With a promise to focus on people and jobs, a Mumford resident, Nicholas Stankevich, stepped behind a lectern placed in front of the entrance of Batavia High School yesterday and announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the 27th Congressional District.
Stankevich has just finished a tour of the school led by Pat Burk, chairman of the Batavia City Schools District trustees.
Burk said he was endorsing Stankevich because the candidate would support education and favor policies that continued the flow of funds from the federal Department of Education to local school districts.
"Districts require a certain level of cooperation and funding from the federal government in order to provide for many of our neediest students," Burk said. "Programs that are called upon daily to aid and assist our children are in jeopardy under current conditions and this administration."
Burk then discussed some of the programs that assist students and educators that are threatened, including Medicaid, nutrition programs and programs to promote new technology and training.
"Nick Stankevich will work with our local educational leaders to understand the needs of our students and the families that we serve," Burk said. "He will work to maintain a high level of funding that is needed to provide for our neediest children."
When asked for specifics on his education policy, Stankevich said that's a work in progress.
"There is this is a lot of work to be done," Stankevich said. "It's holding people accountable. And like I said before, as the campaign goes on we'll get into more specifics on legislation."
As he said before, he doesn't yet have specifics on his "people and jobs" platform.
"As we unfold more and as the campaign goes along we will be releasing specific policies and specifically to jobs," he said.
A lifelong resident of Western New York, Stankevich described himself as both an educator and small businessman. His first business, of five, was a swim school, which he said he ran successfully for 12 years. Currently, he is in charge of marketing for his parents' bed and breakfast in Mumford. He holds an MBA from the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management in Los Angeles. On his LinkedIn profile, he also lists himself as cofounder (with his brother Jason) and CEO of a startup technology company based in Los Angeles, Instrekt. The company describes itself on Crunchbase as,"... an Airbnb style, trusted community-driven marketplace for people to list, discover, and book activity-based lessons around the world."
His experience, he said, prepares him to focus on jobs, jobs for people.
"There are many different ways to do economic development and mine would be more of a people-first approach that helps the community," he said.
He said he decided to run because he sees so many problems around us.
"Just stepping outside your door, looking down the street," Stankevich said. "You know there's there's a lot to be done in all of our communities and I believe that we need new leadership and we need a new direction."
I don't think Burk should
I don't think Burk should have done this in front of the school. It implies the School District itself endorses this candidate.
But since Mr. Burk has decided the School Board should now endorse political candidate, it seem it will now be OK for political parties to endorse School Board candidates. This could be interesting.
The school, like the court
The school, like the court house and other public buildings is public space. I've attended many candidate "stumps" and more than a couple were on school property. Stumping in front of a school is often the choice of a candidate who wants to underscore a position on education. Howie Hawkins, during his second run for governor, appeared in Rochester using East High School campus as a backdrop. East High was cited as sub-standard, and Hawkins was presenting his education platform. I see nothing inappropriate about it. To suggest that anyone might assume that the school district is endorsing Stankevich is ridiculous. There are 672 students, 48 teachers and 100 support staff, administrators and board members. That's like saying that Gov. Cuomo's recent appearance at City Hall indicates everyone in Batavia endorses the governor. All one need do is recognize Steve Hawley to the governor's right to realize that's a fiction. That said, considering Pat Burk's endorsement, he said it twice, "I endorse Nick Stankevich." He did not say the district or the board or anyone else did likewise.
If similar arrangement can be
If similar arrangement can be made by other candidates, then there is no issue with this candidate presenting in front of a school.
If the school prevents other candidates from similar announcements, then there is an issue.
My issue is not that so much
My issue is not that so much that it took place at the school, but that the President of the School Board decided to enter partisan politics. Up until now, School Board members have separated Board membership from political activity. Now, that has changed. I can see political parties now backing Board candidates in the future
John. While I get what your
John. While I get what your concern about the "Board" is, I believe that (pretty much) goes without saying. If you stop and think about who the majority of board members are, I believe you'll find that they tend to lean the same way as most NEA members (if they're not, in fact, members themselves of the NEA, already).
One only has to research the political "party" contributions to see how (the majority of) NEA members lean. Check out the article (and, graphs) at https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000064
Here's a textual breakdown (of one graph) from that article:
Independent Expenditures: $5,068,802
For Democrats: $1,992,565
For Republicans: $268
Against Democrats: $0
Against Republicans: $4,538,267
So, whether the board members "stump" on school property, or somewhere else, probably doesn't make much difference in how they, or how the people who would vote for them, would vote.