School Board Candidate Robert Cox

Name: Robert Cox.

Age: 48.

Occupation: Cox is an online publisher, journalist and managing editor of the Talk of the Sound.

Family: Cox is married to Dr. Maria Suarez Cox a special education teacher in New Rochelle and a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He has four children who were all raised in New Rochelle. His two oldest, Elena and Owen, are alumni of New Rochelle High School. His daughter Elena will graduate this month from SUNY Binghamton, and Owen is a sophomore at Notre Dame University. His two younger children, Collins and Micaela, are students at Albert Leonard Middle School and Ward Elementary School, respectively.

Education: Cox is a graduate of Iona Preparatory School, which led him to a B.A. from the University of Norte Dame with a degree in classical books. He went to graduate school at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business where he earned an M.B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago.

“I have a good love and appreciation of learning, and I can apply my business training to some of the financial issues of the school board,” Cox said.

“A lot of my reporting has been about problems in the school district and solutions to these problems. It has been my hope really over the past year to find another candidate I could support. It turned out there were going to be two vacancies, so it was really a unique opportunity to have an impact on the board,” he said.

Cox said he recognized and applauded current Board President Sara Richmond for her efforts over the past two years in making the board more transparent and accessible to the community of New Rochelle. Richmond decided not to run for re-election.

“I have a well-established track record of advocating for open government and transparency and fully intend to continue what she has begun,” said Cox.

“I’m approached constantly. I get phone calls and emails where people have problems and they want advice,” he said. “Whether it’s problems dealing with disciplinary issues, special education, kinds of services or language issues, I’m dealing with this quite a bit.”

“One of the stronger assets I have coming to the board is having spent several years cultivating relationships at all ends of New Rochelle, all of the schools and being very receptive to parents who have concerns and are looking for assistance and continue to do what I’m doing,” said Cox.

He said he plans to continue writing about the issues of education in New Rochelle.

“As an outsider I had a lot of freedom. I could comment and criticize without actually having to be responsible,” Cox said.

Board members, he said, have to deal with confidential issues and matters that take place in executive sessions.

“So I wouldn’t have the flexibility to comment on something that I knew about because my work on the board is confidential,” Cox said.

“So there may be some issue I really want to discuss with the community, but I’m giving up the right to do that by agreeing to be bound by strictures of what is required to be a school board member,” he said.

There is one weakness so glaring in the New Rochelle school system that it blocks out all others, Cox said, and it needs to be addressed immediately. He wants to restore the Isaac E. Young Middle School to its former blue ribbon status.

“We really need the community to make an effort to do what we can to improve the performance at that school and get those kids better prepared for high school,” said Cox.

“I consider being on the school board a vital public trust. I would treat being given that responsibility with the respect that it deserves,” he said, “by working very hard on behalf of the people of New Rochelle, the staff and school district and the children in our schools.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are six candidates for two five-year terms. The  candidates are Rachel Relkin, Naomi Brickel, Robert Cox, Peter O'Keeffe, Colin J. Thomas and Dr. Salvador A. Fernandez.