The Peru Gazette

Rod Driscoll served on the Peru Central School District’s Board of Education for 10 years (2002-2012). He was board president for the last seven of those years.  Driscoll is an educator by profession. He teaches psychology, economics and government at AuSable Valley High School and was recently elected as President of the AuSable Valley Teachers Association. Many people also recognize him as a member of the “Too Tall String Band.” Adele Douglas of The Peru Gazette interviewed him at his home.

Why did you decide to get involved in the BOE? “I felt it would be good to have an educator on the Board.  At that time our school had many problems. We were in the paper a lot going through a difficult transition after the Air Force base closed.  I’ve always considered myself a pretty resourceful person and I thought I could help improve things.  I also have a lifelong interest in education. I like to keep up with school law and state regulations. I actually find them interesting.  (Then Superintendent) Mr. Scott was good at things like that too, so we could solve things pretty quickly.  The Board was diverse with lots of different opinions and lively discussions but we all wanted a quality education in a safe environment where the tax payers weren’t overburdened and with a focus on long range planning.”

How much time was involved? “From every minute of spare time to nothing at all depending on what issues were before the Board. I made sure I didn’t take on the role of a junior administrator.  Board members represent the community. We oversee policy and we make sure that it’s followed. We’re not there to field phone calls from upset parents who want to skip straight to the school board with a problem.  When someone did call the first thing I’d ask was ‘Did you talk to the teacher?’ or ‘Did you talk to the administrator?’  And we made it clear to teachers and administrators that when people did approach them they had to solve the problem.  So my phone wasn’t ringing off the hook.”

What were the high and low points of your time on the Board? “I think that our work was appreciated by the public and that they understood that we were running the school well.”

Rod gave a few examples of improvements made during his time on the Board. “Peru has an excellent faculty.  We established that by not granting automatic tenure but by keeping on only those who really care.  We also established the Budget Advisory Committee, which provides a good opportunity for community input and has come-up with some great suggestions for the budget process. We maintained programs but at a lower cost by moving 6^th grade down to the Intermediate School from the Middle School. Some teachers weren’t happy but overall parents seemed to be in favor of it.”

“I tend not to dwell on the negatives. I just learn from them and move on.  In general the challenges came from not being able to afford to do everything everyone wanted.  In that situation hard feelings can arise so I made sure that we followed some basic ground rules for meetings.  That way we didn’t digress from the subject at hand and into endless arguments.  I like structure and believe that well-structured meetings avoid unnecessary confrontation and arguments. It was a little rough getting this format established but once it got going it led to well thought out decisions and allowed us to survive a very challenging time.”

“In the past two years we’ve seen the biggest State mandates coupled with the biggest restriction of funding. When I first joined the Board the State paid for 67% of the cost of educating a child, they now pay 46%.  When Cuomo came in he capped aid but also introduced unfunded expensive new education initiatives.  Luckily we had sufficient reserves.  But moving forward the Board will still have to make some very tough decisions.  Sports, Model UN, clubs, student council – these are activities that make kids more connected to school, improve their achievement, help them figure out career options, teach them to work hard, follow rules, and be part of a team. If we eliminate these, what some people consider “frills”, we’ll have lost all those positives, have increased drop-out rates and have too many kids with nothing to do after 2:08pm.”

If you could change something either at the State or local level what would it be?  “I’d get the Circuit Breaker legislation adopted.  Initially proposed in Senate by Senator Betty Little, it lost favor to the 2% Tax Cap which doesn’t lower anyone’s taxes.  The Circuit Breaker would have helped retirees and others on fixed incomes while increasing the tax on the rich a little more.  That makes a lot more sense to me.” Editor’s Note: The “Circuit Breaker” legislation included tax credits for homeowners whose property tax bills exceeded a certain percentage of their income.

Driscoll continued, “If the State’s going to mandate something then they should be prepared to pay for it.  If not, at least  let the schools find bargains when they have to purchase mandated materials or when they have capital projects.  Instead, we have to follow very restrictive State rules that unnecessarily increase the school’s expenses.  For example, by new State regulation we have to use an Annual Professional Performance Review package but aren’t allowed to develop one locally.  We have to purchase one.”

“At the Board level I believe that there should be a mandatory school law course for new members in addition to the mandated financial course, and that the expense of continued education for members should be at the State’s expense.”

“Finally, School Board terms are too long, I would have run again if they were less than 5 years.  I didn’t want to run again and leave in the middle of a term. Overall, I enjoyed my time on the Board and feel that I left the School in good shape”