John Dunsmoor pledges that if he is elected Tuesday to the Oswego Board of Education, he will make the school district a better place for the entire Oswego community, especially for the students.

This is first time Dunsmoor has ran for the board of education, and he is unhappy with the animosity he feels currently inhabits the school board. “Arguing is all right but not when it’s not productive,” he said.  “I think we need to put integrity back in our job place. We need to respect each other more than we have been.”

 The first issue Dunsmoor will tackle if elected is to open the communications lines between the school district, the students and the community.  “I would like to have more information exposed to the board and the community,” he said. One way Dunsmoor plans on obtaining this goal is holding regular “town meetings” where ideas can be communicated in a less-formal setting.

Dunsmoor said that if budget cuts are necessary then they need to be spread out more fairly in the district to ensure the enrichment of the students is impacted as little as possible.

“I believe we need to re-examine the administrative costs to see if there can be reductions made there, and revisit the sale of the education center on East First Street which is only partially occupied,” he said. He noted the sale of the education center would bring millions of dollars to the district.

As for reconfiguration, Dunsmoor said he did not like the first plan that was presented and noted that he spoke in favor of keeping Minetto Elementary School open. He has three children who have attended or are attending the elementary school. “I would like to see more proof of declining enrollment,” Dunsmoor said.

He also stated he did not understand closing one school to build a “costly new addition” onto the middle school.  Dunsmoor noted that he felt the district was jumping into placing fifth- and sixth-graders in school with seventh- and eight-graders, without finding out whether or not is was a good move.

Dunsmoor said he would be in favor of a reconfiguration plan that was fiscally responsible for the school district. He noted that Minetto Elementary would not bring in a lot of revenue if the district sold the building. He also stated that if there so much room in the district, the administrators should be moved into one building.

“Hopefully we don’t ever have to close any of them,” Dunsmoor said about the elementary schools. “But if we did, I would like to see them do the right thing for our real estate.”

Other issues Dunsmoor would like to address are improving the graduation rate and increasing morale in the district.  He believes morale could be improved if more positive things were shared with the community.

One of Dunsmoor’s pet peeves is the state of the sports program. He said he takes a lot of pride in what Oswego’s sports program looks like  compared to other districts and feels that the once-excellent program has fallen off a bit.  Dunsmoor did note that the new athletic director, Scott Sugar, is a good addition to the program.

Dunsmoor feels that his experiences owning and running an onion farm, plus being one of the co-founders of New York Bold onion brand will help him serve on the board of education. He is currently the chairman of the board of Managing Members for New York Bold, LLC and has sat on the board for six out of the company’s seven years. Previously Dunsmoor served as a board member of the Cornell Cooperative Extension for Oswego County and currently serves on the Oswego Recreation Commission.

 “I think the community and people are starting to want accountability and I think we all deserve it,” Dunsmoor said about Tuesday’s election.  The farm owner said he did not know the remaining eight candidates well enough to pass judgment on them.
“I feel I can work with anyone,” he said. “If I disagree with someone, I can work through it.”

As for his message to the voters, Dunsmoor said, “Just get out and vote.” 
“If I am elected to the board I will try to instill an environment of trust, teamwork and striving for excellence from which all of our students will benefit.”

Dunsmoor stated people need to become more involved with the school district, pointing out that there are numerous ways of doing so. He noted that the Buccaneer Boosters club just increased and that “more involvement creates a better place.”