Profile: First-Time Candidate Plourde Pushes for Community Involvement

Grace Plourde, a first-time Board of Education candidate, is running opposed to current board Pres. Robert Rossi. In a phone interview, Plourde spoke on community involvement in decision making, school closings and why she should be elected.

What is your relationship with the school district?

I have two children at Branch Brook Elementary, my daughter will enter Great Hollow Middle School in the fall, my son is going into fourth grade. I have been living in Nesconset since 1998 when I got married. I am the product of public school education and plan to send my children right through up to high school in Smithtown. I have been a past PTA officer and I am currently the chairperson of six or seven PTA committees. I also am a past member of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Board of Education on budget issues.  I am also a member of an ad hoc community group that organized a couple years ago to advocate for the passage of budgets that we felt balanced the need for a quality education with the need to keep the experience affordable for our families.

What are the core issues you are most concerned about?

I think any member of our community with a child that is currently in school is looking at the issue of the school closure and he potential of the disruption of some of our children depending on what happens, the notion that class sizes may increase. I think when you consider something like his you want to make sure that number one, you’ve defined the problem that we’re intending to address, that you’ve narrowly defined it and specifically defined it, and then I think you want to make sure that the solution you choose addresses that problem without creating additional problems.

The current Board of Education, I think by a four-to-three vote, initially voted against the idea that there should be any community input into this decision. They’ve since reversed themselves because of a lot of community pressure. I think one of the most important things about this issue and about the manner in which this issue will be resolved is that we hear from the community, that we hear from the people that will be directly affected … I’m in favor of community input, I’m in favor of as many brains on this as possible.

As a board member, what will you provide to the board and the district?

Ears and a mind – I want to listen, I want to be thoughtful, I want to be responsive, I want to be a part of a group that solves problems, that is responsive to our community and that pays attention always to the notion that what brings people into this community is the quality of our school district and that we must always strike a balance between keeping the quality as high as possible without pricing our families out of the district.

Why did you choose to run for the BOE?

I have been considering the notion for a while. My grandfather was a trustee back in the late 1980s and he was very proud of that and always, always spoke to me about it … It’s always been in the back of my mind that some day I would make a run for it but I had always thought I would wait until my children were in middle school because the elementary school experience is very intense, requires a lot of time … I think in a district of just shy of 11,000 students with a budget well above $200 million that we ought not to have uncontested races.

Why should you be elected?

I think I have a lot at stake, my children are very young, they have yet to go through middle school, they have yet to go through high school [and] I want to preserve the kind of programs that we have now for the children that are coming up but I recognize that the tax burden can’t be so high that I have to move. I thin our families are very, very busy and may not have the time to make a run for the Board of Education and I feel a responsibility now more than I thought I would to get in there and represent the families of our kids.

Check back Thursday for the next candidate profile, Neil Carlin, current Board of Education member who is running for re-electon.