Rachel Gilliar said she is seeking re-election as a trustee on the Port Washington Board of Education to aid in developing creative curriculums for students and retaining the educators in charge of teaching them.
Gilliar, a mother of four, is running against Adam Block, Julie Epstein and Christina Nadolne in this year’s election, with the top two finishers winning seats on the board.
Gilliar received her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth before attending the University of Michigan law school. Gilliar’s work in the legal field led her to receive the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, she said.
Gilliar said she first ran for the board in 2017 after implementing a camp centering around innovative and out-of-the-box learning for students throughout the North Shore.
“I sent my two oldest children to Camp Invention the summer before they entered the first grade,” Gilliar said in a phone interview with Blank Slate Media. “After I saw how wonderful and unique the programming was, I wondered why there was no location closer than the one in Rockville Centre.”
Gilliar said she became an integral part of bringing Camp Invention to Port Washington, so much so, that she became the director of programming five years ago. Under Gilliar’s supervision, the program’s enrollment increased from 40 children in its first year to 140 this past summer, she said.
When she announced her candidacy three years ago, Gilliar said, one of the main areas she felt she could improve was the communication between the board, parents and other stakeholders within the school district.
Now, on the verge of her second election, Gilliar said she is hoping to use the mended communication to implore residents to prioritize providing students with enrichment programs and a sufficient number of educators to instruct them.
“I’ve spent the past three years speaking to various parents, groups, stakeholders and educators, and tried to make them all realize that we are all on the same team here,” Gilliar said. “At the end of the day, we want to provide the best curriculum and education for our students. When all of the moving pieces come together, I am confident there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”
While providing an enhanced curriculum and enrichment program has been on Gilliar’s to-do list for the past several years, this year’s election is headlined by unprecedented concerns that stretch far beyond the traditional ones.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gilliar said, the school district, like most others, had to adapt to distance learning procedures and virtual classrooms very quickly. Gilliar said the board has been proactive in its early response to safety, something she believed had a significant impact on the district being slightly ahead of the curve.
“Our district closed a bit ahead of other districts because as a board we felt that we had an obligation to keep the children in the community safe,” Gilliar said. “I read the science, and the trustees ultimately agreed that the faster we got into social distancing, the better the situation we would be in.”
Gilliar touted the work of the district’s tech department for working throughout the pandemic to provide students with the resources they need, even beyond education.
“Administrators have literally gone knocking on doors throughout the district making sure that our students have the technological resources they need,” Gilliar said. “There are also a number of students within the district who depend on at least one meal from their school each day, and I am happy to say we have been able to provide those as well.”
Distance learning though, Gilliar said, has been and remains an issue should it have to be implemented throughout the district for the foreseeable future.
While she recognized the need for teachers to quickly adapt to new technology and educate their students, people have found issues with the distribution of assignments and some think that distance learning is not working for all families.
Gilliar said the coronavirus pandemic caused the board to go back to the drawing board regarding this year’s adopted $163.2 million budget, which has the second-lowest budget-to-budget increase in almost three decades, according to Board of Education President Nora Johnson.
“A lot of people don’t always realize the behind-the-scenes work that our board does,” Gilliar said. “A budget is tentatively drafted up by February or March, but with this pandemic, we had to go back and work tirelessly to prioritize our children’s education while keeping under the state-mandated tax levy as well.”
Gilliar said her ability to follow through on promises and interact with the stakeholders in the district makes her an ideal candidate in this year’s election.
“I have the track record of listening to parents, administrators and educators,” Gilliar said. “I think all of them are vital pieces in the puzzle of making education fantastic in Port Washington. It’s going to be a difficult year for education, but I have the experience and commitment to help guide us through that together.”
Absentee ballots for the election of two trustees and the budget vote must be received by the school district by Tuesday, June 9, at 5 p.m.
