Support John MacDonald for M-W School Board

“Yes, we always can use fresh faces on school boards or even just in the audience. Especially now, we need people to ask questions and offer creative ideas,” says Times Herald-Record education columnist Meghan E. Murphy in a recent editorial in our daily newspaper in a column titled, “Our School Board Volunteers Deserve Benefit of the Doubt.” And I for one could not agree more. My name is Bob Curtis, and I am writing to encourage your support for John MacDonald’s candidacy for the Monroe-Woodbury Board of Education. As a former member of the M-W BOE, I know how much time and emotional commitment it takes to earn a chair at the board table. The time you must volunteer is more than considerable. And while I also know and respect the three incumbent candidates running this year, I feel that for the benefit of the District as a whole, it is still time for a change. Change, for want of a better word, is good. And while budgets increases may have been kept low, I feel that M-W’s educational excellence has suffered to some degree. We can do better. I have known John MacDonald for about 20 years, and have always respected him as a man of integrity, sensitivity and quiet intelligence. He knows the field of education thoroughly, and from many angles. Prior to his retirement, John taught social studies at O’Neill High School in Highland Falls from 1968 to 2000. Among the subjects John taught were Global Studies, European and American History, Social Psychology, Minority Studies, and Economics. He was also the high school’s enrichment coordinator from 1983 to 2000. John holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University, as well as a masters of arts in teaching degree from Oberlin College. Always a believer in lifelong learning, John pursued a doctorate after completing his teaching career, and in 2003, achieved a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Columbia University Teacher’s College, for which he wrote his dissertation on New York State curriculum policies and teachers’ practice. As long-time chairman of the Souza Scholarship, I have personally worked with both John and his wife Ronnee, who have volunteered a great deal over the past 20 years selflessly helping to raise scholarship money for deserving M-W performing arts students. I have never known John to be vindictive or base his opinions on gossip or innuendo. His criticism is always constructive, despite what anonymous bloggers may misrepresent, and as Ms. Murphy suggests in her opinion piece, he will never fail to point out problems as he sees them, and offer well-studied suggested solutions. Based on my many education-related discussions with him, I would say that John maintains a deep and genuine concern for this District, in which he has lived for more than 50 years and where he raised a family of accomplished M-W graduates. To me, as a fellow education enthusiast, he represents a lifetime of commitment to education. We need John MacDonald on the M-W BOE. With his help, we can and will do better! Bob Curtis Highland Mills