May 17, 2022 - WVCSD School Board Election
School Board Candidates Respond to Sustainable Warwick’s "Green Screen"
Sustainable Warwick focuses on issues of sustainability and the environment as they play out in Warwick. As part of that effort, the Green Screen interviews candidates running for local office — Town Council, Village Board and School Board — so that their views on these important issues can be shared with the voters.
These are the questions that were posed to each School Board candidate:
1. On a scale of 1-10 (10 = high), how would you rate the importance/threat of climate change? How should we be preparing our students to meet this?
2. As Schools strive to get greener, would you be in favor of such things as improving the energy efficiency of the school bus fleet, reducing solid waste, improving overall energy use and other related issues? Would you support the idea of an annual report to the BOE detailing the District’s progress towards these important goals?
3. The health of the students, teachers and staff is critical to the overall “sustainability” of the WVCSD. The past 2 years and the COVID pandemic have posed enormous challenges to the District, requiring many difficult decisions and adjustments, involving masks, vaccinations, remote learning, and many others. Do you agree that the District and the School Board did all they could to protect everyone. Please give examples of any decisions you did not agree with.
The Candidates’ Answers:
Eilleen Gagliano
Eilleen is a 26 year resident of Warwick, mother of two (a Warwick High School graduate and current 11th grader). She is the current VP for the School Board and has been active in the school community since her oldest was in kindergarten.
1. The threat of climate change a 10. It affects everything – late frosts can affect apple and food crops, hurricanes destroy houses.
The schools can give the kids the tools to explore the cause and effects of climate change. They can also empower the students to think that they can make a difference. The Science Research program is an example of this sort of empowerment.
2. I am in favor of all activity to help the school go greener. For example, the School Board constantly discusses improving the energy efficiency of the school bus fleet. We have looked at electric buses, but they are still not “there”. We have a digester in the High School and have discussed the possibility of farm animals using our food waste. I am proud of our Green Ribbon Schools awards. I am in favor of an Annual Report to the Board. It helps to be able to see improvement.
3. I fully support all the Board’ s decisions during the pandemic. With the benefit of hindsight, you can always improve decisions but those decisions had to be made based on the knowledge available at that time. We actively pursued getting grant money to help defray additional costs. The District’s previous advances in online learning were very helpful when the need arose for remote learning. The district also dealt with space issues well. We also made plans to provide food to families in need.
Vanessa Holland
Vanessa Holland is a pediatric physical therapist with two children in the district who has demonstrated her commitment to education for more than 10 years through co-chairing the Warwick Foundation for Excellence in Learning, advocating for fair funding, being a board member of the PTA and chairing events in the community.
1. The threat of climate change is a 10. It is a global emergency. We prepare our students by teaching them about the extent and urgency of this challenge. Nearly every industry is looking to go green, so we need to make sure that our students are equipped to succeed in a green economy. We can do this by offering more classes, like environmental science and green architecture. We can inspire younger students to participate in the Green Cub Club.
2. The benefit of going green not only helps the environment but can also have financial benefits. The Governor has pledged to make the state’s buses electric by 2035. I am interested in learning about the possibility of adapting some of our diesel buses to electric. We need to continue to work on reducing solid waste by using technology such as the food digester in the High School cafeteria.
An annual report to the BOE is a good idea, it would keep this topic front and center.
I would like to bring back the Community Forum where all Community based organization in the area meet four times a year to share their research and their plans so they can help each other.
3. I thought the School Board did a phenomenal job. They made the safety of our students and teachers their number one priority. For example, they worked with a panel of experts to plan for a safe return to in-person schooling. Warwick was the first school district in the area to go back hybrid. They also provided a vaccination bus for teachers when vaccinations were hard to get. The Board of Education did a great job communicating all its decisions with the parents. I think the district and our teachers went above and beyond during these unprecedented times. I am so grateful to the teachers for their support, professionalism and commitment. The BOE based all their decisions on facts and when the numbers were down they reduced restrictions and eliminated mandatory masks.
Dan Mahoney
My name is Dan Mahoney and I am a former NYC firefighter with three children in the district. I have a Masters in Public Administration and recently completed my first year of law school.
1. Short term, 5 – 10 years, climate change is a threat level of 3. Longer term, 30 years on, it becomes a much bigger threat, closer to an 8 or 9.
We have to teach the students about climate change. Our students will be our leaders in 20 years. I want them to be aware or what they can change and what they cannot change. Globally it is more difficult to control climate change because countries like China and India have to be big polluters as they try to bring their populations out of poverty. America can lead from the front.
2. In general we should look at each possibility and assess the financial costs. I endorse going in a green direction as long as the steps makes sense financially. We should look for Incentives to going green.
I would support an annual report to the Board of Education.
3. The district did a fine job given the information they had to work with. I think Warwick did better than many of the other local districts in keeping the students in school. Masking was a State decision and not a decision by the School Board.
Thomas Maslanka
My name is Thomas Maslanka. I served our community as a police officer and lieutenant for 32 years and I am a 50 year resident of Warwick. My wife I and my four children are all graduates of the Warwick School District.
1. I see the threat of Climate change as a 6 or a 7.
It is important for the students to learn good habits about recycling and about using alternative energy sources.
2. I am very supportive of the school’s efforts to teach useful technical skills to students and not just focus on preparing them for college. With the development of other sources of energy, there will be great opportunities for well paid jobs to build and repair these systems. The school is doing a good job encouraging these skills training options by bringing classes back to school and not subcontracting them to BOCES.
I support moving to new sources of energy in a controlled way. I am in favor of converting the school bus fleet to electric power when this makes sense financially. I am concerned about what we can do with the batteries when they die. How should we safely recycle these?
I am 100 percent in favor of an annual report. It will be vital to progress.
3. With Covid nobody had ever faced anything like this ever before. The science was changing all the time which led to some confusion. The Board made the best decisions they could based on the information they were given. Also, we should remember that the State Board of Education made many of the decisions, not the School Board. The Board tried to meet everyone’s needs and did a good job for all.
Keith Parsons
Keith Parsons, a district resident for over 19 years with nearly 9 years of Board of Education service. My wife and I have been together for over 25 years and have three children, all currently enrolled in the district. My experience in business and education allows me to commit to an unwavering intensity to do what is right and represent everyone: students, parents, teachers and taxpayers.
1. The threat of climate change is a high 9 to a 10. We need to start early and work sustainability into our curriculum. We want our graduates to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers. This is how we can best prepare them for jobs that do not necessarily exist yet. We set an example to the students to make Warwick as sustainable as possible in the eyes of the community and other districts.
2. Yes, I am in favor of monitoring and improving energy efficiency. We already do more than any other district with our solar field, food waste digester in the High School and by using propane powered school buses. Currently not all school buses can be electric because of Warwick’s hills and their high cost, and not all can be propane due to refueling challenges. As of now, our propane buses are providing us with lower emissions and cost savings and as electric buses decrease in price and with increased subsidies, we can investigate this option further.
An annual report to the BOE is a good idea and many of our initiatives already have a reporting factor built in. We can use that data to help the environment and save money.
3. We did everything we could to protect everyone and were very successful with little to no transmission in the schools. Overall, many of the decisions regarding masking, quarantining etc. were made by Federal, State and local agencies and could not be changed by the school board. However, our efforts allowed Warwick to keep more students in school for longer than other school district. We even went as far as offering more protective masks to those who wanted, as well as partnering with a health system to offer vaccines to staff who chose to be vaccinated. We opened on time, the only school of our size in the region to do so and thanks to our investment in technology, we moved to remote learning easier than many school districts.