BBP BOE Race: Q&A With Board Incumbent Jane Burgess

Patch is asking all school board candidates to complete a Q&A to offer up insight on why they're running and their respective qualifications and backgrounds for serving on a school board. All board candidates are asked the same set of questions and also asked to provide some bio information.

Here is the Q&A for Jane Burgess, an incumbent on the Bayport-Blue Point School Board. Burgess will face challenger Bill Milligan in her re-election quest.

Full Name: Jane Burgess
Years in District: 44
Children in District: 3
Occupation: Pre-school teacher/Kitchen manager at local restaurant
Educational Level: Bayport-Blue Point High School
Special skills/licenses/accomplishments you believe will help in your role as a board member.

• Board of Education member since 2003
• Strong belief that all children need to have an advocate no matter where they fall in the social, emotional, or learning spectrum.
• Regular volunteer within the district

What is the biggest/top issue facing the school district and what is one proposal you have for solving it?

The biggest issue this district faces right now is finding the next Superintendent. We have had a great seven years with Dr. Annunziato and were very fortunate with the leaders he brought to our district. The administrators have strong successful backgrounds in education and have the students as their number one priority. I believe we need to continue to grow and move forward with the implementation of all of the new programs to help support our staff in the process.

Next year’s budget will likely be tougher than this year’s in the quest to meet the tax cap. Name one specific budget area you believe can be reduced going forward.

We need to have the powers that be hear the issues that Long Islanders are facing. We have seen this problem coming for years and the drip that turned into a trickle is now being noticed as a leak. Long Island needs to be noticed for the middle class we are; not for the rich and famous some perceive us to be. We pay an average of $.68 more than the rest of the state. Why? We are overtaxed. Bayport-Blue Point has done a wonderful job with our budget and with the entire staff working together we will be able to ride out this storm. I will continue to work with the Board of Education and Administrators to look into mandate relief for special education students and other areas where the district is affected. I will also look into what I consider repetitive costs such as health care of employees who are offered the same health care through a spouse. The Triborough amendment is also an area that I feel strongly about changing.

Consolidation is a hot topic during budget and board election time. Do you favor consolidating school district operations wherever possible, and what is one specific area you believe would be a substantial cost-savings. If you don’t favor it, name one specific reason why not.

The district currently utilizes services with other school districts as well as the fire department. Examples include maintenance, gas and fuel. We also share services in special education therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and purchasing. I would not be supportive in sharing principals between schools. We have come a long way in teacher evaluations and raising the bar in all of our schools. I believe a large part of the success in the progress was in the leadership and the staff being trained and supported to learn new ways themselves. An example of this would be Smart boards and technologies which can be overwhelming if haven’t grown up with it like the children are today. We shared services with other schools to train our teachers to become leaders. We support our teachers because they are here and available to walk into a classroom at the moment it’s needed, not wait for an appointment which could be days away.

Do you believe parents should have access to teacher evaluations? If yes, why, if no why.

No, evaluations are a tool to give feedback to a teacher to learn and improve. It’s a roadmap for that person to see their own strengths and weaknesses; what they are doing well and where there is an area for opportunity and growth. Evaluations are to be done by the administrators not the public opinion. It with this reasoning that I would protect the privacy of the teachers’ evaluations and do not favor parents having access to them.

What is one specific goal you have established if elected to the board?

The main goal is to hire the very best Superintendent of Schools; this will allow us to continue moving forward in making every child a well rounded and lifelong learner. A school board is a representation of community members to answer the questions the community feels is important; not a select few community members, but the community as a whole. As children are our most precious investment, the Superintendent of Schools needs to put children and their educational experience first.

There are two referendums Bayport-Blue Point taxpayers will vote on this year. Patch asked candidates to state whether they're in favor or not of the propositions:

Do you favor reducing the BBP school board from 7 to 5? N

Do you favor the transportation proposal on the ballot this year? N