Brett Weeden for Goshen School Board

This letter was recently sent to the Governor with my full support.

Any decision to wear a mask must be decided by their family and never the state, enough damage has been done to our children's education.

https://www.gcsny.org/2023/01/05/board-of-education-superintendent-oppose-universal-masking-view-the-letter-to-governor-hochul/

Dear Governor Hochul:

The Goshen Central School District educates approximately 3,000 students in Orange County. Following the worst effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, our District has worked diligently to monitor and support student
learning, social and emotional, and health needs of all of our students. We have been successful in supporting all of these needs for our students after having lifted the restrictions implemented on schools during the height
of the pandemic. Together, we have gathered more data, learned more and continue to collaborate on strategies to best protect the health and wellness of our communities.

It has come to the attention of our District that the New York State Health and Health Planning Council on December 8, 2022 that masking was an agenda item during this meeting. The Board of Education and District
Administration for the Goshen Central School District strongly oppose a return to universal masking.

Families should be empowered to make this sole decision in the best interest of their own families and their children. The harmful social and emotional effects that universal masking causes on our communities is simply not necessary based upon the greater knowledge that we now have on protecting our collective health.

Additionally, we have many students in the school district who have not received the COVID vaccine

These parents have made this decision weighing all the factors involved including what is best for the health, safety, welfare for their children. In Washington DC, the COVID vaccine was mandated this year for student
attendance. Not surprisingly, however, the D.C. Council rescinded this order because thousands of families refused the COVID vaccination for their children. The D.C. Council realized that this blanket policy would hurt
rather than help their city’s youngsters.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully,

Dr. Kurtis M. Kotes, Superintendent of Schools
Allison Salte, President, Board of Education
Brett Weeden, Vice President, Board of Education
Tom Loftus, Board Member
Jason Pucci, Board Member
Shannon Johnson, Board Member
William Castellane, Board Member

Board of Education, Superintendent oppose universal masking: View the letter to Governor Hochul - Goshen Central School District, Goshen, NY Dear Governor Hochul: The Goshen Central School District educates approximately 3,000 students in Orange County. Following the worst effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, our District has worked diligently to monitor and support student learning, social and emotional, and health needs of all of our stud...

Tonight I am filled with immense gratitude. Thank you to everyone that came out to vote today. I am honored and humbled by the support of our community.

I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work for our children.

Thank you Carla for taking this leap with me and having the courage to stand up for our children. I promise to stay true to our beliefs!

I want to thank Jim for a transparent campaign and holding true to his values. Congratulations to Tom, I look forward to working with you and the other board members.

Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife, family and friends for their support and encouragement the last few weeks, this would not have been possible without you!

Let’s do this Goshen! Get out and VOTE 🗳 ✅

Tomorrow Is an important day for our kids and the community. It’s the day that we come together to choose who we believe will best represent us for the next three years. This choice is always an important one, but this unfortunately isn’t a typical Gladiator year. Our district faces a growing drug crisis and transparency issues that are eroding community support.

No matter who you vote for, we need to work together to stop this crisis and create a level of trust between the District and our community again.

Please vote tomorrow and help make a difference for our kids and their future.

Our children. Our Community. Our future.

Vote Weeden #4
Vote Alfieri #3

Such a shame.…. Do better be better. Our kids deserve better! Carla and Brett are doing this for the right reasons - no Hollywood voodoo they are trying to fix the real problems in Goshen!

Its come to our attention that some community members have found their lawn signs missing or displaced from their lawns. Today a member of our Goshen community, with an allegiance to one candidate, was caught removing Carla and my signs.

While this is obviously not something new, one would hope our Goshen community would be better than this.

Carla and I entered this election with purpose of helping all of our children and to do better for the goshen central school district.

Carla and I are running an honest and transparent campaign, focusing on the real issue plaguing our schools. We are real people with full time jobs and commitments. We have chosen to dedicate ourselves to the community in an effort to bring our district to the level that it should be.

Our children are watching. Instead of teaching hatred and intolerance, teach that everyone’s voice matters and everyone’s vote counts.

Its come to our attention that some community members have found their lawn signs missing or displaced from their lawns. Today a member of our Goshen community, with an allegiance to one candidate, was caught removing Carla and my signs.

While this is obviously not something new, one would hope our Goshen community would be better than this.

Carla and I entered this election with purpose of helping all of our children and to do better for the goshen central school district.

Carla and I are running an honest and transparent campaign, focusing on the real issue plaguing our schools. We are real people with full time jobs and commitments. We have chosen to dedicate ourselves to the community in an effort to bring our district to the level that it should be.

Our children are watching. Instead of teaching hatred and intolerance, teach that everyone’s voice matters and everyone’s vote counts.

Come on down to Orange County Bagels Goshen! We are enjoying meeting and talking to everyone!!

Thank you GIS PTO for organizing questions from the community! I wanted to make sure that I fully answered the questions from the five minute video as I believe communication is key! Below is my full response!

❓ How will you support academics, SEL, sports and the arts within our school community?

Now more than ever sports, arts and extracurricular activates are just as important, if not more, to the development of our children. These programs help develop creative problem-solving skills, develop motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision making, risk-taking, inventiveness. They provide an opportunity for our children to express themselves, an outlet to relieve frustrations and express creativity. I will support these programs by helping to provide them with the resources they need in order to be successful. Supporting academics by listening to the needs of our teachers, aides and educational staff, our frontline workers - what do they need in order to be effective for our children? I would support sports and arts by ensuring our school pays equal attention and puts forth equal effort and funding.

❓ Our schools are under-funded, every club and sports team is often looking to raise money - do you have any ideas to ensure our students can focus on their clubs and sports and not constantly fundraising?

This is a great question as it affects nearly all of our students - my four children included! There are several strategies that need to be employed so that we can effectively use our budget.

We need to establish a strategic three to five year plan. By focusing on student learning outcomes, stakeholders can create that plan. This can then be broken down into actionable steps that guide the budgeting process. In partnering with ALL OF OUR STAFF, finance leaders can ensure that annual budgets are carefully aligned with district goals.

We need to minimize unnecessary administrative costs. We must find inefficiencies, and rethink our outdated processes. By keeping administrative costs under control, our district can ensure that funds are allocated where they should be; in the classroom, on the sports field, in the drama club, arts programs, and all of the necessary programs keeping our children safe.

We need to operate with transparency and accountability. We need to establish and maintain public trust. Tailoring communications to various groups allows school finance officers to collaborate effectively with school board members, administrators, academic leaders, and community members. Engaging these stakeholders in long-term planning increases buy-in and confidence, building support for the strategic goals.

By freeing money in the budget, our desperately needed sport, extracurricular activities and clubs can be properly funded to ensure our children (and parents) are not worrying about affording a chance to attend the World championship they made it to, or the away tournament or game, and instead focus on succeeding. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to have a budget line in place for each activity where through history we know that our children will need funds to participate in them as they succeed. We shouldn’t penalize their successes by charging them or making them work harder to raise funds. With a budget as large as ours, We can become more efficient and use that money for these important activities that our children are involved in. Because for some of our children, it’s these very activities which are the glue that keeps them engaged in education or keeps them going to school in the first place. Which not only helps them form friendships, it bonds them together as they navigate their way through our schools.

These programs are not merely extracurricular activities. They provide children with an escape from school and everyday stress.

❓ How will you work to improve the transparency and communication between the administration and parents? (Follow up/believed intent of the question)

We must reestablish communication with administrators, teachers, parents and residents. While Dr. Kotes has improved communication, there is still a significant lack of transparency between parents and the administration. Transparency is key to building supportive relationships between our School District and the community. The community requires honesty and transparency in order to support and trust decisions the district makes. Moving forward, effective and transparent communication can be achieved by more active listening, dialogue and deliberation, collaboration, and shared responsibility for outcomes. The district needs to make a commitment to listening. Rather than merely providing an opportunity to speak, we need to make a commitment to incorporating stakeholder feedback into the decision-making process. The District and the Board need to make better use of social media and other sources to communicate with the public and allow comments, and answer them. We have a community who all want to be involved in some way and with many skills and ideas based upon their life and professional experiences. If we don’t listen to them, we very well might miss upon an idea or process that was never thought of and could have been beneficial to our children and the district.

❓ How will you make a difference in the education, policies, and procedures surrounding the drug and alcohol issues we are facing in our schools?

I will use my 28 years of experience of being directly involved in the investigation of narcotics and the underage sales of alcohol to minors. Our district needs to continue to aggressively address the growing substance abuse crisis within our schools. While the district has already increased education and counseling services, additional strategies need to be deployed. A collaborative partnership between the District and law enforcement is an essential element in obtaining effective results. Proper training from law enforcement on conducting interviews centered around obtaining source information and ensuring any information gathered is fully shared with law enforcement partners is crucial. Currently our district uses in-house staffing resources, not associated with law enforcement, to conduct interviews when drugs, alcohol or V**e Pens are found in our schools, but the people conducting those interviews have no law enforcement training whatsoever in how to ask questions which would assist our law enforcement partners with controlling it on the outside. While I’m sure they have good intentions, they simply do not possess the skills needed to properly ask questions that are necessary for law enforcement. We need to provide training and give an understanding of how law enforcement operates in order to be effective. To stop this drug crisis, we can’t use education alone, we can’t rely on a cookie cutter approach and believe that all of a sudden it will start working. We need to expand our partnerships with law enforcement, conduct more sweeps and most importantly share ALL of the information with law enforcement so they can stop drugs and alcohol from coming into the school in the first place. We need to find out where the sources of where all of this is coming from, both outside of the schools and inside. Once we know the source we can work to cut it off - at the very least slow down the supply to our children.

We must also do better with education, unfortunately I know personally that our children will not fully appreciate and absorb information about the dangers of drugs coming from just our local Police Officers, doing that along with standard education will never completely work and is part of the cookie cutter approach which has already failed us. We must bring in a peer, someone close to their age who has battled drug addiction, someone they can relate to. They need to hear from someone who speaks their language, who has recently lived their lives and hear what it did to them and their friends. Yes it will be tough to hear for some of our kids, but let's face it, some of our kids are unfortunately living this life right now and before any more of them succumb to it, we must use every resource available to help them.

On May 4th I attended a School Board Meeting. I would ask that each of you watch the YouTube video of that meeting and hear the eloquent plea and speech from Carissa, a Goshen High School student, where she spoke on behalf of her fellow students and was asking the district for help with this crisis. Our kids are begging us for help, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that we don’t lose another child, and some of those choices will not be easy but we must do them for our kids.

❓ Should you be elected to this BOE, there will be community members who did not vote for you who you must still represent. How do you plan on representing their voices?

I am running for the school board to represent everyone and to be fair and neutral, I don’t have any allegiance to the district, neither my wife or any of my family members currently work for the school system in any capacity, so my decisions will only be based upon what is good for our children and families only with no personal gain. I understand that not everyone will vote for me, and I don’t expect to get everyone's vote and that is okay. I hope that if I don't get your vote this time, I will earn it the next time. But I do wish to let everyone know that I will have an open door and will listen to anyone, regardless if you voted for me or not. I fully understand that I would be elected to represent everyone and through open communication we can bring this district back to where it should be and to make everyone proud to be a gladiator.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or stop by Orange County Bagel on Sunday, May 15 to chat!!

Thank You again and please come out and vote on May 17th, Ballot 4!!