Pelham School Board Election Coverage: Q & A With Christine Rosskopf

Name: Christine Rosskopf

Age: 45

Occupation:  I’m a licensed attorney (not in NY), but, currently, I’m a stay at home mom to my two boys.

Education: Law Degree, George Washington University National Law Center;  B.A. Organizational Communications, Youngstown State University

Experience: I regularly attend Board meetings and advocate for reforms. I have served on Siwanoy’s PTA for four years. I was the PTA’s Second Vice President in charge of membership the year Siwanoy earned the Focus on Fathers Award. I am an elected representative on Siwanoy’s Site-Based Council and sit on Pelham’s PTA Council. I’m a founding member of the Pelham Math Committee. I’m a four-time class parent, a four-time class treasurer, an active Cub Scout parent and a Pelham Travel Soccer team manager. Our family belongs to Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish.  We’ve twice hosted international exchange students for an academic year at Pelham Memorial High School through ASSE International Student Exchange.

Professionally, I practiced as an attorney in Los Angeles for 11 years doing complex litigation and regulatory work.

Have you ever held an elected office? If so, what office did you hold and when did you hold it? Siwanoy Elementary School’s PTA Second Vice President (2010-11) and the Siwanoy Site-Based Council (2011-12)

Why do you want to serve? I want to serve on the Board for several reasons. There was a lack of elementary perspective on the Board and I felt that I could provide that. I’ve been a vocal advocate on behalf of certain issues and felt that, at some point, it’s time to step up and help the Board do its work. Finally, I think I can improve some of the Board’s practices in order to better serve Pelham’s schools.

Some district parents expressed frustration over the way the current board of education handled the 2012-2013 budget process. Are you happy with the way the budget process was handled? If not, what else did you want to see the board do? I support the budget. Although there are things in the budget I’m not happy about, I think the Board did a good job including the community in budget discussions. We had a long and difficult budget season. I attended the Board’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor sessions, the Line-by-Line budget review and subsequent Board meetings about the budget. I feel my voice was heard and, although the Board didn’t agree with me on everything, I was able to be part of the process.

This is the first year that the Pelham school district has had to deal with the property tax cap. What adjustments do you think need to be made going forward to ensure that pressures from the tax cap don’t dramatically impact the quality of instruction offered by the district? We must abandon incremental approaches to budgeting and build future budgets from the ground up, making sure that Pelham has a solid foundation of quality teachers and course offerings. Everything else must be built around this core. The Board should form community advisory to tap into the incredible expertise of our neighbors.

Dr. Dennis Lauro announced that he is stepping down as the superintendent of Pelham schools at the end of this year. What qualities would you like to see in the district’s next superintendent? As a threshold matter, we as a community need to decide which direction we want to take in terms of our educational philosophy. Do we continue on Dr. Lauro’s path of constructivism or do we return to our former, teacher-directed approach? Once we know where we are going, then we can find a superintendent that reflects our values as a community. Things like responsiveness, good communication skills, a proven record of educational success and a strong academic background are a given.

What process would you like to see the Pelham school district use in finding Dennis Lauro’s replacement? At all stages of the selection process, the Board needs to include the community and be open about what it’s doing. Any search firm that insists on keeping the process hidden from the community until a “pre-selection” has been made should not be hired.

Earlier in this year, the district discussed the possibility of reconfiguring the student population at its four elementary schools. The school board decided to suspend discussion on the plan until the 2012-2013  budget process was completed.  Do you see benefits to reconfiguring the district’s elementary schools?  In response to Dr. Lauro’s study, at the Community Forum and in the phone survey conducted by the Board in March and April, the Pelham community made it clear that we do not want our elementary schools reconfigured. Neighborhood schools are so embedded in the culture of our community that we are not willing to give them up. Any benefits expected from a reconfiguration cannot be realized without full community support.

What questions do you feel need to be answered before you are comfortable supporting any changes to the configuration of the district’s elementary schools? The academic benefits of a reconfiguration would have to be so clear that Pelham residents would be willing to give up a fundamental characteristic of their community.