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Health & Fitness

The Quandry Posed By The Board of Education Race

A Democrat's Dilemma: How to Choose Between the Four Republican Candidates.

This year all the action in the Board of Education race is on the Republican line, a place where I seldom venture. Everyone has four votes to cast and the votes cast for the Republican candidates will determine what kind of Board of Education we will have. That, in turn, will determine who we appoint as the next Superintendent of schools. Anyone who votes only on the Democratic line, like one who votes a straight Republican ticket, is simply wasting his or her votes.

My first two votes will be easily cast for Jennifer Dayton and Adriana Ospina on the Democratic line. I know them both and have every confidence in entrusting our children's education to them. Because two candidates will be elected from each party their election is assured. My problem is who to cast my two extra votes.

I do not know any of those candidates well. Barbara O'Neill is a former educator and she has been endorsed by people I respect like Steve Walko, the Chairman of the BET, so Barbara gets my vote. 

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I have met Peter von Braun once when he joined me for part of my daily walk around Greenwich Point. He struck me as an intelligent man, although he didn't use my suggested slogan: "It is rocket science, vote von Braun." Perhaps that is evidence of his intelligence. He also is a public school parent which is important to me, and a graduate of GHS, which is not. As Ms. O'Neill's unofficial running mate Peter may be the natural recipient of my vote, but there is another reason to support him.

Anna Saras Povinelli was Marianna Ponns Cohen's ally years ago in a misguided effort to derail the renovation of the Glenville School because certain Parkway parents thought that would lead to closing Parkway School. As a member of the BET Budget Committee at the time, I was the object, and later the subject, of a misleading and, at times, vicious email campaign orchestrated by Marianna Ponns Cohen. It was no surprise to me years later when the Superintendent was hounded from office by intemperent tactics undertaken by Ms. Ponns Cohen and her ally Peter Sherr on the Board of Education. My concern is that, if Ms. Povinelli is still allied with Ms. Ponns Cohen, and they join votes with Mr. Sherr, the school board will become even more dysfunctional. Peter von Braun gets my fourth vote.

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