Martin Piccirillo: Democratic Candidate for Board of Education

Know your Candidates is an ongoing feature profiling nominees for positions in North Haven's upcoming municipal elections.

Martin Piccirillo , 77, is an adjunct faculty member at Gateway Community College. He has lived in North Haven for 43 years and put three children through the North Haven school system.

Piccirillo is no stranger to town politics. He is active on the Democratic Town Committee, spent two years on the Board of Finance and served a previous term on the Board of Education.

Piccirillo’s passion for learning is apparent in his resume. He spent 39 years in public education, holding every position from classroom teacher to principal. He is in his ninth year at Gateway, and holds several post-graduate degrees, including MA's from Southern and NYU, and doctoral degrees from Fordham and UConn.

“I have valued education personally and professionally for many years,” Piccirillo said.

In addition to his extensive experience in the field, Piccirillo said he is confident his schedule will afford him the time necessary to be an effective board member. He said one of his strengths as a candidate is that he has plenty of experience dealing with school budgets, including reallocating resources and even tracking down additional monies for education.

“We need to be asking questions like, are we spending our money as wisely as we can? Are there other funds available that we’re not taking advantage of?” he said. “There is money out there for education, private foundation funds and so forth, and we need to start searching for it. I have experience with that, and would be happy to work with the superintendent and others to see if we can gain access to some of these resources.”