Ms. Nelkens Board Candidate Responds..

Stefanie Nelkens has left a new comment on your post "Last Night and Why I'm Going To Vote for Them....":

My opening was pretty much the same as the ad I ran in this week's Pennysaver (page 5). This may not be exact but it's pretty close.

I was introduced with the following by the representative from the League of Women Voters:
Stefanie Nelkens and her husband have been Plainview residents for 10 years and their son Max is a 4th grader at Stratford Road. She has served on and co-chaired various PTA committees, including the district-wide blood drive, PARP and SEPTA’s Executive Board. She earned a Bachelors in Computer Science. Stefanie served on the board of their co-op in Queens and was a trustee and officer of the Hollis Hills Jewish Center.

Then I spoke:

Good evening. Thank you all for coming and thank you to the PTA and League of Women’s Voters for sponsoring this event.
I have attended almost every Board of Education meeting for the past four years and have been an active participant. I’m not afraid to ask hard questions and represent the community’s concerns.
Report cards now come home prior to parent-teacher conferences and elementary school cafeterias no longer sell Gatorade and Pop Tarts because of points I raised to the school board.
After examining last year’s budget, I discovered that Stratford Road students were not receiving ELA workbooks and I lobbied the BOE for many months until equitable learning materials were purchased for these 3rd and 4th graders.
Several years ago I played a central role in bringing our district an instructional-based math program which raised our performance levels on state assessments.
Currently, I am the Vice Chairperson of the P-OB Public Library, having served for three years. I created a synergy between the schools and library by seeing to the inclusion of school textbooks and leveled reading books in our library collection.
I used my relationships to advocate and achieve common middle school reading lists. I participated in successful contract negotiations as well as suggesting outside-of-the-box solutions like 15-minute parking.
I hope to use my experience as a trustee of the public library to renew community trust in our schools. My proven leadership will ensure that our schools offer the highest quality education at the lowest possible cost.
I intend to bring transparency to the school district and as my track record shows, I’m about solutions.

My Candidate's Night closing was the following:

Former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles once said “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”
I hope that when you go to the polls next Tuesday you will remember some of my recent accomplishments.
I hope that you will remember that when this district’s math curriculum was in crisis my leadership brought us a better math program.
Kids know more math than they did before I ran that ad in the Pennysaver inviting the community to speak to the BOE about our concerns about math.
I hope that you will remember that I have been fighting the battle to make this district more transparent. My questioning and follow up ensures that BOE minutes are made available in a timely manner in accordance with Open Meetings Law.
I hope that you will remember that I have achieved success in getting information about textbook spending, exposing inequities and I have worked diligently to ensure that kids in this district have equal opportunities to be exposed to a rich curriculum no matter which school they attend.
I hope that you will remember that my questioning the consistency of the Wellness policy led to the elimination of Gatorade and Pop Tarts from the elementary cafeterias.
I hope that you will remember that elementary report cards now come home prior to parent teacher conferences because of points I raised to the BOE. And, after many years of advocating my concerns regarding the content of the elementary report cards a committee has been finally formed to address this important communication.
I hope that you will remember that I successfully advocated for Stratford Road to provide outside staffing for arrival and dismissal at the car pool line and make changes, like eliminating buses from the car pool line, to put everyone’s safety first.
I hope that you will remember that my work on the library board has helped to create a 5 star library where the public and employees are happy. Everyone works together towards positive goals and that is exactly what we need here.
Remember my accomplishments and I’m sure I’ll be your choice for school board member. Thank you.