Hamilton for School Board: 'I Have a Message'

Ken Hamilton

I am making this clear; I am running for Niagara falls Board of Education neither for ego nor gain. I am running because I have to, and I have to sacrifice a lot to do so, because this may be our last, best chance to begin to:

• fix our school system,

• to give all of our children the best chance at success in their lives, and

• to begin to attract businesses and opportunities to an educated, optimistic, safe and once again prospering city.

• replace the current school superintendent with one who actually believes:

• that our fine teachers can and will teach our children,

• that all children can learn and focus only on that end,

• and then sets about making it happen; and,

• set progressive goals that we systematically become the premier school district in Niagara County, in both academics and athletics, and one of best in western New York.

• optimize the attraction of quality residents to the city by providing a school district that is competitive to the education that many NFBOE staffers now provide to their own children.

• create a school district that is so good -- for all of its students -- that it doesn't even attract competition from charter schools.

• reconnect parents back to the education of their children by allowing their children to attend the closest practical school to their own homes, and then holding them responsible.

• use already available teleconferencing technology to facilitate parent and teacher communications to ease known transportation issues for parent-teacher discussions.

• marry the district with local trades unions to become an integral part of a local vocational education program that trains both youth and adult students.

• to further improve education by creating a "bottoms-up" system; whereas the superintendent and staff become the resource for those school building principals who better understand their teachers' and students' needs than does any other single individual.

• empower and support the classroom teacher through good, global and respectful communications with all stakeholders.

• make good and fair contracts with our staffers, teachers, parents and students – and then to keep those contracts. What our system did to our retired teachers is nothing less than shameful.

• cease using nepotism as a tool for employment; while at the same time, not overlooking the best qualified candidate as a result of it.

• find and help other like-minded individuals to run and serve their city on the board, and to make room for them by not making a career of doing so myself.

The key to economic development has always been the leadership of an educated society. It is time that we do our share and make our city both as economically powerful and aesthetically beautiful as the falls themselves.

I ask for your Tuesday vote on line 5A to help get this done, and for your continued monitoring and participation to keep us all on track.