Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; Chappaqua Central School District

Dear Friends and Neighbors: I have declared my candidacy for the Chappaqua School Board because of my longstanding dedication to promoting educational excellence in our schools and in our community. My established involvement in all aspects of our school system and my community capacity building experience has provided me with unique insights into the priorities that must govern the education of our children and maintain a successful school system. I truly value and cherish living in this community and am willing to serve the community by applying my skills in a leadership role on the school board. I do not have a singular agenda but a broad based agenda to promote educational excellence in a fiscally responsible manner that will be sustainable.

PTA/Chappaqua activities:

• District Chairperson for Health and Safety (5 years)
• Parent Representative on the District Health and Safety Committee, a school board appointed position, that, as mandated by New York State Department of Education, includes teachers, administration, school nurses, and union leadership (4 years)
• Co-Chair of the Special Education Committee ( 1 year, and committee member at Grafflin and Bell in total 5 years)
• Hospitality and Staff Appreciation Committee Member (Grafflin, and Bell for 3 years)
• Halloween Craft Fair Committee Member (Grafflin)( 3years)
• Class and Team Parent in the elementary, middle and high school
• Citizens Bipartisan School Board Nominating Committee Member(2 years)
• Ass't boys soccer coach( 2 years)
• Facilitator of local programs that included "Together we Prepare" on Emergency Preparedness for the PTA and community, and Swine Flu Preparedness this past fall'09 Professional:
• New York Medical College, Executive Director ,Partnership for a Healthy Population-" promoting the public interest", and Director of Public Health Practice, dually appointed faculty member in the School of Health Sciences and Practice and Medical College Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (10 years)
• Chairman, Vice Chair and steering committee member of the POW'R Against Tobacco Coalition for Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Rockland counties (10 years)
• Red Cross of Westchester, including Emergency Preparedness Academy (3 years)
• Director of Education and Community Outreach for the Children's Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley (2 years)
• Sustaining Grant award from NIH( National Institute of Health) for a Health Literacy project which seeks to develop strategic communications (3 years) I continue to work at New York Medical College, School of Health Sciences, where I am the Director of Public Health Practice and Executive Director of the Partnership for a Healthy Population. Among other things, I am responsible for the development of educational policies, learning objectives and management of our public health practicum program. I have participated in state and national level educational accreditation reviews with success. Plus, having grown up in the business world with a "P&L" I have helped bring grant money to the school. I am "budget-sensitive." My husband and I have 3 children and have been married for 31 years. I have extensive experience with the elementary, middle and high schools systems. Our oldest child, 26, will graduate from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania this May. Our middle child, 20, graduated from Horace Greeley High School in 2008, and is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis and our youngest, 12, is a 6th grader at Robert E. Bell Middle School. I graduated from Washington University in 1978, and worked as an executive for 11+ successful years before returning to school for a Masters Degree at Columbia University's School of Nursing and becoming a board certified family nurse practitioner. In addition to my community and volunteer work, I spent 4 years working in the Stamford, Connecticut School systems directing the school-based health centers. All this, and more, have afforded me the opportunity to gain insight into the priorities and importance of our educational system and has given me the chance to work with all of the constituencies of the process. That is what we need to have in place if we are going to continue to maintain a successful school system. Why vote for Amy Ansehl? Education is vital to each of us, our children and to our community and now more than ever:
• School Board Members need to be open, respectful and be responsive to the needs of the community. We need a transparent process.
• We need to set priorities and make hard decisions. Taxes are very high and we are in the midst of a major economic re-set
• Listen and be responsive to the Chappaqua community's needs and its budget
• Establish short and long-range goals that are articulated to the Chappaqua community and are implemented
• Maintain the highest level of education (it preserves our property values and allows our children to attain their goals)
• Keep our quality teachers and ensure they are compensated fairly for their contributions
• Make certain that our children enjoy an enriched education process that includes arts, music and small class size
• Make certain that we maximize State entitled funding and grant funding
• Comply with educational requirements and mandates to the fullest extent of the law
• Ensure educational opportunities to ALL our children