Dear Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Residents,
My name is Kevin Miller and it is with pride that I announce my candidacy for the Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow Board of Education.
My family moved to Tarrytown almost four years ago, and we discovered a community filled with talented teachers, administrators, and parents committed to excellence and inclusion. But we have also found people wanting to feel more understood and to be more engaged with their children’s education. I bring an educator’s focus on rigor, a perspective as a parent of younger kids, and a passion for building extra-curricular excellence to make our good schools even better.
As a teacher for 17 years in the New York City Public Schools and a private tutor in the area, I can address the difficult question of how we can meet the needs of all students to face high-level academic challenges. Over the past year, administrators have been researching this question, and I have been involved in one-on-one conversations with administrators as a PTA VP and in Parent Focus Groups as a parent of an upper elementary age child with our Middle School Principal. While those educating our children will make the decisions, it is the Board’s job to help parents feel confident that our district is committed to a fair process. Due to my coalition-building experiences as a teacher and tutor, I can bring both idealism and pragmatism to these discussions.
Typically parents of older aged children fill our School Board; my children are seven and ten years old, so I am tapped into these younger parents’ concerns. At the same time, my business focuses on the middle and high schoolers, so am aware of these kids’ and families’ experiences. Finally, my experience as a Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown PTA representative with Rivertown Parents, allows me to problem solve with Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hastings, and Irvington parents as our district faces similar challenges such as: what role should phones and technology play in school and where does the responsibility of student, parents, teachers, and administrators begin and end?
Finally, we need to build a Sports Program that follows the example of our Arts Program: successfully developing talent from our entire population. Our district plays an essential role in ensuring that opportunities are available to challenge and develop musicians, dancers, and actors; similarly, we need to research how to make sure our athletes have support through all stages of development. I do not aspire for our schools to be sports obsessed like mine was. Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow have the unique character that allows us to thrive in both the Arts and Sports, simultaneously.
Sharing ideas and communicating openly leads to trust, and as a member of the Board, I’d be committed to making sure our voices are heard to build on the strengths of this place and its people.
Thank you,
Kevin Miller
https://kevsmilltutoring.com/15428-2/
