Meet the Candidate: Green for Board of Ed

Jennifer Liddy Green and I talked on the phone since she is a mother of three and on the go go go. She nonetheless was able to clearly outline her background as a lawyer and her many community contributions here.

Get to know Green more personally in the following Q&A. Incumbent Vincent Nadile was up first; to follow will be John Paine and Carol Banino, so stay tuned every morning this week.

What's your background? 

Green is 43, born and raised in New York City, and settled here in Sleepy Hollow in 2000. She is married to Justin Green, a partner in an aviation law firm. She went to high school in Manhattan, college at Holy Cross, and law school at Hofstra in Long Island. She practiced law for 10 years; first with the New York City law department where she began in family court and then moved onto general litigation (working with the Board of Education, the police and other city agencies). She moved from there into the private sector, doing employment/labor law.

In her second pregnancy she quit law “because of the difficulty of raising a family with those crazy billable hours.”

It’s been 10 years now that she’s been a stay-at-home mom but that of course is full of its own productivity. Green was very involved with the Tarrytown Nursery School where all three of her boys attended – serving on the board and in other capacities. Charities she’s involved with include: the Ossining Children's Center, the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester and our homegrown Rivertown Runners.

Finally, she founded the Kids' Club of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow a few years ago with her husband, wanting to help find ways to raise and allocate money. The group has had an impact in “its mission to help the neediest in our community in a variety of ways.”

The Kids' Club then led to the Community Coalition, aimed at bringing all these many organizations we have in our community together to best meet needs. “We founded the coalition to bring people together and talk,” she said. 

From its website: 

Efforts have included raising general awareness in the area, opening a community food pantry, promoting census education, supporting the creation of a community garden, initiating food and clothing drives, and helping to unify local holiday efforts.

What made you decide to run?

Green has three boys: in pre-K, fourth and sixth grades. It’s the age of the youngest one that got her thinking she could be ready to volunteer more now that he’s about to enter kindergarten full-time in the fall. “That kind of led me to think I have some free time on my hands,” she said. "I wanted to see how I can do more in the community.”

Frankly, it really came down to the fact that she was asked and the timing was right. “My name came up as a potential good candidate and three board members reached out to me just [a week before the filing deadline last week]."

What do you bring to the table personally that would help complement the existing members?

“Service to the community is important to me," Green said. "I have the background and skills to be a successful board member; the legal experience and the common sense, the leadership role from Kids’ Club and other groups. I’m a competent person and I care about our community. This seems like an opportunity to help out as much as I can."

What are the issues most important to you you'd place as high priorities in your tenure? 

“I don’t come with a set agenda," she said. “I have no rubber stamp for any particular interest.” Rather she’s interested in “being a good critical eye.” In a time when there’s talk of massive fields/technical upgrades, she said she’s “willing to listen to every perspective.”

How would you face the challenges of all the unfunded mandates vs. all the many ways we of course don't want to cut education for our kids - it seems the budget is necessarily ugly business these days and everyone, even a Superintendent, just sounds powerless in the face of it which can be very discouraging...

“I feel the role [of a board member] is to focus on academics and education," Green said. "Arts and athletics are very important and enriching, but I am aware that the whole role of supporting that cannot fall on the district.” Rather, she said, she sees through her own community work just how the recreation departments, scholarships, groups like the Kids’ Club, and so many others can step in.

“We’re a partnership here," Green said. "There are many organizations that make the community succeed.”

Finally, a hot topic that’s come up lately on Patch – in light of a parent who addressed the Board with her concern of many nonresident kids getting away with attending our schools, do you see this as a problem that we might better address? If so, how would you enforce such a thing? 

"I agree that if non-resident children are attending schools in our district this is a problem that needs to be addressed," she said. "It would be unfair to the taxpayers of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow to be burdened with the additional expense of paying for the education of children who do not live in this community. It would not be cruel or unreasonable to enforce laws that hold that children should attend school in the district in which they reside. To do so would not deny children an education, it would just help maintain a population and economic balance among the districts, thereby restoring a sense of fairness to the system, as well."  

"That being said, I would take a pragmatic approach to this issue, as I would with all issues that would come before the Board. The first question is whether this really is a significant problem or just a 'hot topic'? Moreover, what would it cost the district to repeatedly verify residency? In the end, will that expense net an overall savings to the district or would the savings be negligible? If the facts support the conclusion that this is truly having a negative impact on our district, I would support a plan that requires the district to confirm residency more than just when the child registers for kindergarten. Perhaps the district also could routinely review residence status two additional times, such as in the fifth and ninth grades, as well as any other years if it has a good faith belief that a child does not reside in our district." 

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