Richard Kappler
Richard Kappler, 55, has called Saugerties his home for the past 30 years. With his wife of 33 years, he has five children and two grandchildren. Kappler works in the medical field and serves as the chairman of the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. He also has served on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club and the Kiwanis Club. This is his first time running for School Board.
Why are you running?
I’ve been asked a number of times and I feel that now, with all my children graduated from high school and before I retire, I have time to devote to public office. I think it’s a responsibility of everybody to take their turn. I’ve chosen the School Board because I’ve been a businessman and, having a wife who works in the district and children who went through the school district, I think I’m qualified to address both the financial and educational challenges that our district faces.
What do you think of the current board and its priorities?
I think currently the board has been addressing the financial will of the community and that’s to keep the increases from year to year as low as possible. In my opinion, I think we need to continue to address those financial constraints, but at the same time, I don’t want to see us lose positions in the district.
What are your particular areas of interest?
I really don’t have a specific area that I think I’m going to jump into. I’m really looking at how the finances can be kept in line while at the same time improving the education that our kids get.
What is the role of a good school board trustee as you see it?
To provide the best education for the students in the district with the resources that are available. I’ve been involved in the community for 30 years. I think that I have an understanding of the financial constraints and commitments that boards face, and just having five kids go through the district, seeing the kids in baseball and Key Club or the Boys and Girls Club. I have an understanding of the challenges that face the employees of the district. I think it’s important to recognize what they bring to the district and also to look at how we can maximize what they have to offer.
Bruce Tucker
Bruce Tucker, 62, is a Saugerties native. He has two children, four stepchildren and ten grandchildren. He is the produce manager at Price Chopper and has worked in retail for over 40 years. Tucker served on the board for seven and a half years in the 1990s.
Why are you running?
I truly see things not getting done. I see areas that need to be addressed. Our enrollment is declining at an enormous rate and our taxes are still climbing extremely high. Something is not clicking and should really be looked at and changed. I can understand part of the budget going up every year because of salaries and basic costs, but to the tune of $2.5 million? I just don’t see why it’s climbing at that rate. I know that the school district has a $4 million fund balance. That, to me, is a little upsetting. The taxpayers need a break.
What do you think of the current board and its priorities?
I’m not happy with them. What I see is the superintendent running the board, not the board running the superintendent. When you have a board of nine people, they have control of the district. The superintendent oversees everything, but the board is in control. The board truly should be making the decisions. I don’t see that happening.
What is your particular area of interest?
Looking at the contracts and looking at health care, and there’s other things in that budget that we really need to take a hard look at. Contributions to health care should be like the average Joe out there. When I was on the board back in the 1990s, we got the first contribution to health care. I had asked for 14 or 15 percent and we settled around six or seven percent.
The average salary is $60,000 on up. The big numbers in that budget are jobs. That’s the hard part, the negotiating part. On the board, there were negotiators, but you need the whole board to settle this thing. It takes the whole board to get it to where it should be.
What is the role of a good school board trustee as you see it?
You have to be able to balance out what’s good for the children, what’s good for the district and what’s good for the taxpayers. It’s not an easy job. When I was on the board in the ’90s we were able to [cut the budget one year] and the following year we did not raise taxes at all. We were still able to operate our system without going into debt. That hasn’t happened since then.
More and more people in the general public are not averaging out very well in their paychecks. That’s the bottom line. We have to come to a halfway decent balance. There has to be a strong leadership in that board to say we really have to look at the situation, and hopefully not lose any jobs at the same time.
