Katonah Lewisboro Election Coverage: Q & A With Rich Delin

On May 15, Katonah-Lewisboro voters will vote on a , a and

Below is a brief bio of Rich Delin and his replies to a set of questions sent to all of the K-L candidates.

Delin lives in South Salem with his wife Karin and their kids, Alex, a senior at SUNY Binghamton, Max, a senior at JJHS and Jillian, an eighth grader at JJMS. He's lived in the school district or 14 years and his community activities include serving as a girls lacrosse coach. Delin works in the medical equipment and consulting business, helping physicians and hospitals deliver efficient patient care.

You can find profiles of the three other school board candidates on Patch: , and . On Monday, May 14, we'll post our voter's guide summarizing the issues including when and where to vote.

Patch: What prompted you to run for the Katonah Lewisboro Board of Education?

Delin: My sons have had a great experience in our district having gone through from kindergarten to graduate from JJHS. In these times of economic challenge, I want to help to maintain the same level of education and community they enjoyed while still being fiscally responsible. There are some real challenges that lie ahead of us and it is important for me that the focus of the Board and the District remains on the students.

Patch: What strengths will you bring to the board?

Delin: I am an advocate for the two most important stakeholders: the students and the taxpayers.  We are obligated to deliver a quality education and at the same time continue to control costs.  My ability to communicate and help to keep the community informed of what is happening with the board and making sure the Board is in touch with what the community wants and needs from our schools.  At the end of the day the board, administrators and teachers all work for the community.   

Patch: What issues facing the district do you feel most strongly about?

Delin: We absolutely must keep our expenses as low as possible while maintaining the current high level of educational standards. There is a lot of talk about class sizes, especially at the elementary levels. I am confident that we can maintain our standards for class size even with the current challenges.   Quality of teachers is probably the next most important part of our children’s education. We need to identify those teachers that may be weak and help them to improve.  If the improvement is not possible they should be replaced.  A great teacher can help our children love school and that subject and this has a direct affect on performance. 

Patch: Describe the quality of education you think students are getting in the district. Are there measures you would take to improve upon it?

Delin: The quality of the education at our District is excellent.  Having had two sons go through elementary, middle school and high school, I can tell you this is a great school district.  We need to continue to advance our technology departments, eliminate sending paper correspondence home and find an effective way to identify the weakest of teachers.

Patch: All three collective bargaining agreements are up next year. Describe how you see the current state of labor relations in the district.

Delin: Based on the two contracts that were negotiated this year I think labor relations in the district are doing a little better.  We need each other.  The community needs the staff in the school district. And the district needs community support.  At the end of the day the word that should win out will be compromise. As many of us have seen over the years, health insurance costs have gone up logarithmically, and companies have asked employees to help contribute to those increasing costs.  I would expect the board to do the same and the union to expect it and understand. 

Patch: What strategies would you be willing to promote for increased open and honest communication and transparency between the board, the collective bargaining groups and the community?

Delin: Under federal and state labor law, most of the collective bargaining process is confidential.  However, we should make public as much as possible the issues that we confront and the unions’ responses to our positions.  We should allow the press access to the issues and make sure the public is informed of the issues, the expense of each of these issues and the potential impact on the district. My guess is that most of the issues will be around benefits and pensions.  It will be easy for us to compare what we offer the unions in comparison to the best companies in this country, and other school districts in Westchester.