching students how to be responsible and contributing adults to our communities.

Kevin Becker

1. I need more information about this so-called proposal to make an informed decision.

2. The policy that I will implement when elected is a “zero tolerance policy”… for disruptive and violent students that intentionally physically harm a non-disruptive student or teacher. The only exceptions will be to students with special needs…The alternative school is failing based on no consequences for the students. They are being awarded extrinsically and allowed computer usage?

3. I am pleased with the progress of the joint schools construction…I really cannot comment about the outcome based on needing more specifics.

4. I am not pleased with the performance of the superintendent…I think he has failed at trying to provide a safe learning environment…

5. The charter schools will have to be assessed after a five-year period.

6. I think the biggest challenge facing the school district is making safety a number one priority…I would institute a “zero tolerance” policy mentioned above for disruptive and violent students.

West District

Ralph Hernandez

1. …I see no reason why we can’t have a letter grade report card supplemented by a comprehensive assessment of the student’s work; seems clear enough for me.

2. Alternative School #44 must be reconstituted. The school is dangerously underfunded and understaffed; it’s obvious there is no clear mission at this school. Resultek’s contract should not be renewed.…Policies I would support: conflict and dispute resolution curriculums available in all grades…rules against bullying…friendship groups that support children who are regularly bullied by peers…an “After-school Neighborhood Citizen’s Watch”…

3. I am pleased with the progress and work being done by the superintendent and his team in preparing the district for Phase III reconstruction. Much to their credit, the funding is in place and renovations will begin as early as this summer.

4. I am going to reserve judgment on this question. I have too many ethics charges pending right now.

5. Per capita, Buffalo has more charter schools (16) then any other city its size in the country. In September our district will transfer $72 million to charter schools. One of the problems in evaluating the academic effectiveness of charter schools is that their effect is normally examined by comparing them to regular public schools, but their student body and parent groups are not the same…families who are informed enough to choose a school and make the effort to get their child to a more distant school every day are not the same as the families who do not…[and] many charters seek applications from students they believe would succeed, or who would respond to their approach, while not recruiting others.

6. Reconstitute and expand Alternative School #44…Engage all unions in collective bargaining agreements…Institute a fair and open contract review and approval process. Procurement processes used by the district must be consistent and transparent.

Clarissa Acosta

1. …the new approach has some good points to it… it is still important to have a grading scale but in addition to that providing specific feedback regarding a student’s ability to learn is invaluable. We have many different types of learning disabilities that could be identified sooner through progress reports…

2. …we need to provide alternatives to these children so that they are involved with things outside of school in hopes to decrease the violence in schools…we need to look at the budget and allocate funding for after-school programs such as art, tutoring…music…guidance counselors in schools…more assistant principals to help with day to day activities…

3. …The only concern I have at this point is the Grover Cleveland High School [students] and where they are going to be sending them. The diversity in the school is important to the diversity in our neighborhoods. There are few schools that currently have bilingual education…if we disperse these kids to different schools that do not have bilingual education then we are setting them up for failure…

5. …I think that we should have a working relationship with the charter schools and learn from their successes so that we can make our parents want to re-send their children to our schools and entice qualified teachers back to our schools…

6. One of the biggest challenges…is the lack of communication between our parents and the schools…I would like to work on creating opportunities for parents to participate more in the classroom, create parent-teacher conferences later in the day/night as opposed to the middle of a working day…[and] workshops for parents to understand how to help their children with homework and understand what is going on in their schools.

NORTH DISTRICT

Catherine Nugent Panepinto

1. I am in favor of implementing a new approach to evaluating student performance only if teachers and other staff are involved in developing the new approach from its inception through its implementation. In addition, I think a new approach has to incorporate the now existing evaluation system and expanding upon it. …

2. The district should rehire and hire new staff to maximize our student to teacher/staff ratio…[and train] them to recognize problematic and/or potentially violent situations. Moreover, we need to work with law enforcement and community groups and block clubs to understand better what is happening in various cultures within our community to know the influences upon our students outside the school.

3. I think some schools have been renovated well while at others the changes were done with only short-term goals in mind and without input from the staff working in the buildings who best know what is needed at each school. I also don’t think there has been a consistent approach as to the timing of each school’s renovation and within which phase each school is assigned.

4. The superintendent…has succeeded in bringing a new energy and sense of urgency to reform in the schools…He has conducted research and analyzed the performance of individual schools and implemented a District wide approach to parent communication and involvement in contributing to student success. He has also had great success in building up our sports programs and enlisting local business support…the overwhelming failure of the superintendent is that he has completely and utterly alienated the people he needs most…he was given bad advice when he broke the contract of the teachers and continues to follow bad advice in now appealing the decision which told him he broke the law when he did so…[he] has also set a very bad example for our students…His combative and uncooperative nature leaves no room for compromise…

5. …The more we can create small classes, improve safety and offer more courses the more we will win back the students lost to charter schools…the current formula funding charter schools has been a drain on our traditional schools and that is not fair to our traditional students who either don’t get in by the various lotteries to charter schools or aren’t welcome because many charters don’t provide bus service and/or special education services…traditional public schools serve one of our greatest needs as a community and we need to focus on improving our traditional public schools and not looking for some magical charter fix. Any new charters at this point have to be funded through a separate funding pool and periodically reevaluated.

6. …My challenge as a school board member will be to work as a consensus builder with my fellow board members. Then, as a whole, to work with the superintendent to reorient him to the fact that he works for the board, not the other way around.

Fred Yellen

1. To change things that are presently in existence is fine. To change things and make them less clear to parents or to be unclear on the criteria for judging a child is not fine.

2. …you can have the best team in the world and still encounter a violent child. We’ve got to have stronger disciplinary policies. When a child threatens the safety of other kids, we can’t just send them home for a day or two or five and then have them come back. Kids need to know: you bring a weapon, you’re outta here. And you need to stick by those rules. Once you break a rule yourself, kids realize they can do anything they want. The superintendent in particular made a terrible judgement by getting involved and escorting those kids back to Performing Arts. It sends the exact wrong message.

3. [Preferred not to respond.]

4. Eliminating social promotion is an excellent start…His requirement for eighth grade kids who didn’t pass three of the four major subjects, forcing them to go to summer school—excellent thing…But he has done some things in a bullying-type fashion…I don’t think he wants input from teachers, especially. He wants to run things from the top down…That’s not a very successful technique…for him to suggest he’s gonna “beat the crap” out of the president of the teachers organization is not a good message to send to kids…

5. Mostly it’s just a drain of money that I think could be better spent in the public schools than in the charters. I don’t have a problem having some charter schools to give parents a choice, but when you have a large number of them and take away 70 million dollars in a single year—to me, that’s excessive, and the governor has just increased it allowing double what they presently have, and that would devastate the system. So there should not be any additional charter schools, they should start closing down the ones that are proving to be unsuccessful, and, if parents want other choices, I think they should push the Buffalo community to start getting some of those programs in the Buffalo schools.

6. …You’ve got to have the system funnel vast amounts of money directly to the kids and that means good teaching and learning conditions, small classroom sizes, support personnel, so that kids can be given opportunities to work one-on-one and in small groups—that’s my main focus…The teachers right now are not happy with what’s going on, and the students have to feel that. They’re not as successful when they don’t feel good about themselves, their school, their teacher. The classrooms are key to everything and improving them would help solve a lot of problems.

EAST DISTRICT

Greg Olma

1. Great. Standardized testing turned out to be a better political talking point than measure of student achievement.

2. We need do have the alternative school and not return troublemakers to the schools they disrupt. I am not privy to the latest data regarding the success or failure of the alternative program so I can’t comment.

3. I am concerned that the joint schools project has become laden with patronage and saddled with unnecessary costs. I will seek a full review of the program.

4. I like the fact that Williams has taken charge, but I am concerned that he can’t take criticism. The introduction of advanced placement classes at all schools and the reinstatement of junior varsity sports are good. His treatment of the teachers union was a mistake.

5. Not good. The charters drain money and families from the rest of the schools with out the same requirements attached. The state legislature needs to hold the city schools harmless by fully funding the charters, not by taking money form the public schools.

6. Student violence, early childhood education and student achievement. I fully support the alternative school. I would like to see an increase in Montessori style three-year-old programs and would spend any extra state funds received to reduce class sizes.