RE-ELECT SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS JASON BERLAND, MIA DIPIETRO, MELISSA JACOBS & LARA STANGEL ** MAY 17th @ HCC **

Dear Friends and Fellow Community Members,

As you may know, there are four Byram Hills Board of Education seats open for election on May 17th, and there are seven candidates running for these seats.

We write together as fellow parents in the Byram Hills community to ask you to show your pride and support for our District’s academic excellence and continuing growth by supporting all four incumbents: Jason Berland, Mia DiPietro, Melissa Jacobs, and Lara Stangel.

These incumbent Board members continue to demonstrate their commitment to the education and well-being of all students in our District. Each one has brought many years of dedicated service to our community, through volunteering in leadership positions with the PTSA, the Byram Hills Preschool Association, the Byram Hills Education Foundation (BHEF), District Site-Based Council, among other District committees. Each candidate brings a varied amount of school board experience and a very different professional background, contributing to a well-rounded board with experience in law, social work, education, and business technology. Combined, the four candidates have given more than 50 years of service to the District.

All four Board of Education incumbents are committed to a unifying common goal: partnering with the community and the administration to ensure that every child in the Byram Hills schools has access to the best programs, resources, and educational experiences to help them become well-rounded citizens and leaders of the next generation. Under the current Board’s stewardship, Byram Hills High School became a National Blue-Ribbon school in 2020, a recognition as one of the exemplary schools in our country.

Under this Board’s leadership, our District has continued on its trajectory as one of the top districts in New York and has continued to deliver a full range of robust programs while managing a budget that has been consistently below the tax cap. All four candidates are committed to state of the art pedagogical advances in all areas of the curriculum.

The Byram Hills school District is one of the very few that remained OPEN full time for all Kindergarten through 6th grade students in September 2020, while many districts relied on virtual or hybrid models. In addition, these four candidates have supported many programs and services to enhance our school communities, including:

● Adopting new math and reading curriculums to be more inclusive of different learning styles and needs of our students
● Adding a new Assistant Director of special education to ensure all students’ needs are met within the District
● Offering exciting and innovative new and multi-year programs such as StartUp and Global Scholars, to allow all students to explore their independent interests

We are fortunate during this turbulent time to have seamless collaboration among our Board of Education, Superintendent Jen Lamia and other administrators, and the BHEF and PTSA, all of whom contribute to an environment of cohesiveness and mutual respect and partnership, as we all align on the primary goal of our students’ education and well-being.   

All four incumbent candidates have different opinions and points of view on many issues, but each values and encourages respectful dialogue and effective communication with administrators and with the community.