6 candidates vie for 3 seats on school board
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. » Six candidates are vying for three seats on the New Paltz Board of Education in the May 15 election.
Voting will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the high school on South Putt Corners Road.
On the ballot will be: Diana Armstead, of 14 Cherry Hill Road, New Paltz; incumbent Brian Cournoyer, of 891 Old Post Road, New Paltz; Joe Garcia, of 7 Unity Lane, New Paltz; Meghan Goodnow, of 175 Main St., Gardiner; incumbent Michael O’Donnell, of 129 Stella Drive, Gardiner; and Glenn LaPolt, of 14 Morningstar Drive, New Paltz.
The winners will serve three-year terms.
Board member Alison Easton, whose term is up this year, is not seeking reelection.
Diana Armstead
Armstead, 57, works for the Dutchess County Probation Office and a first-time candidate for the board.
“I would support investments in programs and initiatives that would address the social and emotional health of all students, as well as a curriculum and practices that promote academic achievements, acceptance, diversity and community,” she said.
Armstead also would like to have the district employ a “diverse staff ... that looks like [the] children that may attend the school — staff that comes with a wide range of knowledge, skills and experience of different backgrounds culturally.”
Armstead graduated from South Shore High School in Brooklyn in 1979 and earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from SUNY New Paltz in 1983.
She is a member of Concerned Parents of New Paltz and Sisters of Sojourner Truth.
Amstead has lived in the district since 1979 and has one child.
Brian Cournoyer
Cournoyer, 46, is a sales representative for Dutchess Beer Distributors and is seeking a third term on the board.
“The first [priority] is the racial equity initiative,” he said. “It was started by the superintendent, but it’s moved ahead with the full support of the board. We have recently put together a new board committee that is dedicated to advising the board about racial equity issues.”
Cournoyer added: “We’ve been looking at, for the past year or two, what we’re calling nonacademic success indicator. This is sort of an acknowledgment that not all students learn the same way and success doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.”
Cournoyer graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 1989 and has lived in the New Paltz school district for 10 years.
He and his wife, Karen, have two children.
Joe Garcia
Garcia, 47, is a state corrections officer and owner of Jade DJ Entertainment. He is a first-time board candidate.
“I’m in favor of an SRO (school resource officer) position in the district,” he said. “I’m always in favor of more security.”
Garcia also said he would “like to see the sports community in the school district better represented on the Board of Education at New Paltz. Our fields are not in great conditions, and we have scoreboards that don’t work. Up until recently, we have some pretty outdated uniforms. I feel the parents in our district pay a lot of money in taxes; I think we can do better.”
Garcia graduated from Wallkill High School in 1989 and earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Dutchess Community College. He was in the U.S. Army National Guard from 1988 to 1994.
Garcia has lived in the New Paltz district for 20 years. He and his wife, Danielle, have two children.
Meghan Goodnow
Goodnow, 37, is a practice administrator of the Gardiner Animal Hospital.
“I feel that we need to add more follow-through in our special education system, so that those students that need services are helped and are able to get them easier,” she said in an email. “As our students get older, our district needs to be more proactive in monitoring them academically.”
Goodnow said she opposes changing school start times.
“At 8 a.m., New Paltz High School already has
one of the latest school start times in New York state,” she said. “I feel we need to finally let this issue rest for a while while we tackle more pertinent issues. I believe it would be much more beneficial to our students to put effort into avenues such as the proposal of a new health and wellness Center that can be built in the high school. This will help students have a place to learn and achieve wellness both mentally and physically [and] decrease stress, anxiety and depression. ”
Goodnow graduated in 1999 from Onteora High School. She is a certified emergency medical technician for Mobile Life Support Services and the Gardiner Fire Department.
She and her husband, Matthew, have five children in the New Paltz school district.
Michael O’Donnell
O’Donnell, 41, is an executive in data management with PSL Group in New York City and is seeking a second term on the board.
O’Donnell said the district’s racial equity initative is a “priority because its going to benefit the entire student body. It’s really a focus on creating stronger individuals — to not just focus on academics but to focus on our students as people, and we are morally and legally obligated to engage in this work.”
O’Donnell also said the board must stay focused on the district’s fund balance.
“When I came on the board, our fund balance was really quite low,” he said. “It was $188,000, and one of
the first priorities we had as a board at that time to make sure we got that fund balance to a respectable level. ... So in my past three years, we’ve actually increased the number of instructional staff members and we’ve gotten that fund balance up to over $2 million.”
O’Donnell graduated from Kearny High School in New Jersey and earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resources policy and management from Cornell University in 1999.
He is member of the Mohonk Preserve Volunteer Photography Group.
O’Donnell lived in the school district since 2009. He and his wife, Heather, have two children.
Glenn LaPolt
LaPolt, 49, is a teacher in the Wallkill school district and a first-time candidate in New Paltz.
“Diversity is a big issue at the school district,” he said. “We need to have more teachers, people of color. Replacing retiring teachers with people of color should be a top priority.”
LaPolt also said there “needs to be a drug and alcohol counselor or specialist in the district.”
LaPolt graduated from New Paltz High School in 1987 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in secondary education from SUNY New Paltz.
He is a member of USA Triathalon, is a first aid and CPR instructor with the American Safety and Health Institute, is a member of the Blue Hill fly fishermen and is organizer with the Cabin Challenge Bike Ride and Under the Stars at Morningstar.
LaPolt is a lifelong resident of the district. He and his wife, Melissa, have three children.