Geoffrey Gangel for Sullivan West School Board

 

My name is Geoffrey Gangel.  I'm 57 years old and married to the love of my life Wanda.  Wanda and I are the proud parents of Jenna our 16-year-old daughter, who attends Sullivan West high school.  Wanda and I formerly resided on long Island, where we ran a silk screen-printing business.  We bought a house in Narrowsburg in 1997, because we fell in love with the town and feel a deep connection with the people of this river community.  I became a Narrowsburg school bus driver and now drive Narrowsburg children to the Jeff-Young elementary school.  This is in addition to an art and graphics business Wanda I operate.  I have also set up an open forum for residents of the Sullivan West school district on my website at www.artbypolygon.com and invite your input.

 

It is because of my feeling of connection with the people of this area that I've decided to run for a position on the Sullivan West school board.  I feel most people in this area have been blindsided by the past performance of the school boards representing the merged communities.  The monumental mistakes that were made, the denial and the stubborn persistence to continue without consideration of public needs and input along with the lack of transparency and effective communication are without parallel in my experience.  What's more distressing is that it seems that people, in their shock and disbelief at the outcome of the merger have in their disorientation re-elected many of the same people who have shepherded us into this mess. The school system should be a source of pride and a binding force in the community, a symbol of a long-term vitality; this is not the case now and needs to be fixed.  Here are a few basic questions that everyone who has students in the schools or pays taxes in the Sullivan West school district should be asking themselves:

 

Ø      Do we want the same people on the board that decided we could magically afford a new school, and its running expenses, when we could barely afford the ones we had in the first place?

 

Ø      Do we want people who are responsible for monstrous budget excesses from hard-earned tax dollars in control of spending and budgets?

 

Ø      Do we trust the judgment of people who were warned about the contractor to build the school and were advised of problems with the school, yet told us everything was okay?

 

Ø      Do they have a plan B?  I asked this question quite some time ago at a board meeting, referencing it to the rumor that the building is sinking and dangerously close to a limit, which would require closing the school, there was no reply. I've heard rumors of members of the present board who would like to sell the schools—a solution I would keep as a plan B.

 

Ø      It is sad that I have to make reference to rumors, but facts seem to be hard to come by and we don't always get straight answers.

 

Ø      In closing, please look at the record, find out who's doing what and get out and vote.

 

Yours,

Geoffrey Gangel

My name is Tom Prendergast and I am running for the Sullivan West School board, once again. Although I lost this past May, I still believe that I can be an instrument of truth for the voters, parents, and children of the Sullivan West Community. I think that we need people on the board who believe that the people of our community have a right to know, immediately, what may effect their lives and the lives of their children.

 

The little lady between my wife and I in the above photo is one of the major reasons that I decided to run again. She is my granddaughter, and her future is of great importance to me. I believe that she deserves the best education that money can buy, within reason, regardless of where she attends school, and that her parents deserve the right to question their representatives on any matter effecting the future of their child. I am tired of those who believe that they know better than those who elected them. I am tired of those who would mislead rather than owning up to mistakes.  I am tired of those that believe that public discourse on matters affecting our district is not in the best interest of the people of the district. Public discourse is, in fact, the American way. It is what provides the public with the information that is essential to their decision-making process.

 

There are those that say that they care. I am more and more interested in what they care about. Do they care to know why we were lied to about the need for an additional facility? Do they care to know at what point the current board knew about the present problem with the Lake Huntington facility? Do they care about the reasons the past administrator and board fought tooth and nail to prevent any consideration of reopening those newly renovated schools? Do they care about accountability? Or is it all about the agenda of a chosen few?

 

I do care. I care about the 4 year old who is picked up by a bus at 6 AM to be transported a great distance from her home over some rather treacherous roads. I care about her hard working parents who now have to get up even earlier in order to get their child off to school. I care about the terrible tax burden that they have been forced to carry as a result of some rather questionable decisions. I care about the young families who left our communities rather than allow their small children to face that long commute. Also, I care to know what the agenda was of those who concocted this entire scheme that has been so divisive to our communities. I care to know why we were pushed into a centralized facility when the federal government, and many private institutions, were saying that small community facilities served our children best! Shouldn’t we all care?