Fairfield Candidate Profile: Suzanne Cox-Testani For School Board

FAIRFIELD, CT — The 2019 municipal election is heating up in Fairfield and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Fairfield Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will continue covering the races as Election Day draws near.

Suzanne Cox-Testani is running for Board of Education as a Republican. Cox-Testani is a retired Town of Greenwich employee who has previously served on Trumbull's Board of Recreation, Town Council and Board of Education. She has two adult sons.

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Candidate responses appear as they were received and have not been edited by Patch staff.

The single most pressing issue facing our town/district is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Racial imbalance/ redistricting/ declining enrollment

These are delicate, interconnected subjects and not popular w students, their families or the BOE. The current law created by the CT State Dept of Ed is 50 years old and sorely outdated. It must be revisited to empathize w those school districts that are close to being considered racially imbalanced such as McKinley and to a lesser degree, Holland Hill. Once this law is revised, then professional consultants must be brought in to poll the public and gather other necessary current data in order for the BOE to consider what action it must take in order to repurpose current space rather than close a school. If after all necessary research steps are taken and the need to redistrict is the answer, then I will be open to the concept. If we change our brains and think out of the box with the ever changing demographics in the more affluent communities, it's really McKinley and Holland Hill that are more racially balanced, not their 9 other sister elementary schools in Town.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My years of experience in both my professional and public municipal service careers in a comparable District of the same District Review Group or DRG. By the time my term on the BOE was up in 2017, Trumbull Public Schools we're second only to Darien in total overall performance.

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

Creating a building/ plant operations committee to address/ monitor the issue of aging infrastructure-utilize public talent via an application process as a vital resource and televise each BOE sub Committee for public access/ transparency

Look into pay to play option for student athletes

Introduce wellness electives such as yoga/ tai chi/ music classes/ art to decrease the various college competitive stressors HS students are facing

Increase the amount of revisited and or new policies each school year. Include and recruit medical professionals/ social workers and legal professionals on Policy

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Converted TPS to the State 2.0 health care program, dealt w difficult Board Members w personal agendas, merged non-credentialed BOE employees w Town side to realize further cost savings

Dealt w delicate social media matters

Supported the building of Fairchild Wheeler MS/ expanded and renovated THS like new attending building committee meetings, opened/ changed the Charter of the Town of Trumbull, hired MS Principals, explored/realized energy rebates for LED lighting at Hillcrest Middle School, supported many THS non sporting programs such as Band and We The People, handled soft/ hard cost change orders during the THS Reno, etc, etc

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Keep the drama out of the BOE and focus on providing a quality education for the students utilizing precious tax dollars to their maximum capability.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

As a Fairfield Native and a proud product of the FPS system, I'm a fiscally responsible moderate Republican who believes in education as the foundation of every child's success. I practice wellness/ fitness/ proper nutrition daily and am a horseowner. I am thrilled at the opportunity to return to my ancestral home and possibly have the chance give back to the educational community that made me the person I am today.