Rye City BOE Candidates

There are two candidates running for the May 17th election to the Rye City School District Board of Education: Karen Belanger and incumbent Edward Fox. 

Both submitted statements to the Rye City School District which are provided in their entirety below:

Karen Belanger

As a Rye resident for the past 12 years, I have been involved in many volunteer positions within the school district and in the community. I am currently serving as PTO co-president at Midland ElementarySchool and a member of the District’s Technology Committee. I have served on the Friends of Rye Nature Center Board for the past seven years.

I also have experience with our school district as a parent of three children – next year my children will be at Midland Elementary, Rye Middle School and Rye High School. My volunteer work in Rye, especially with the PTO, has given me the opportunity to meet other parents and hear about what is important to families regarding education in the Rye City School District.

My background is in management and strategy. After completing an MBA, I worked in consulting where I studied, observed and aided businesses in projects related to business strategy and process design.

Our school district will be dealing with new mandates, technologies, financial constraints and ongoingfacilities issues over the next few years. I wish to work with the district in managing changes in the educational environment and maintaining the excellent education we expect for our children.

I hope to have the opportunity to serve the students, parents and members of the Rye community on the Board of Education.

Edward Fox

The citizens of Rye have honored me by electing me twice as a member of the Rye City School Board. I presently serve as Chair of the Financial Forecasting Committee and as Chair of the Facilities Committee. I am also a member of the Audit Committee. I have previously served as Chair of the Audit Committee and as Chair of the Policy Committee.

During these past six years, we have made significant improvements to the quality of the programs that we provide to our children and to the management of our school district. We have revised our elementary math curriculum, which is enabling us to introduce Algebra for all students in 8th Grade. We have enhanced the curriculum to include Spanish language instruction in Grades 1 through 5 and expanded language options at the Middle and High School levels to include Mandarin and to permit students to take a second foreign language beginning in the Middle School. We have improved the management of the District and its finances, integrated new technology into our buildings, added classroom space at the High School, resolved the Osborn Home litigation and reached collective bargaining agreements that have slowed the rate of budget growth. Because of these management initiatives, we have been able to weather the economic storm of the last few years without cuts to our educational program while keeping tax
increases low.

These and other initiatives to improve the quality of our children’s education require further work and I ask the voters to give me the opportunity to see these initiatives through during a third term.