Tom Ham
Thomas Ham, 50, has served on the Board of Education for the past six years. Ham works as an electrical engineer and coaches AYSO soccer. He has two children; a son, 19, and a daughter, 16.
Why are you running?
When I started on the board, I saw a lot of our buildings in disrepair. What I saw back then was an administration and a board that were willing to defer major maintenance issues. As a homeowner I understood the future costs of doing that. So that was one of the big things that started me. During the six-year period, one of my primary goals, which we’ve achieved, is putting together a five-year maintenance plan that actually gets looked at every two-and-a-half to three years and updated. That allows us to identify areas that need maintenance and plan for that, rather than everything is an emergency.
That’s what I’d like to continue to work on. I see it would be very easy to slip back into the past where we defer important maintenance and say, “oh look, we saved the taxpayers money,” but kick the can down the road. My primary goal has been, and will continue to be, making sure our buildings are sound and, especially these days, safe.
What do you think of the current board and its priorities?
Each individual on that board brings a unique perspective to a given problem. We all work well together. The eight of us respect one another. We have differences of opinion, but that’s a great thing. We tend to dig into every issue that comes before us, take everything seriously. We ask a lot of questions of the administration. We hold the administration accountable.
Part of the problem I have as a board member is most people are operating on information they’ve garnered from the rumor mill. We’re here as representatives of the community, and to do a job for that community. Some make claims that are patently untrue, and they’ve never taken the time to call and ask. A prime example of that is the school closing debacle that happened a couple months ago. We were accused of trying to close a school, and that wasn’t the case. In the entire six years I’ve been on the board we’ve never once talked about closing Mt. Marion school. None of the sitting board members have ever wanted to that. It would be an absurd thing to close a school where 80 or more percent of the kids are walkers.
That’s disruptive to the administration. It’s disruptive to the board. All of our energy is now spent going back to the public and trying to restore credibility. The public’s opinion of the board is a fragile thing.
What are your particular areas of interest?
The integrity of the facilities, because I think that has direct impact not only on our taxes, but on our academic programs. If the building isn’t sound, it’s disruptive. On top of that, if I’m constantly doing emergency repair work and responding to all kinds of issues, I’m taking away from funds that can be spent on academic programs. To me, the two of them go hand in hand.
What makes a good School Board trustee?
First off, an open mind. You can’t come there with a preconceived agenda. It’s okay to have a list of things you’d like to explore accomplishing. Listen to your fellow board members. Listen to the community members. Listen to the teachers. Listen to the administrators. Often an issue isn’t black or white, so if you take your information from only one source, you can’t possibly make an informed decision.
Charles Schirmer
Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t reach Schirmer for this round of candidate interviews.
Schirmer, 69, is a lifelong resident of Saugerties. His most recent stint on the board began in 2008. He also served for a total of 12 years in the 1970s and 1980s. He owns and operates Charles Schirmer Construction Inc. He is a former business teacher at Saugerties High School.
In response to a question in 2011 about why he would make a good trustee, he had this to say: “I have a business administration degree from Ithaca College and after Ithaca College, I started teaching at Saugerties High School — business courses — so I have a good perspective from a teacher’s point of view about education. Also the business administration end of it gives me the business acumen to look at budgets and understand what’s going on. Because I taught for eight years, I’m very familiar with how things work at the high school level. Therefore, I wanted to be on the School Board so I could help choose the present administration. That’s why I ran three years ago. I was also on the board for 12 years back in the ’80s.”
