Schools

New Rochelle School Board Candidate: Pamela Davis

Beside deciding whether to OK the 2013-14 school budget, New Rochelle votes will have to choose a new school board member May 21.

Pamela Davis will face off with Robert Cox for the five-year term vacated by Mary Jane Reddington, who was first elected to the board in 1983.

Davis, who teaches at Alice E. Grady Elementary School in Elmsford, a resident of the Sun Haven neighborhood.

She said she wants to use her experience as an educator to help shape policy in the New Rochelle School District.

“I’ve always had an active volunteer life,” Davis, 45, said. “It’s important to me, as far as giving back.”

She received her doctorate in instructional media and technology from Teachers College of Columbia University in 2006. Davis got her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Rutgers University and her master’s in teaching reading from the College of New Rochelle.

She is an adjunct professor at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, which is near Rochester, teaching qualitative and quantitative research methods.

She has been an advisor to research projects that include increasing black male student achievement, increasing participation and sustainability of afterschool programs and evaluating principal leadership in program implementation.

Davis initiated a youth development program that emphasized science and mathematics: the New Rochelle FIRST LEGO League.

She said she had spinned that off in Elmsford with a small engineering club.
“They have to use science and math sense,” Davis said. “They have real problems to solve.”

She organizes regional robotics competitions and has served as a consultant for afterschool robotics programs in communities throughout Westchester County.
Davis said she sees the school district as diverse and inclusive. She wants to explore making skill-building programs for special needs students such as those in partnership with Sound Shore Medical Center and Don Coqui available to the general student population.

“It could teach them real-life skills like cooking,” Davis said. “And there are opportunities for the colleges and school district to partner.”

She said she was concerned about comments made at the recent budget public hearing.

“I am concerned about class size,” Davis said. “Why did Ward lose three teachers? But I need more information.”

She acknowledged that not all schools in the district are totally successful.

“Definitely there are some schools doing better than others,” Davis said. “There needs to be some targeted intervention,” she said, because every school operates differently.”

For an interview with Robert Cox, click here.



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