5 Vie For 3 Seats on Oysterponds Board of Education

The heat is on at the Oysterponds Union Free School District in Orient on Tuesday, as five candidates vie for three open seats on the seven member board of education. 

Candidates who have thrown their hats into the proverbial ring include Betsy Dzenkowski, Dorothy-Dean Thomas, Thomas Stevenson, Charles Squire and Alison Lyne.

Stevenson, an organic farmer in Orient, owns the Oysterponds Farm, which he started with his family 10 years ago. He has a B.S. in agricultural systems from the University of California at Davis; he previously worked as a vineyard manager in the North Fork viticultural industry.

With two children at Oysterponds, Stevenson said he has worked to start the school garden at the school. 

"I am running for the board to bring add a common sense viewpoint to what has been a chaotic past few years for Oysterponds," Stevenson said. "I am able to listen to various viewpoints and I want to help shape the vision for the years to come."

Stevenson said he believes in strengthening the relationship with the Greenport school district while also keeping Oysterponds Elementary School open. "We have to embrace change while also preserving what makes the school such a special place," he said.

Challenges facing the district include "unfunded mandates from the state and their unfriendly attitude towards small school districts, and continued drops in enrollment and how to reposition ourselves to keep the school open while preventing runaway tax increases," he said.

Goals include support for finalizing a long-term agreement with Greenport for secondary students and resolving the teachers' contract; exploration of shared services with other districts where prudent; seeking answers from politicians on the state level; promotion of community use of the school, and ensuring that the students "are getting the best education without wasting money."

Charles Squire, an advertising consultant, full-time Orient resident and Oysterponds parent, also is running for a seat. "I believe in setting up our children for success, and that a strong Oysterponds school can help shape the future of our community," he said.

Squire said he's running for the BOE because he has a daughter in the school and a vested interest in both the school and the community. "I believe every organization can benefit from newcomers, who can bring in fresh ideas and different points of view to help solve challenges.

The biggest challenge facing the district, Squire said, is dwindling enrollment. His goals, if elected, would be to increase enrollment, especially at the pre-K and kindergarten level, "by getting the word out that Oysterponds is an excellent school whose students truly go on to do great things. I would like to attract new families through 'tuitioning in,' which means added revenue to the district."

Incumbent Dorothy-Dean "Dee Dee" Thomas, current BOE president, is running for re-election. "My mother's family has been in Orient since the dawn of dirt," she said. "I grew up in St. Louis and began spending the summers out here in 1974."

Thomas moved to the area full-time in 2000 to attend grad school at SUNY Stony Brook and currently works in the wine industry as a consultant.

She decided to run again, Thomas said, because, during her first term on the BOE, "we increased and enriched programming, created a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) lab and Literacy Resource Center, increased funding for staff development, increased opportunities for community feedback, established informational sessions to update the community on changes in the school and in education and decreased the tax levy."

She added, "It hasn't always been easy, but I love this job.  There are so many exciting things happening here at Oysterponds and in education in general.  I hope people see fit to re-elect me so that I can continue to be a part of the school's future."

The greatest challenge facing the district, Thomas said, is "money. Our economy is hopefully on the rebound, but money is still tight.  Small rural schools are in danger of extinction. Certainly there is a point when classes become so small that a school may no longer be a viable or even fiscally responsible option, but I don't think we're there yet. I believe it would truly be a loss to the community and its children if the school were to close. We've all worked really hard to think outside the box to provide quality education while being mindful of the needs of our taxpayers."

Primary goals if elected, Thomas said, include continuing the current momentum. "There are so many exciting things happening in the next few years that I actually wish I could go back to elementary school. Our STEM Lab gives kids the opportunity to explore and develop their own curiosity about their environment, etc.  We have the STEM garden with each grade growing their own vegetable.  We're moving to a more multi-age approach to learning so children are given material to work on that is at their competency level.  So if for instance, a third grader is reading at a 10th grade level, then that child is given work appropriate to that level."

She added, " Thankfully it looks that perhaps we're all starting to realize that teaching to a test nets very small results. Developing and nurturing a child's own innate curiosity and creativity can and does tend to inspire children to be life-long learners, capable of being America's next great inventor, scientist, poet, artist, astronaut, etc. Having said that, we need to be really proactive with our politicians about unfunded mandates and mandates in general.  Each year there is more and more money siphoned away from actual programming and teaching and sent directly to things that to me have very little to do with education."

Alison Lyne, also running for a seat, is married with two daughters, a fourth grader at Oysterponds and a four-year-old. Currently, she is vice president of the Oysterponds PTA, and gives time as a Sunday School teacher at a local church and as a community volunteer.

Lyne said she has  experience working with communities and budgets through previous employment as the assistant facilities manager at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue and the director of the swim center at Hofstra University.  

She has an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Mitchell College and a Bachelor of Science in recreation management from St. Joseph's in Patchogue.

She is currently employed at Camp Quinipet on Shelter Island as the waterfront director.

"I am running for the BOE because Oysterponds is facing great changes and I would like to have the opportunity to have an active role in the process.
The revolving door of administration is one of the biggest issues," she said. "It is a big issue because we have such a dwindling enrollment that with each change of administration, the discussions of how to address it start all over again. We need better interview processes and with that a better understanding of the candidates' goals and visions for the philosophy of education and the means to which they will educate or feel they can best educate our children while providing the best education, at an affordable cost while address the decreasing enrollment."

Some ideas include tuitioning the upper classes to Greenport while accepting their lower grades. "It could be by combining of classes, it could be a number of things -- but the bottom line is, as long as, we continue to have changing administration on both the principal and superintendent levels we can not effectively address the situation while providing continuity and stability to our students, parents and community. This is important to show that our staff, and administration, is vested in the future of the student body and community."

Candidate Betsy Dzenkowski did not respond to requests for an interview.

The Oysterponds 2013-2014 $5.35 million budget reflects a tax levy decrease of 2.27 percent and a spending decrease of .07 percent.

Residents will also be asked to vote on a proposition to establish a capital reserve fund. The initial balance will be $2.5 million, and excess fund balance at the end of each year will be used for the reserve fund.

Voting takes place at Oysterponds from 3 to 9 p.m. 

Who will you vote for? Tell Patch in the comments section.