William Coggin: Why You Should Elect Me to the Sachem School Board

Submitted by William Coggin (School board candidates can submit their own letters to the editor to ryan@patch.com)

I am a Sachem graduate of the class of 1988 that decided to raise my family in the Sachem School District. My four children have always attended the Sachem schools with my oldest daughter being a graduate of the class of 2013. Throughout my 45 years years I have seen many changes in the district and over the last 5 years it seems as though we have entered a crisis period where class sizes have increased, loss of programs has occurred and financial shortfalls seem the norm. Many members of our community have expressed concern to me that our schools are no longer as esteemed as they once were. All this in spite of the fact that we have many gifted teachers that care about our children and a student body with great potential.

There are many sources of our circumstances; a Common Core curriculum that is harming students and hamstringing teachers ability to teach, state funding that is woefully inadequate based upon the tax dollars we send to Albany but perhaps most problematic a complete lack of vision and leadership on the part of our Board of Education to find solutions and put in place Board driven initiatives to enhance our schools and keep pace with surrounding districts.

There was a time in the 1980’s and early 90’s when sellers of homes advertised Sachem Schools as an enticement to buy a home here but those days have been gone for some time and I lay that at the feet of inadequate direction of our schools by the Board of Education. It should not and does not have to be this way.

My 17 years experience as an educator in one of the worst schools in Long Island and in one of the best schools in Long Island give me a unique perspective of what works for students and what doesn’t. My military service in the Army and having owned several small businesses have given me a business sense and an appreciation for making difficult decisions. I am the type of person that believes in searching for potential problems before they occur and planning for the unexpected. Sachem should benefit from that.

On my Facebook page William Coggin for Sachem Board of Education you can find my recommendation of an educational improvement plan for the district. Some of which I have recommended to this Board in the past that they said they would look into but failed to consider beyond my presentation. Five points of what some of the best schools in the nation are doing for their students that we are not. This has resulted in our students being disadvantaged! Each of my recommendations comes with no monetary cost.

I am offering Sachem a hope, a plan, a vision to help our children prosper and property values to increase while bringing better strategies of how to fight back against a state that has overstepped its bounds in dictating what is best for our children educationally. I hope that on May 19th I will have your support so we can begin the work that needs to be done.