Bill is a 40 year resident of East Hampton and a retired educator who spent 20 years as an elementary school principal in Simsbury and East Hampton. He and his wife, Gem. a local realtor for 30 years, sent 4 children through the East Hampton schools and now provide day care for 4 grandchildren, the oldest of whom just began his educational career at Memorial School. He holds a BA in psychology from Manhattan College and master's degrees in both education and school administration. He has taught at every level of education, from elementary school through graduate school.

Why I'm Running

I think of school as the place where children grow up while they acquire the skills that they will need to thrive in the world as adults. I worked during my professional career to create an environment in which children could strive for excellence while they grew and matured as people. When I retired, I thought that my contributions to the next generation would be primarily to my grandchildren.

I had not been active in local politics nor have I previously held public office. However, a year ago I found myself coordinating the petition drive to "bring back the chief." I learned a lot from that petition campaign. The most important thing I learned is that individual citizens can make a difference when they get involved. I also met many good people during the campaign who were working hard to make such a difference. After the petition drive, I decided that I would like to continue to contribute to the efforts to achieve good governance here in East Hampton and because of my professional skills and background, I decided that the area where I could most effectively make a difference is on the Board of Education. I then began to periodically attend Board of Education meetings to understand the issues that our local board is facing.

Although I am a life long Democrat, I have chosen to join with many of the people whom I met along the way during the petition drive and to run for elected office as a representative the Chatham Party. While some may wonder why a third party, I can only answer that if the Democrats and Republicans in town were doing their job, their would be no need for a third party. As we learned last summer during the debacle over the Chief of Police position, they clearly have not been doing their jobs not only on the Town Council but at the level of party leadership as well, where party leaders failed to call their elected officials back from a course of action that was clearly ill advised.

The biggest challenge currently facing the Board of Education is to implement recommendations that emerged from the high school accreditation review 5 years ago. Atop the list is an upgrade in science labs and other facilities at the high school. A mid term, 5-year report is due this March and to date no plan to address these deficiencies has met with agreement by the Board of Education and the Town Council. An entire class of students has gone through the high school without these deficiencies being remediated. It should be an immediate priority to develop an educationally sound and fiscally responsible plan to upgrade facilities at the high school and upgrade curriculum, and to increase electives.

The value of approaching this as a member of the Chatham Party is that we are Independents, Republicans, and Democrats who have figured out how to work together regardless of party affiliation. We are running for office because we are committed to representing our fellow citizens and to accomplishing the tasks that are important to making this a better community. The high school program is just such an example of a community project which can only get done if the Board of Education works with the Town Council and the Board of Finance and if together these public officials seek the expertise and advice of talented and interested citizens from our community. That's exactly what I and other members of the Chatham Party are committed to doing.

My commitment to the voters is that I will bring to the Board of Education the knowledge acquired during my 35 years in public education to anything from bus safety to curriculum to facilities renovation. I will work not only as a member of the Board of Education but will do so in a cooperative effort with other boards and with ordinary citizens. My only goals will be to achieve good governance and to move forward those projects which will make this a better community and will do so with full awareness I must be as frugal with taxpayers' dollars as I am with my own family budget. Excellence for a 21st century education must be our priority and we must achieve it while staying within our means.