Chappaqua School Board Q&A: Jeffrey Mester

This is a question and answer interview with current Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education President Jeffrey Mester. First elected in 2007, he is running for a second term. Mester has lived in Chappaqua since 1999. His includes three kids: a daughter in 10th grade at Horace Greeley High School, and sons in 7th and 8th grade at Seven Bridges Middle School. Other community involvement includes having coached or assistant coached recreation programs. Mester touts his experience and the board's record of passing low budget increases in the past two years.

The following interview is condensed and has been edited for clarity and length.

Patch – What was the toughest thing that you had to vote on as a board member?

Mester – The toughest thing to vote on as a board member is clearly the budget, at this point. I think, going forward, there will be other items besides as the budget. The budget will be included but other things such as voting on contracts, staff contracts. Certainly voting on, you know, if we ever get to a point where we have to cut academic programs, I anticipate that would be very difficult to do. But, right now the toughest vote I've ever had is to, is on the budget.

Patch – The issue of employee benefits, such as healthcare and pensions, have come up at recent board meetings. What would you propose to do to handle the situation?

Mester – Well, we are hamstrung in a lot of ways to handle the situation. We are required by the State of New York to have our employees participate in the state defined benefit plans. We have no control over that, as well as the health plans. You know, we have very little control over that, too in terms of the obligations going forward – retirement obligations.

What I propose is two things. Is, one, certainly in the next contract, if not before, is to have the staff pay more of the of the healthcare benefit percentage. They currently, at the end of this contract will – the teachers will be paying 10 percent of the healthcare benefits. That is, still, while that's risen from six percent while I've been on the board, it's still significantly lower than you'd find in the private sector. So that's one area where we're going to have to negotiate with the bargaining units to pay more of the healthcare costs.

Two, I think that we have to find a new paradigm, and in terms of how we look at compensation in total. If we are going to be required to do contributed defined benefit plans, and to, and certain health plans, then it I think we have to look at, we as a district, and quite frankly I think the staff, too all understand, 'cause we are all partners, we all want to figure out a way to make this work going forward, but I think we have to look at compensation as a total pack … salary and your benefits … together, and come up with some sort of total number that we can all be comfortable with that mean – and the difference between doing that and what we do now and that my proposal is that we would back into, I think we - if we know we're required to put in, if we agree on the salary of 

$100 for the year and we know that the pension plan is going to cost us $20 - the total compensation of $100 in pension plan is going to cost us $20 – that would leave $80 for a salary or, and/or health benefits.

So, instead of negotiating salaries separately and the pension plan and the health benefits – health benefits and other benefits – we have to start looking at it as a total package, because otherwise, with compensation being 75 percent of the budget, and obviously if it keeps on – whatever percentage it goes up – it's really as a multiplier year after year. The district, none of the taxpayers in this district can afford to keep on having their taxes double every, you know, seven, eight, nine or 10 years. So we have to, we have to work in partnership with our bargaining units to come up with ways that satisfy them as well as to satisfy the community.

Patch – Two employee union contracts will be up within the next three years: the Chappaqua Office Staff Association ends after the 2010-2011 school year, while the contract for the Chappaqua Congress of Teachers runs out after the 2011-2012 year. In addition to proposing higher health contributions and re-evaluating the total package, are there any other proposals that you would make when the contracts are up, and can you also elaborate a bit more on your suggested changes to the upcoming contracts?

Mester – Well, we're, I'm at a slight disadvantage here in that being a current board member. We, as a policy, and especially as president, don't negotiate in public with these things. So, beyond saying what I've said, the generalities of what I'm saying what I said of having to reevaluate the way we look at total compensation and obviously negotiating a high percentage of healthcare contribution. It's really - would be inappropriate for me to make specific recommendations.

Patch – Residents have expressed concern about the rate of spending and tax increases, particularly over the past decade. While much of that predated your tenure, for the long term, what solutions would you propose to handle the increase rate?

Mester – Well the increase rate – what's happening, and one of the things, you know, that I brought up last year, we discussed last year, was that there's no … too often in the past there's an assumption that it was okay just increase every year by some percentage. And the way you phrased your question – and I don't think it was intentional – has that assumption in, you know, the increased rates. We don't have increased rates every year, and that's my point. We have to look at this, we have to look at our long-range plan to come up with ways that the tax rate increases and budget increases do not strip out, do not outpace, really the cost of living, whether it's the CPI or some other measure, you know, inflation or some other measure. We have to make sure that we do not outstrip the community's ability to pay. It's that simple. We're going to have to come up with ways, we're going to have to bargain, we're going to have to come up with ways to reduce costs, or certainly keep them from increasing.

Patch –With the search under way for a new superintendent, what sort of qualities do you personally look for in an ideal candidate?

Mester – Well, the ideal candidate in my mind has several, well, many, many characteristics. Obviously everyone wants the best and the brightest. We could certainly like somebody who will be committed to the district for some period of time. But, I think one of the – I think the two main characteristics will be, we have to have a person who is very strong on the academic front and as well as very strong on the budget front. Somebody who has experience, you know, leading the district to innovative, academic way, and somebody who has experience dealing with difficult budgets or difficult economic times, whether it's as a superintendent or as another role within a district where you are dealing with, you know, tough economic decision making. Either way I think that's important.

But I also think that one of things that … Dr. Fleishman's legacy is that he built a terrific team here of administrators at both the school level and at the ed center at the district level. And I think one of the things that will be important is to find somebody who can provide continuity, who can work well with the team that's already in place. I think that, you know, we're not looking for change for change sake. I think we're looking for somebody who can continue to get the best out of our current staff, 'cause they are doing a terrific job and we want to make sure that they continue to, to have the opportunity to – to really … thrive as they have. It's going to take a person who I also think, quite frankly, the way communication's gone and technology has going to take a person who does – who can communicate well with the public, who gets along well with different community organizations such as PTA, Chappaqua School Foundation, the Horace Greeley Scholarship Foundation, the sports boosters. All these organizations within the community – they'll become more and more important to the community because – to the district – because we going to have to come up with ways to not only keep expenses down but to increase our, to find alternative options and revenues besides taxes. One of those is through public-private partnerships like the Chappaqua School Foundation. One of the things [Superintendent] David [Fleishman] has done is also, he's had a terrific relationship with the Chappaqua School Foundation, and they've been very generous to the district, and the next superintendent has to continue to be able to work well with organizations that such as that to help the district, because, quite frankly, the district, as we are talking about, obviously we talked about before, tax rates cannot keep going up. So there's two ways to keep tax rate, and that's, one, keep expenses down, two, find alternative sources of revenue … and the new superintendent's going to have to be able to work well with the community.

And then, lastly, you know, work well with the media, obviously with the Patch, with New Castle NOW, with The Examiner, with LoHud, and with all sorts of other online media, really and hard media. In communications, instantaneous communication has to be transparent, it has to be, you know, forthright, it has to be accessible. So I think that the new superintendent also has to be very, you know … work well publicly.

Now, I mean - you see – put all that together and obviously it has to have the background in terms of the educational background and the academic experience. Put all them together it sounds like you're looking for a Superman, and you know quite frankly, the district deserves the best and the brightest, you know, that we can find, 'cause we do have a terrific district and then, so we are looking for – we are going to set high standards and we are going to make sure we fulfill those standards.

Patch – This is my final question: name your biggest contribution to the district as a board member to date.

Mester – My biggest contribution to the district, well, I think, my biggest contribution, you have to, I would to say, I wouldn't look at it as any one specific item. I think that one of the things I did, I've done on the board and since I came on, has been pushing for opening up communication with the district stakeholders. I was on the communication committee my first two years on the board. This year as president, I initiated, asked the district – which is a opportunity on our Web site to ask any question to the district. You know, a lot of times people don't want to come to board meetings or they don't think it's important enough, any question, you know, from "what is this year's budget?" "why is the Seven Bridges parking lot not completely paved?" "why don't we have turf?" to "why the second period, you know, start, whatever time?" Any of those questions, we've set up an opportunity for the – somebody who's, wants to … ask can ask those sort of questions. We're trying to open up lines of communication with the community. Two, this year, I recorded two public service announcements and will probably record another one prior to the budget and implore people to get out and vote. So I try to, which I broadcast on NCCTV. And so I think, you know, overall, one of the things I'm proud of has been my effort to communicate. I make myself obviously accessible to you and I make myself accessible to the other media that covers us. When I first got on the board, you didn't exist. Neither did New Castle NOW, neither did, really, The Examiner. And LoHud was a daily hardcopy paper that wasn't as time sensitive as obviously all the new media is.

Secondly, I think overall - my big contribution – I think that no matter how much you're warned before you get on the board about how much time and effort is in there, and I – believe me – I was warned that I had a very conservative estimate. It was bigger. The commitment is, you know, if you're going to do it right and you're going to be an effective member of the board, it is a significant time commitment. And I think my contribution – another contribution – is my willingness to make the effort to do all the research, to make, to be an effective board member, to be an informed board member, to be a proactive board member, rather than sitting back reactive with uninformed. I think I go out of my way to be prepared and I think that goes a long way toward being a successful board member and helping the community. We as board members also participate in other things besides just our board meetings. We go to county meetings. I've met with [State Senator] Suzi Oppenheimer, local representative and also the head of the state education committee up in Albany. And so we spend a lot of time and effort, and I think that one of my contributions has been my willingness to be an effective board member, to spend the time, to do the research, to prepare. I can boil it down to, I think, my campaign slogan if you will, which is "common sense with an uncommon commitment."