Meet the candidates for Board of Education

The Post received submissions from the five candidates for Board of Education:

Steven Anderson

Steven Anderson is a Republican candidate. He has been a Board of Education member since 2005.

Mr. Anderson is chairman of the recently concluded superintendent search, chairman of the negotiations committee (responsible for all contract negotiations for about 1,100 administrators, teachers and professional assistants), one of the lead players in delivering four budgets at or under Board of Estimate and Taxation guidelines, initiated Central Residency Verification, initiated enhanced teacher retention programs, successfully pushed for expanding Advanced Placement classes at Greenwich High School and successfully pushed for reduced elementary class sizes.

Mr. Anderson is a Republican Town Committee member and his candidacy is endorsed by the RTC. He is a former Representative Town Meeting (RTM) member serving on the education committee.

A 15-year resident of Greenwich, he is married with three children in the public school system.

“My main priority will be to boost academic achievement and make our town’s school system the absolute best,” Mr. Anderson said.

His focus will be on increasing annual growth for every student at every grade level, increasing the number of seniors in college level classes, and increasing the number of students that have taken Algebra or higher by eighth grade.

“I bring the knowledge, focus, interpersonal skills, fiscal discipline and ability to get things done, to insure that our budget and our focus are aligned to achieve these goals,” he said.

Nancy Kail

Nancy Kail is a Democratic candidate. Ms. Kail has leadership experience in public school education as Greenwich Alliance for Education’s founding chairman, Riverside School PTA president, school improvement team chairman and secondary school review committee member.

Ms. Kail serves as treasurer of the Brown Alumni Association and previously worked in corporate finance at Wertheim Schroder plc. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University, a master’s of business administration from the Wharton School and a master’s degree from the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Kail is fluent in Spanish and enjoys playing the trumpet. She has lived in Greenwich with her family since 1995 and her three teenage children have attended the Greenwich public schools since kindergarten.

Ms. Kail’s priorities are ensuring excellent leadership and teaching, securing sufficient funding and ensuring education dollars are well spent, addressing underperforming areas and closing achievement gaps, driving improvements and expanding areas of excellence, and improving communication and community involvement in education.

Leslie Moriarty

Leslie Moriarty is a Democratic candidate. She has served on the Board of Education since 2005 and has taken on roles as vice chairman, member of the executive committee, chairman of the advisory committee on facilities, member of the superintendent search committee and member of Greenwich High School building committee. She has served as PTA Council president and North Street School PTA president. In her professional life, she has worked as vice president of business development for Baker and Taylor and group vice president at W.R. Grace and Co. Ms. Moriarty has a master’s of business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan University.

A Greenwich resident for 18 years, she has been married for 24 years and has three children in or graduated from Greenwich public schools.

“I will work to build on the successes of our schools while addressing our challenges,” Ms. Moriarty said. “Academic achievement for each student must be at the heart of all BOE initiatives.”

Her top priorities are supporting high-quality teaching and administrative staff; adding planning time and a strong performance evaluation system; better challenging middle and high school studentss; supporting better delivery of special education services; securing financial resources to maintain class sizes; supporting diverse programs for the students; and setting measurable goals and holding the district accountable.

Peter Sherr

Peter Sherr is a Republican candidates. He has been an active community volunteer for many years. Currently, he serves on the Representative Town Meeting and is a member of its appointments committee. He is a board member of The Riverside Association.

Mr. Sherr has worked in high technology for more than 20 years holding various management positions at IBM and Siemens. He is vice president of corporate strategy at CA, a $4-billion information technology management software company. He graduated from the University of Connecticut and has a master’s of business administration in finance from New York University.

Mr. Sherr has lived in Riverside with his wife, Karen, for 16 years. They have three school-aged children who attend North Mianus and Eastern Middle schools.

Mr. Sherr said he believes the school board focus in the next few years must be nearly exclusively on improving student performance.

“We got very distracted during the Sternberg administration and lost momentum on Job One: educating kids.” His priorities would be to fulfill the mandate to educate all children to their full potential, maximize teacher performance and student outcomes, and maintain fiscal discipline.

Theresa Stanton

Theresa Stanton is a petition candidate. Ms. Stanton has a master’s degree in education and is a certified teacher in Connecticut and New York. She has been a classroom teacher in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and for New York City public schools.

Ms. Stanton has an undergraduate degree in accounting and has worked as a senior auditor for KPMG, as controller of a commercial construction company, and as assistant controller of a real estate development firm. She co-founded an information technology company.

“I am the only candidate running for the Board of Education with education experience and credentials,” Ms. Stanton said. “We need someone with a background in education on the Board of Education. As a former classroom teacher, I will utilize my understanding of teaching and learning, as well as my background and experience to develop, implement and monitor policies that focus on meeting the needs of individual learners.”

She has three children in Greenwich public schools and has been active on the schools’ PTAs.

Ms. Stanton’s priorities include reinstating caps on class sizes; enriching curriculum; monitoring and supporting differentiated instruction; and establishing appropriate school start times to promote students’ health and improve performance.