Date: Fri 03-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: AMYD

Quick Words:

school-board-election

Full Text:

Three School Board Candidates Face No Contest

B Y A MY D'O RIO

Three Board of Education members are up for reelection and all three will be

reelected, since there is no contest for any of the four-year seats.

The candidates are: Democrat Peggy Ulrich-Nims, who was appointed to the

school board earlier this year to replace Michael Osborne; Republican Susan

Hills, a three-year member of board; and Charles Nanavaty, who was appointed

last school year to replace Republican Jack Lynch.

Each board member brings various skills to this volunteer job and all have set

goals and priorities.

Mrs Hills, who has two of her three children in the school system, said she

sees herself a community representative to the school board.

Mrs Hills is former president of the PTA Council and former chairperson of the

organization, Support Our Schools, which lobbied for the school budget

passage.

A ten-year resident of the community, Mrs Hills, a coordinator and teacher for

religious education at St Rose, also has served on two separate committees

dealing with building projects.

Mrs Hills said one goal for the next four years is to ensure that funding for

the building projects does have negative repercussions on the operating budget

or eclipse the focus on academic excellence.

"We are headed in the right direction, I just hope it continues," she said.

She said she is constantly vigilant about maintaining small class size and is

watchful about where the district spends money, making sure it is spent where

it best benefits children..

Mr Nanavaty, a certified public accountant in town and a former Legislative

Council member, said his financial knowledge, ties with the Legislative

Council and strong interest in technology will all benefit the school board.

Since he joined the school board, he has become deeply involved in the

technology pursuits.

Mr Nanavaty, a Cherry Street resident, said getting the schools equipped with

technology will be a major focus for him.

The proposed building projects are another area of focus. He said the school

board will need to get these projects passed by the town and underway.

Mr Nanavaty, who has no children in school yet, said he has noticed the board

has a communication problem with municipal leaders and parents. He said he

hopes his background in finance will help build a more trusting relationship.

The board and the parents must find a vehicle for discussions too, he said.

Parent organizations and the board members must have more contact, he said.

Mr Nanavaty also is devoting energy toward getting a more "user-friendly"

budget format for the school board. He is currently working on this format

with Mrs Ulrich-Nims.

Mrs Ulrich-Nims, the mother of two children, has extensive experience handling

budgets.

Before she came to Newtown, she was an associate budget director at Cornell

University and did budget analysis for the University of Denver.

This experience, along with her work as a parent leader and an educator, make

her qualified to serve on the school board, she said.

Mrs Ulrich-Nims said wants to help educate the community about the proposed

Hawley School and Newtown High School building projects. The community

particularly needs to know how much the high school building has deteriorated,

she said.

Mrs Ulrich-Nims is also extremely interested in the curriculum. She plans to

carefully review all material.

As for the budget, Mrs Ulrich-Nims said she wants to ensure the budget is not

drastically cut in the coming years because she is not sure the district could

absorb such cuts without hurting program quality.

Mrs Ulrich-Nims, who has one child attending Head O'Meadow School and a son

attending Wooster School in Danbury, said she also plans to focus more energy

on informing parents about school programs. There needs to be more out-reach,

she said,

Mrs Ulrich-Nims has explained that her sons attend a private school because, a

few summers ago, she could not determine if the Newtown schools were going to

offer a gifted program. She chose to be safe, and enrolled her son in a school

that would definitely offer him one.