K-L School Board Race Heats Up

The deadline passed on Monday, and the field of candidates for the Katonah-Lewisboro school board now includes four residents running for the seats

Patch that Mindy Yanish, a Katonah resident and owner of a contemporary American crafts store in Katonah, and Marjorie Schiff of South Salem, who has 14 years of experience in higher education, filed their petitions by Monday's deadline, officially joining the race.

Read , who declared their candidacies last month.

Yanish was not available this week for comment but but cited her website as a source of information about her candidacy, begun from her desire to "find new ways to serve." 

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"My hope is to find common ground so that all members of our community and our schools feel represented. I hope to achieve this by encouraging a creative, collaborative dialogue with no agenda with all members of this important institution," said Yanish, who also has a background as a community organizer, parent and artist.

Schiff, who has one child at and a daughter in preschool, said she decided to run to help the district continue to flourish in the face of significant challenges due to the lingering economic downturn. 

"Changes brought about by the tax levy cap, new state mandates, and declining student enrollment require the Katonah-Lewisboro school district to prepare in new ways while preserving the integrity and quality of the education our schools provide," said Schiff, a Pound Ridge resident of seven years. 

Schiff cites her strategic planning experience in higher education—where she was most recently strategic planning manager at the University of Virginia—as potentially beneficial to the school board.

"I worked with various, sometimes conflicting, constituencies to effect productive change—and want to help the district make well-reasoned decisions, manage limited resources, and position itself for continued success in the face of new financial and demographic challenges," she said.

Schiff said that the district's most pressing issues were around budget in a tax cap environment.

"While we need to be thrifty, we must be thoughtful. We do not want to look back on this period and regret decisions that negatively affected the quality of the educational and life experience of students who are here now or that negatively affected our property values because we were unable to maintain the district’s standard of excellence," she said.

Look for candidate profiles and Q&As on issues prior to the school district budget vote and school board election on May 15.