Syracuse students can look forward to fresh faces in the city’s education administration this fall.
Four of the seven seats on the Syracuse City School District Board of Education will be up for election on Nov. 8.
As of April 1, two of the incumbents have decided they will not run for re-election. They are all Democrats: Ned Deuel, an eight-year veteran and vice president of the board; and Laurie Menkin, who’s served for 12 years.
Two other Democratic commissioners have not yet said whether they will seek re-election. They are Nancy McCarty, a retired teacher who has served on the board for eight years, and Calvin Corriders, a bank employee who has served on the board for 12 years. Corriders could not be reached for comment for this story.
As of April 1, one newcomer has expressed interest in running. Stephen Swift, a partner at an investment management company, is considering running as a Democrat in the race.
The Onondaga County Republican Committee did not yet have potential candidates. Both parties meet in the late spring to designate their official candidates for all local offices.
Remaining on the board are three commissioners. All are Democrats. They are Patricia Body; Monique Wright-Williams. and Richard Strong, the current president of the board.
The commissioners’ job is to focus on the big-picture issues in the school district. They set district policies. They handle the budget and seek grants. And they hire the superintendent, who is in charge of the day-to-day operations for the district. The salary for a commissioner is $7,500 a year.
For the current board, some members cite as a major accomplishment the installation of a new system to put information online. The system allows parents to monitor their children’s progress; administrators to track finances and teachers to review information on their students.
But the board has also struggled with tight budgets. Those have forced layoffs of 700 teachers across the district in the past two years. The cuts have resulted in larger class size, an issue that always concerns parents and voters. Budget woes are likely to be a key issue in November’s elections, say commissioners.
Here’s an early look at the potential candidates:
Nancy K. McCarty (incumbent, Democrat)
If she runs for re-election, McCarty will be the sole incumbent in the race. She herself attended Syracuse city schools and both her children graduated from Nottingham High School. McCarty’s background is in education. McCarty taught for 31 years at Onondaga Community College. Now retired, she has been an education commissioner for eight years. For this election, she said, her key issue will be ensuring that the district retains the best quality of teachers.
“Very often it’s the teacher’s ability to translate her excitement about learning to the children that makes the difference,” said McCarty.
She also calls for the state to change how it allocates money to school districts. She wants the state to rework the formula for distributing education funds across the state. Too often, she said, Long Island and New York City schools get more money and upstate school districts suffer.
Stephen Swift (challenger, Democrat)
Stephen Swift is now the managing director of Blue Water Capital management. But he was trained as a teacher and previously taught in Central Square. If he runs, he said, his greatest focus will be on creating a collaborative environment between the district, the city and the county.
“We don’t all play well in the sand box these days,” said Swift.
The lack of funding has created adversarial relationships between the schools and the local government, he said. When the groups are not cooperative, less is accomplished by their members and the district suffers.
Swift’s two children attended school in the Syracuse City School District, with one still a junior at Nottingham High School.
(Alexandra Spychalsky is a senior with dual majors in magazine journalism and Spanish language, literature and culture.)
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