Meet the School Board Candidates: John Montgomery

Residents of the Irvington School District will take to the polls on Tuesday, May 21 to vote for two seats on the school board, as well as the 2013-14 budget.

There are two seats, currently held by Robert Grados and James McCann, up for grabs on the Irvington Board of Education. McCann is not seeking re-election, while Grados is. David Graeber of Hillside Terrace, John Montgomery of Meadowbrook Road and Seth Oster of Riverview Road have also submitted petitions to run a three-year term on the school board.

Voting in the election and on the budget takes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Main Street School in Irvington, 101 Main St. 

Patch welcomes letters to the editor about school budget and school board elections. Click here for information on how to submit a letter to the editor.

Read below to learn more about your school board candidates.

Name: John Montgomery 

Age: 54 

How long have you lived in the village? 14 years, since 1999.           

Family: My wife Ellen and my two children. My daughter is an eighth-grader at Irvington Middle School, and will be entering Irvington High School in the fall. My son is a tenth-grader in a private school, and previously attended Dows Lane and Main Street Schools in Irvington.

What do you do for a living? I have worked as a professional economist for 24 years. I am currently a Senior Vice President with National Economic Research Associates (NERA), where I consult in financial litigation and regulation enforcement. I am also involved in recruiting and managing staff. I previously worked at the Federal Reserve Board, the International Monetary Fund, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (under President Clinton), and Morgan Stanley.

What is your education background? Princeton University, Ph.D. in Economics, 1990; London School of Economics, M.Sc., 1985; Yale University, B.A., 1982

Are you involved in any other community-oriented roles? No current roles.

 I formerly was the Chair of Irvington School District Budget Task Force (2010-2012); Member and Chair of Village of Irvington Citizen’s Budget Task Force (2007-2010); and Irvington AYSO soccer coach and referee (2003-2009)

Have you ever run or served on the school board before?  No

School board member compensation?  None

Why do you want to join the school board?

I believe that I can be an effective advocate for maintaining and improving Irvington’s excellent schools while delivering responsible budgets for our taxpayers.

Why are you an ideal candidate for school board? What do you think you will bring to the school board?

I care deeply about our community and about public education in Irvington. I believe that Irvington should aim to provide the best possible education for each child, from kindergarten through senior year in high school.

I am creative problem-solver who works well with people with diverse points of view. I have very strong analytical skills, and deep financial knowledge. I also have a strong professional understanding of statistics and quantitative analysis, which will help me evaluate our increasingly data-driven approach to educational decisions.

I bring an independent perspective to education issues, and I know how to maintain a critical yet constructive approach to decision-making.

What are the biggest issues facing the school district? How would you address these issues?

For too long, school budgets have been made on a piecemeal, year-by-year basis, with longer term issues deferred every year. This practice must stop. Developing a long-range plan for the district is my top priority.

That plan should include the implementation of the curriculum and programs that our community wants in our schools, instead of deferring our goals because of year-to-year budget pressures.

For example, we should carefully consider changes to the foreign language program and then make those changes happen, possibly extending language instruction into the primary grades, improving middle school instruction, and adding Mandarin.

We should also get the school’s physical plant in shape, and make sure that we have the athletic fields and other facilities that our kids need. Let’s not delay needed changes and improvements. Let’s move forward to build the schools we want for our kids, and let’s do all of this in the context of a longer term plan that will allow us to assess the budgetary trade-offs and communicate it to our community.

How would you describe the work of the current school board in recent years? Is there anything they’ve done that you strongly agree with? Is there anything they’ve done that you disagree with?

The current members of the School Board work hard and are dedicated to the wellbeing of the children in our schools. They have done a very good job managing the transition in superintendents (from Dr. Matusiak to Dr. Harrison), and David Cohen, the new hire for high school principal, looks like a great choice.

As mentioned above, I think the budget process has suffered from lack of a long-term planning and I hope to be able to lead that change as part of the Board. I also disagree with the current Board’s approach to the District’s debt burden. The District plans to borrow $3.5 million this year to pay for tax certiorari settlements. In the past, as Chair of the Budget Task Force, I advocated creating reserves to pay for these settlements, which would have reduced the need to borrow.

I have also seen little evidence of the Board has challenged the administration to improve the quality of our curriculum. I would like to see the Board be more involved in curriculum decisions.

What is your opinion on the district’s proposed 2013-14 budget?

The Board and the administration have worked conscientiously to develop a budget under difficult fiscal circumstances, and I hope that the voters approve it.

What is the most important thing to you when it comes to the district’s budget?

There is no single “most important thing.” The budget reflects a range of priorities with the overall goal of providing high-quality education and services for our children. With this goal in mind, the Board and the District administration must ensure that every dollar that our community chooses to spend is spent effectively, so we can have the best possible schools for our children.

Budgeting always requires trade-offs. The Board must not only keep annual tax increases reasonable (whenever possible below the state’s tax levy cap), but it must also keep a careful eye on longer term issues.

What is your favorite thing about the school district?

  All the dedicated teachers and other professionals, who work with our children every day.

Anything else you would like to add…

If elected, I will strive to be a strong and independent voice on the Board for educational excellence, effective management of administration and staff, and responsible budgeting. For my campaign, I have created a website (www.MontgomeryForIrvington.com), where interested residents can find more information about my perspectives on our District.