Carolee Brakewood Seeks Second Term on Port Chester School Board

To the Editor: 

I am writing to announce my candidacy for re-election to the Port Chester-Rye UFSD Board of Education. 

I have served on the board for three years and seek your support for a second term.  My perspective is that of a taxpayer, educator, and parent with two children in our school system.  I am committed to providing a strong educational foundation for our children while respecting the taxpayer’s ability to pay. 

Our district is poised to move forward academically with the implementation of the International Baccalaureate program at Port Chester High School. Students and staff are already seeing results from the new Math in Focus (Singapore Math) curriculum in grades 1-5.  Our grant-funded School Based Health Centers are helping to keep our students healthy and engaged in learning.  We will soon have a mobile dental van servicing all schools.  These are all programs that help our students to achieve and succeed. 

I have worked closely with the Board to support these programs while keeping taxes affordable.  In my tenure on the board, the average tax increase has dropped by 63% from previous years. We have consistently kept spending under the New York State Tax Cap, which is no easy feat given skyrocketing costs (e.g. pension, utilities, security, state mandated programs).  I have worked with the board to successfully negotiate salary and health benefit concessions from three unions to save taxpayers millions.  We have promoted retirement incentives to yield budget savings, and successfully lobbied for additional State Aid.

If elected, I will continue to focus our resources where they count the most – in the classroom.  It is my priority to ensure that our schools continue to provide effective instructional programming at a reasonable cost.

I truly appreciate having had the opportunity to represent your interests on the Board of Education over the past three years, and I ask for your continued support at the polls on May 21^st.

Carolee Brakewood
Port Chester