East Greenwich Election 2021: Peter Carney For School Committee

EAST GREENWICH, RI — East Greenwich is holding a special election on Oct. 5 to fill an empty school committee seat, and two candidates are competing for the open seat.

Republican Peter Carney and Democrat Nicole Bucka are both on the ballot to run for Lori McEwen's former seat. McEwen, a Democrat, resigned on June 30, after moving from East Greenwich.

If McEwen had resigned with more than a year left in her term, the town council would have named a replacement. But given the circumstances, the town is required to hold a special election.
Patch is releasing candidate profiles before the election to help voters get to know who is on the ballot.

Here's a little bit more about Carney before you hit the polls Oct. 5.

Age (as of Election Day)
43

Position Sought

Open seat on the East Greenwich School Committee

Party Affiliation

Republican

Family

I am the proud husband of the hardest-working woman in EG, Jennifer Kacewicz Carney, who amazes me every day with her ability to get everything done for our family and her work, and done well. Jen is an interior designer with a local design and build firm in East Greenwich. And I am the proud parent to four awesome and active children, who make me both smile and pull my hair out every single day ; ). Three of my children attend EGSD schools (Eldredge, Cole and EGHS).

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

I do not have any relatives in politics or government.

Education

I earned my Bachelor's Degree from The University of Richmond. Go Spiders!

Occupation

I have been a residential lending professional for 16 years and have spent the past six as Regional Vice President, managing the New England market, for a national mortgage lender. I am responsible for a sizeable budget and also the productivity, and workplace health and safety in the Covid era, of many teammates across New England. In my role, I need to invest and spend budgeted money in the right places to support our clients and teammates. But need to do so judiciously to balance our revenue with our needs. Strategic, data-driven decisions are a daily requirement for me to succeed in my job, and I believe this skill set can be a very helpful addition to the decision-making collaboration in our District.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office
I have never run for any political office, or been appointed to one, prior to this campaign.

Campaign website

I have a campaign page on Facebook. Please search for it as "Peter Carney for EG School Committee"

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am running for School Committee to offer some balance to the elected body of our School District. The Covid pandemic has brought incredible stress, and loss for many, into our Community, homes and schools. Those stresses have highlighted much common ground among us, but also some clear differences. And where those differences arise, there have been so many of our district families who have either felt unheard by their elected school officials or haven't said anything at all out of concern of being labeled X, Y or Z. I know this because I have spoken to hundreds of them over the past year. As a committee member, I will continue to advocate strongly for our students and will welcome diverse opinions to every decision-making process, as I did during the 2020-21 school year as a vocal advocate and community leader in the debate to return all district students to full in-person learning.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I believe the most pressing issue facing our District is charting the course now, and for the future, with so little diversity of opinion represented on the School Committee. There is a lot to navigate for our elected Committee members, and I have great respect for their willingness to serve the community, as it is clearly an incredible investment of time and energy. As a community member who has been very engaged with committee meetings for more than a year now, I have seen that from them first-hand. However, with presentations and comments from the Administration and Committee that reference topics such as "re-imagining education" and "re-defining achievement as we know it", along with facility improvement projects under consideration, and the continued navigation of education in the Covid-era, I want to be involved in the direction of those topics and engage the community broadly on every critical issue we face as a District.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I have heard Nicole speak at nearly every meeting that I have attended, and there have been many where we have both spoken. She is clearly a passionate and engaged community member with a strong resume in the education field. Unfortunately, her requirement to recuse herself from certain votes before the committee, on key issues related to budgeting and personnel, would prevent her from being a full-time Committee member. That is not an issue for me, and a critical difference between our candidacies. I think the community needs this open seat filled with a person who has been a passionate and engaged community member, like myself, and can also offer opinion and vote on every issue before the Committee.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)? How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

There is no one who has failed the community. No one. These have been incredibly difficult times for elected leaders, school administrators and staff. The pandemic has also prevented, until August, the face-to-face opportunities to connect with the community that I think are critical to effective collaboration and de-escalating the most controversial topics. It was with that in mind that I stayed though the entire, more-than-four hour, first in-person meeting since March 2020, to say hello to each committee member and Superintendent Meyer and acknowledge the difficulty of their position. Where we can do better is acknowledging the differences of opinion and finding more ways to incorporate greater balance in the Committee deliberations. An example would be the diminishing, at times, of the many testimonials read by community members last school year, that shared their challenges at home and frustrations they had with hybrid learning. We are losing some wonderful families from the District over the perceived disregard for their concerns on issues important to them. I want that to change. I want every family that lives in East Greenwich, or has moved here for the schools, to stay in the schools and feel they have a voice on their Committee. I stand ready to be their voice.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I am eager to understand, tangibly, the learning loss that we need to help our students make up following a very difficult learning environment from March 2020 through June 2021. And look forward to advocating for measurable methods and strategies that can fill those learning gaps.
What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?
My current job, and what has been expected of me to be successful, gives me great confidence that I can handle the school committee position. Building an entire sales, support and operations territory from scratch over the past 6 years has been stressful, challenging, and extremely rewarding to be a part of. It has required patience, hard-work, judicious spending, careful budgeting, and consistent collaboration to make sure each step we have taken to grow, will be a step forward. But I have made mistakes in that process — plenty of them. And each time the mistake was a result of me not listening. East Greenwich voters have my commitment that listening to all the stakeholders, when the education and social and emotional well-being of my children and yours are at stake, will not be an issue with me.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

The best advice I ever received was from a close friend shortly after graduating from college. When seeking his counsel on a career choice, he told me,"there is no growth in comfort." It has been a guiding principle for me in business and as a parent. It was not comfortable to be so vocal last school year, it isn't comfortable to campaign for elected office, and I am sure there will be uncomfortable issues to address as a School Committee member. I am ready to do so.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I would like voters to know that I enter this opportunity to be a School Committee member with my eyes wide open and free of agenda. Collaboration with all viewpoints, transparency with all decisions, solutions-based advocacy, and offering balance to the deliberations of the committee is what you can expect. I humbly ask for your vote on October 5.