Introducing the Pleasantville School Board Candidates

On Tuesday, May 15, Pleasantville's registered voters will have the opportunity to vote on the District’s $45,300,331 budget and select two new school board members from a field of three candidates.

With four incumbents choosing not to run in the past three years, this election will complete an almost total facelift of the five-person board.

These first-time candidates—Emily Rubin Persons, Tara Klein and Larry Boes—are all longtime residents of the district that currently serves more than 1,800 students.

The candidates will be speaking and  with community members on Wednesday, May 9 at the ; Thursday, May 10, at the combined PTA Candidates Forum held in the  and on Saturday, May 12, at the . A webcast of the discussion will be available on demand on PCTV's website.

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Larry Boes has been a resident of Pleasantvile for 12 years. Boes is the executive vice president and senior counsel for Kensington Vanguard National Land Services. He has two children currently attending Bedford Road School. In September 2012, he will have one in the  and two in BRS.

Boes has been a Youth Soccer coach in the AYSO core program, the U9 extra program and the head coach and coordinator for U5 Pre-K girls. He has been a multi-sport coach in Dads Club and a member of an organization for fathers known as “P-Daddy 2020.” He is an active supporter and participant in the activities of the Fund for Learning and the Community Scholarship Fund.

“Pleasantville is a wonderful place and I feel a need to champion this community. My family has a long history of public service and it is a tradition I would like to continue. After participating in the various sports activities, I feel it’s the next step for me in my service to this community. I want to be a part of promoting what makes this school district and community so wonderful and help it achieve its full potential while making an impact in the lives of its children.”

Tara Klein and her husband, Russ, the chairman of the Pleasantville Planning Commission, have lived in Pleasantville for 22 years. Their two eldest sons are in college and their twin boys are juniors attending .  

Klein, an educational advocate for children—certified by the COPAA SEAT program—earned her BS in Design from LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, PA. She recently joined a non-profit foundation in Irvington as a consultant, supporting its grant programs for women and girls through networking, event planning and social media.

Klein was the co-founder of the Pleasantville Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA) and currently serves as its community partnerships and social media chair. She was also previously the Westchester-East Putnam PTA regional special education chair. In SEPTA, Klein is credited with starting the Pleasantville High School internship program, as well as establishing community education events in partnership with the . She is also a member of the Strategic Planning Committee.

“I have four sons who have benefited greatly from their education in the . Each of my children is a unique person who learns in their own way. I have great respect and deep gratitude for the District, the teachers and the administration. My hope is that by joining the school board, I can share my experience as an advocate and my passion for providing a free and appropriate public education for all students in our community.”

Emily Rubin Persons has lived in Pleasantville for 15-and-a-half years. She is an importer and wholesaler of luxury gifts produced in Vietnam that she provides to high end retailers worldwide.

Persons currently has one son in each of the schools in the district. Persons has been a class mother and a grade representative. She has volunteered for numerous PTA events and activities including math lab, field day, book fair, hemisphere day, revolutionary day, etc. She was a member of the board of education’s Budget Field Trip Committee in 2011 and a member of the Budget PAC committee for  this year.

“I am running for Board of Ed for several reasons. The time is right to have some fresh ideas on the board. Times are changing and we need to answer to the community in a much more transparent way than ever before. Having three children in three schools keeps me extremely current to the issues of their day: curriculum, teacher quality, school programs. I want to be a part of the process to make sure the teachers and administrators are performing at their best to ensure my children receive the best education possible.”

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Editor's Note: Sol Skolnick is a 23-year resident of Pleasantville and former member and president of the board of education.

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