Board of education seeks balance

Salem — With about 75 percent of the town’s budget going to the school, the five candidates for the Board of Education are focusing on making sound financial decisions while maintaining the high quality of education at Salem School.

Four incumbents were endorsed by the Republican Town Committee: Sean Reith and Ryan Little for the two full seats on the board, current Chairman Mike Siebert for a four-year seat and George Jackson for a two-year seat.

Tiff Cunningham was endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee for the four-year seat. DTC chair Kristina Len said Cunningham decided to run after the July caucus but before the ballots had been finalized, allowing her to run on the Democratic ticket.

Six seats are open this year: three full-term seats, two four-year seats created by the 2016 departure of John Trusler and a shortage of full-

term candidates in 2015, and one two-year seat created by the departure of former Chairman Stephen Buck in 2016.

Siebert said the board will have to nominate a Democrat or unaffiliated candidate after the election to fill the third fullterm seat for two years, due to minority representation rules.

The 2019 election then will have three full-term seats and one four-year seat.

This would be the first elected position for Cunningham, 50, though she grew up attending Planning and Zoning Commission meetings when her father was a member, and is a regular guest at the Board of Education meetings. She said she had been asked to run several times in the past but couldn’t due to scheduling issues. She decided to run now because she wants to keep Salem School as strong as possible in the face of potential budget cuts.

Siebert, 60, has nearly 14 years of experience on the board, serving 12 years while his four children were still in school and returning for the last year and a half. Eight of those years have been as chairman, and he said he would consider running for that position again.

“My biggest focus is trying to maintain or establish a working relationship with the Board of Finance,” he said.

The finance board can only say how much the school board can spend, not what the school board can spend its money on, and it’s common in any town for the two boards to have a tough relationship. With tough budgetary times predicted for the state, he said he would continue to work with the Board of Finance to come up with reasonable solutions.

Jackson, 71, said his emphasis will be on making sure that those solutions preserve the quality of education at the school. He said that Salem students have consistently had some of the best test results in the state in both English language arts and math, and he said he would push for more science, technology, engineering and math programming.

Reith, 38, echoed Jackson’s push for more STEM programming. He and Little joined the board in 2016 to fill vacancies created by the resignations of Phil Teixeira and Trusler, and he said he joined to have an impact on the school while his two children were still enrolled. He was heavily involved in creating the budget presentation to give to the Board of Finance in February, and he wants to make the decision processes, including the cost-benefit analysis and research, as transparent as possible.

Little, 37, also wanted to join the board to get involved with his son’s school, and he said it has been a worthwhile experience learning how the board and administration work together. He said he wants to work to use the limited resources coming from the state in the best way possible to allow students to be successful, productive members of society.