SHARE

Meet The Irvington School Board Candidate: David Graeber

IRVINGTON, N.Y. -- School board elections are on May 21, and The Daily Voice wants to highlight candidates running for the Irvington Board of Education.

Irvington resident David Graeber is running for a seat on the Board of Election.

Irvington resident David Graeber is running for a seat on the Board of Election.

Photo Credit: Meredith Shamburger

Four candidates are vying for two open seats on the Irvington Board of Education: incumbent Robert Grados, John Montgomery, Seth Oster and David Graeber.

Check back as Election Day draws closer to see more candidate questionnaires. See previous questionnaires from John MontgomerySeth Oster and Robert Grados.

David Graeber has lived in Irvington for just over a year with his wife and two sons. He works as an education administrator at the New York City Department of Education and serves as a Senior Common Core Fellow helping to implement the new educational standards. Graeber also coaches baseball for the Irvington Recreation Department and is a member of the New York Academy of Public Educators.

What qualifies you to be a school board member? My candidacy is about bringing an informed educational viewpoint to Irvington’s school board that isn’t present. In a time of tremendous educational reform to standards, and the way we evaluate children, teachers and schools, I seek to add value to a strong administrative team and a board that would benefit from my ability to shape academic policy.

I am an ideal candidate for Irvington’s School Board because I am passionate about the work I do, seek to volunteer that passion and knowledge base and am highly qualified to partner with senior district administrators to improve on the quality of an already strong school system.

I bring years of experience in liaising between a community’s stakeholders and its school’s, years of experience in working with school budgets to maximize spending in difficult fiscal climates and can leverage my knowledge base around the “unfunded or underfunded state mandates” to make sound decisions that will affect our schools for years to come.

What are the biggest issues facing the schools today? Two of the biggest issues:

  • Exceeding the tax cap: I am in support of the budget going up for vote on May 21. My experience in working with school budgets will help to put these dollars to best use.  I have years of experience in working with senior administrators to make sound decisions of how to maximize spending so that despite a raise in taxes, we can assure those being asked to shoulder the burden that it is money being invested into the community itself. 
  • Standards and Teacher Effectiveness Reform: The “unfunded” or “underfunded” mandates represent the single largest education reform in the history of this country. A school district as small as Irvington, despite its high performance cannot afford to maintain business as usual as the stakes for our kids get higher. My professional experience would provide the district with a partner that can not only work with the administration on how to best approach these mandates, but also provide the community with a real sense of how this will affect their children.

The work of the current board has been tremendous. I think that the commissioning of the program delivery study was a very smart investment, as we need to start thinking about how best to maximize space within the district in the face of rising costs.

to follow Daily Voice Tarrytown-SleepyHollow and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE