Four candidates in school board race
Four people are running for four seats on the Onteora Board of Education in the district’s May 16 election. The top three vote-getters will serve three-year terms. The fourth-place finisher will fill a vacant seat and serve for one year.
The candidates are former board member Rob Kurnit, of 18 Webster Road; Woodstock; incumbent Laurie Osmond, of 4988 state Route 212, Willow; incumbent Bennet Ratcliff, of 76 Striebel Road, Bearsville; and Robert Burke Warren, of 187 High Street, Phoenicia.
Voting will be from 2-9 p.m. in the district’s three elementary schools and the West Hurley fire station.
Rob Kurnit
Kurnit, 67, is a self-employed woodworker. He was appointed to the board in 2009, was elected in 2010 and 2013, and lost a re-election bid in 2016. He is married to Catherine Reep and has lived in the district for 26 years.
“One of my main concerns is the focus for early childhood education,” Kurnit said. “I feel like giving the kids the best possible start really leads all of them to a future that hopefully benefits them.”
Kurnit said he would like to see the district improve student academic results without increasing the budget.
“We have done, over the last seven or eight years, a number of projects, and we’re continuing to try to focus on that because the quality of a facility has a lot to do with whether the kids flourish or not,” he said.
“[One] of the specific things that I’m interested in focusing on [is] later school start times,” he said. “That’s something that other school districts, like New Paltz, Rondout [Valley], have been spending some time working on, and it was something that we did some work on and I would like to continue to do that.”
Kurnit graduated from East Meadow High School in Nassau County in 1967.
Laurie Osmond
Osmond, 57, is a self-employed video producer, editor and writer who has been on the school board since 2008. She has lived in the district since 2004 and has one child.
“We want to continue to have conversations about things like earlier start times and homework policies,” Osmond said.
Also, she said, education needs to emphasize “critical thinking skills ... how important they are; I think it is very important for us to model that.”
Osmond also said having a district technology director in place will help with technology and science programs in the Onteora schools.
Additionally, she said, “we need to continue to support early childhood education so our students get a strong start, which can help avoid any kind of problems for them later on as they go up in the grades.”
Osmond graduated from William Floyd High School in Shirley, N.Y., in 1977 and earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from San Francisco State University in 1988.
Bennet Ratcliff
Ratcliff, 52, is a self-employed education consultant. He was appointed to fill a board vacancy in February 2016 and won the remaining year of the term in May of that year. He has lived in the district for three years and has three children.
“I think we have a very good district and we could be a great district,” Ratcliff said. “We have over a 90 percent graduation rate, but we could do better. I want to find ways
that we can strengthen the graduation rate working with parents, students, teachers, administrators, and specifically that means looking at issues like homework and state testing and [school] start times.”
Ratcliff also said the board needs to carefully monitor building conditions and make decisions based on benefits for students.
“We have a science lab that we’re upgrading right now that hasn’t been upgraded since it was built in the 1960s,” he said. “Was it wise to go that long without upgrading the lab? No. Is it wise to upgrade this lab now for the high school students? Absolutely.”
Ratcliff graduated from El Dorado High School in Arkansas in 1983 and earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University in 1987.
He is a member of Ashokan-Pepacton Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Robert Burke Warren
Warren, 52, is director of communications and after school enrichment at the Woodstock Day School, is a freelance writer and uses the stage name “Uncle Rock” as a children’s music performer.
Warren is a first-time candidate who has lived in the district since 2002. He and his wife, Holly GeorgeWarren, have one child.
“I really want to talk with the administration and teachers about the homework policy,” Warren said of his priorities.
“My son just graduated Onteora last year, he did really well and got into the college of his choice,” he said. “Onteora prepared him really well, and one of the reasons I’m running
for the board is because of that.”
Warren said he also is interested in reviewing school start times and would like to have the board continue to make good decisions
about cost-saving initiatives.
“With the energy performance contract, I’m very impressed that the board was able to put that together,” he said.
Warren graduated from Northside School of the Performing Arts in Atlanta in 1983.
He is a volunteer with the Onteora Mentorship Program.