Pat-Med BOE Candidate Spotlight: Donald Atkins

Patch asked the three Patchogue-Medford Board of Education candidates running in the May 21 election a number of questions and filmed their video pitch to the community as to why they should be elected. Below are the questions and answers with incumbent candidate Donald Atkins, and in the media gallery is his video. Profiles with incumbent candidate Thomas Donofrio and challenging candidate Kevin Maccabee went up Wednesday and Thursday respectively, which is a different order than the alphabetical and reverse alphabetical already used for the Meet the BOE Candidate Night's Opening and Closing statements. The election is "at-large," meaning that the top two-vote getters will earn the open seats.

Patch: Why have you chosen to join the Board of Education?

Donald Atkins: The District has come a long way financially in the last few years. The next few years will be critical in maintaining fiscal discipline. If handled in a diligent manner, Patchogue-Medford will surely become a model District providing a well rounded education to all. 

Patch: What aspects of your background give you an advantage in being a part of the Board of Education?

Atkins: I currently hold the position of Assistant-Vice President, Director of Disability Underwriting for a major insurance carrier. My 40 years of experience in the financial sectorassisted me in handling many of the budgetary and financial challenges facing the School District of today. During the last 3 three years I have learned the nuances of the educational needs of our students, both academically and socially. I look forward to further using my skills to ensure that our students are given the opportunity to be all that they can be. 

Patch: What is the biggest issue that the Board of Education is going to face in the 2013-2014 school year?

Atkins: Unfunded mandates continue to negatively impact the public school system. When implementing the 2% tax cap, Albany stated that there would be a review of unfunded mandates and changes would be made.  To date, Albany has done nothing in this area.  In addition, we must not fool ourselves with our past success when making financial decisions. We need to bring back programs and look at class sizes.  When doing so, we must ensure that programs brought back and reduction in class size, are funded by ongoing revenue streams. We cannot assume that the state will fund school districts as they have in the past. We need to be prepared to face the unexpected. We have to better reach the public concerning our annual public budget review meetings. 

Patch: Patchogue-Medford has suffered a lot of cuts due to state mandates, what kinds of programs would you want to bring back if you could?

Atkins: I would like to see additional Business class offerings. Although extremely costly, I would also like increase our BOCES program availability.  Again, we can only do this through consistent ongoing revenue streams.  We must remain disciplined when expanding program offerings. 

Patch: What's one thing about the Patchogue-Medford school district that the public should know more about?

Atkins: During the last several years the District is quietly turning around the financial mess it was found to be in, during the early 2000’s. The quality and scope of the educational offerings continues to increase. I personally believe that Patchogue-Medford is well on its way to being a District we all can be proud of.