In Mamaroneck, as in several other Westchester communities, Board of Education candidates are chosen and endorsed by a designated selection committee. These candidates are typically chosen to replace board members after one or two three-year terms. In Mamaroneck, for the Tuesday, May 17 school board election, the 24-member Mamaroneck School Board Selection Committee has chosen Rina Beder and Sari Winter to replace James Needham and Nancy Pierson, who were each elected in 2013.
But this year, voters will also have a third option on their ballot. This situation last occurred in 2012.
Attempting to thwart the efforts of the pro forma candidates is Michael Rosenbaum, a longtime Mamaroneck resident whose four sons graduated from Mamaroneck High School. He currently has a grandson at the high school, a granddaughter at Hommocks and a grandson approaching kindergarten. Before his retirement, Rosenbaum, 77, worked at the Vector Group. He is currently a member of the Mamaroneck Arts Council and recently donated two sculptures to the village of Mamaroneck, which were recently placed at 169 Mount Pleasant Ave.
Rosenbaum said he is running because he feels there is a lack of courage and leadership on the current school board. He cited the controversy over the proposal to set up an on-site medical center at the Mamaroneck Avenue School. The school health center would primarily serve the large number of impoverished students at the Mamaroneck Avenue School. Open Door Medical Center Director Lindsay Farrell first offered to set up a facility at the school at no cost to the district in 2012. The project has been mired in controversy and stalled since then. Opponents of the proposal fear the spread of disease and a decrease in their property values.
According to Rosenbaum, somebody should step up and make a decision. “Take some leadership on the issue. Say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but don’t just kick the can down the road,” he said.
The decision to decrease funding for the Mamaroneck Coop Camp, a decades-long day program for disadvantaged elementary and middle school students, also concerns Rosenbaum. While it is fully funded in the current 2015-2016 budget, the budget on the ballot May 17 cuts funding for middle school students.
Rosenbaum favors future overrides of the 2 percent tax cap, if needed. Rising enrollment and the increasing need for more space may necessitate tax increases exceeding the cap in the future, he noted. “To capitulate on the tax cap is a mistake,” he said.
But to sanctioned candidate Rina Beder, operating under the tax cap is just one of the issues that the board must continually juggle.
She has been involved with PTA groups at every level, starting with the Chatsworth Avenue School. “This is the right time for me to step in and see the district from a different perspective,” Beder, 47, said. “Issues are never as simple as they seem from the outside. They’re more complex. There are a lot of moving parts.”
The issue over the proposed on-site medical center is one exampleof such a complex issue.
“I think the board has done a good job of balancing community input with the information they’re getting,” she said. “This issue demands a thoughtful response. Things sometimes take longer than it seems like they should.”
Beder and her husband and two sons have lived in Larchmont for 15 years. Her older son just graduated from Franklin & Marshall College and her other son is a senior at Mamaroneck High School.
She holds a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a master’s in Management and Organization Studies from University College Dublin, Graduate School of Business. She practiced land use, environmental and construction law on the corporate side before her family spent four years living in Ireland for her husband’s business.
She is realistic about the time and amount of work a school board seat requires she said. “I’m going into this with my eyes open. I know what I’m getting into,” Beder said.
Winter, the second pick of the selection committee, has three children between the ages of 4 and 9. Next year, all three will be students at the Murray Avenue School, MAS.
She has a B.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and like Beder earned a law degree at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Winter earned an M.A. in English from Teachers College, Columbia University. She and her husband have lived in Larchmont for six years.
She is confident her background in both law and education will be helpful as a board member. “Having actual experience in a classroom will also be a plus,” Winter, 42, said.
Like Beder, she hasn’t come to a conclusion about the proposed onsite medical center at The Mamaroneck Avenue School.
Winter said there are several factors that would seem to make the project feasible. “I haven’t been in on any of the information the board has, but it seems like it doesn’t cost the district and the closer you bring medical care to people the more people use it,” she said.
On the other side, she said that she’s unsure of whether a medical center at MAS might affect space issues or what services would be offered and to whom.
“I haven’t come to a conclusion yet,” Wintere added. “I don’t know if it’s [a clinic at MAS] a good fit for us.”
