Torres is a leader for our generation
My name is Matthew R.C. Evans and I am a trustee on the Elmsford Board of Education in Elmsford, NY in Westchester County. In 2007, I was elected at the age of 19, making me one of the youngest serving Board of Education members in our great state. The people of New Paltz have a great opportunity on their hands. They have an opportunity to elect someone with passion, drive, desire and connection with the community to help lead their school district into the future. To have been in the district on a daily basis means to know what the district needs to move forward, where progress can be made, and above all else what the students need to succeed. It is with that, that I endorse and urge the citizens of New Paltz to elect Daniel Torres to the New Paltz Board of Education.
Though this may be the first elected position Mr. Torres is seeking, he is certainly no rookie to leadership or volunteerism. He has campaigned, organized and volunteered for scores of campaigns, including being the New Paltz coordinator for the Barack Obama for President campaign. Outside of politics, Daniel has given himself up to his community, volunteering as a softball assistant coach and a teaching assistant at his place of worship. Mr. Torres is dedicated to his community, dedicated to his school and has a track record of being dedicated to doing the right thing.
Let us not ignore the obvious: Mr. Torres is 18 years old. However, age cannot teach you the true attributes necessary to serve your community and serve it well: heart, passion, will power, motivation and aspiration to ensure that a New Paltz education is an education of excellence. The true qualities of a leader are innate, and Daniel showcases them on the outside. He has an atypical, yet necessary insight on the district. He can personally attest to what works, what does not, where improvements need to be made, and what the students need most to succeed both academically and socially. I can say from personal experience that being younger than your board of education colleagues will allow for you to offer different perspectives at the table, thus yielding the appropriate actions being taken.
My generation is making a stand, proclaiming that we are ready to serve. With leaders like Daniel Torres, the future is bright. For wise insight, true integrity, new perspective, and a drive for excellence above all else, I strongly urge you to cast your vote for Daniel Torres for the New Paltz Board of Education.
Matthew R.C. Evans, Trustee
Elmsford Board of Education
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KT and Torres deserve your voteI don't know whose seats are up or who the other candidates for school board are, but I do know that I will be voting for KT Tobin Flusser and Dan Torres.
KT Flusser is an active, engaged community resident who regularly attends GreenWorks, town, village, school board and a myriad of other meetings. And she doesn't just sit there -- she always contributes thoughtful, reasoned data.
Good data leads to good decisions and KT's professional training in research and personal passion for education will help our school board deal with the challenges ahead.
And as for Dan Torres -- what better testament to its effectiveness could a school district hope for than to have educated such an outstanding young man? I like his enthusiasm and his practical ideas on how to "green" the district.
Let's give both Torres and Flusser a chance to serve on our school board.
Kitty Brown
New Paltz
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Classroom to Boardroom
New Paltz teen to run for school board seat
New Paltz High School senior Daniel Torres Photo by Lauren ThomasBy Mike Townshend
New Paltz Times
April 09, 2009
Daniel Torres thinks he knows a little bit about the New Paltz schools. And the 18-year-old high school senior wants to parlay that insider knowledge into a run for the Board of Education.
“I did a lot with the Barack Obama campaign. I was one of the youngest volunteers,” explained Torres, who served as the New Paltz coordinator of Hudson Valley for Obama.
“I realized that even at such a young age I could make a difference. I’ve always been very interested in school politics.”
He still has a lot more campaigning to do, but if Torres wins, he’d be the youngest person to ever sit on the Board of Education. That would beat out Pete Fairweather, who won a school board seat as a 20-year-old college student in 1976. That possible distinction doesn’t much bother Torres.
“I think that my age is to my advantage. I have an insight that many people don’t have,” he said.
Candidates don’t have to return their petitions to be on the ballot until April 20 at 5 p.m. So far, no one has turned in their signatures early, schools district Clerk Beverly Sickler said.
Torres has more than the mandated 30 signatures already, and that first hurdle to Election Day wasn’t so rough.
“I needed 50 signatures to run for senior class vice president – I need 30 for the school board,” he joked.
In May, three school board seats will be up for grab. Two of them belong to current incumbents Rod Dressel and Don Kerr. But the final seat had belonged to Laura Walls, who resigned to take a job with the Ulster County Government.
Torres first publicly announced his intentions to run to run for the school board in early March in the opinion section of this paper. Currently, he has only one known challenger – grassroots activist KT Tobin Flusser.
Flusser had been active in rallying the district to renovate New Paltz Middle School instead of repairing or selling the building outright. She also serves on the New Paltz GreenWorks committee.
For his part, Torres wants to see the board take more steps to go green. Report cards should be made a Web-only item to save the district postage costs. New Paltz Middle School should be completely renovated not just “patched up” or repaired.
“The school district is really a reflection of what the community is,” he said. And New Paltz is a green town.
Torres plans to stay local. He plans to start college at Poughkeepsie-based Marist College in the fall.
In the past, Torres has lobbied Olympia Sports store to give part of their high school team merchandising profits to the schools. He was also named one of the Times Herald-Record’s “10 Under 20.” Torres has also written for this paper as a student correspondent.
For more information on Torres’ campaign, head to Facebook and search the phrase “Daniel Torres for Board of Education.” Currently, 260 people had joined the campaign group online.
For information on his probable opponent, visit kt4schoolboard.blogspot.com.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Is 20 the New 40 of Politics?
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The face of politics may be getting younger here in the Hudson Valley.
The Village of Walden’s newest and youngest mayor was sworn into office Monday. Brian Maher is 23 years old. And according to his research (not all municipalities have that information readily available since Village Elections were just held March 18), that makes him New York state’s youngest mayor!
While our News 12 camera was at Walden Village Hall for the official swearing-in, I met another young man from the Hudson Valley with similarly lofty ambitions. Mike Coleman, a 22-year-old from New Windsor, told me he’s planning a run for Town Councilman.
And in Monday’s “Times Herald-Record,” an article appeared about Dan Torres from New Paltz. The 18-year-old wants a seat on the school board.
With fresh ideas, plenty of energy, and a seeming open-minded willingness to work with those “more seasoned” public servants…could local politics be doing a Benjamin Button?
We’ll have to see!
http://blogs.news12.com/westchester/2009/04/07/is-20-the-new-40-of-politics/
The face of politics may be getting younger here in the Hudson Valley.
The Village of Walden’s newest and youngest mayor was sworn into office Monday. Brian Maher is 23 years old. And according to his research (not all municipalities have that information readily available since Village Elections were just held March 18), that makes him New York state’s youngest mayor!
While our News 12 camera was at Walden Village Hall for the official swearing-in, I met another young man from the Hudson Valley with similarly lofty ambitions. Mike Coleman, a 22-year-old from New Windsor, told me he’s planning a run for Town Councilman.
And in Monday’s “Times Herald-Record,” an article appeared about Dan Torres from New Paltz. The 18-year-old wants a seat on the school board.
With fresh ideas, plenty of energy, and a seeming open-minded willingness to work with those “more seasoned” public servants…could local politics be doing a Benjamin Button?
We’ll have to see!
http://blogs.news12.com/westchester/2009/04/07/is-20-the-new-40-of-politics/
Monday, April 6, 2009
18-year-old vying for school board seat in New Paltz
At 18, Dan Torres of New Paltz is running for a seat on his school board. The high school senior is seen above at home on Wednesday.
Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON
By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
Posted: April 06, 2009 - 6:00 AM
NEW PALTZ — Dan Torres is a veteran of three local and national political campaigns.
Last year, he negotiated a deal that brought unexpected money to New Paltz High School and to 200 other high schools in the northeast. He's got his own public-access TV show. And when he looks at the local school board that governs the district, he discerns what he calls an "age gap."
Meet 18-year-old Dan Torres, high school senior and candidate for that very school board. If elected, he'll be the youngest public official to be elected to office in New Paltz since 23-year-old Jason West became mayor five years ago.
Torres is running for one of three three-year seats on the New Paltz board. The nominating petitions are not due until April 17. Already though, incumbent Rod Dressel Jr. and KT Tobin Flusser, a veteran observer who has been active in the district, have indicated they are running as well.
Torres figures he knows more about today's high school life than any of the other expected candidates. But he also has some other experience. Last year, he persuaded the Olympia sporting goods chain, which has an outlet in New Paltz, to donate to the high school a portion of the proceeds from each item it sells with the New Paltz High logo. The Olympia chain ended up donating about $600 to the school and about $160,000 to schools throughout the region.
Torres was involved in President Barack Obama's campaign, traveling as far away as Pennsylvania to help get out the vote. He was also part of attorney John Sennett's unsuccessful bid for Ulster County district attorney and was also active the county Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort last fall.
When Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach met him then, he was startled.
"He's a remarkable young man who is wiser than anyone his age — I'd use the phrase 'old soul' to describe him."
Torres has focused his campaign on "bringing the district into the 21st century." That means no more paper report cards when electronic reports are available, more innovative energy alternatives and bridging the "age gap" whenever possible.
Dressel, who is 48, welcomed Torres to the race. "It is great to see a high school student who has been involved actually run for a seat," he said.
Last year, he negotiated a deal that brought unexpected money to New Paltz High School and to 200 other high schools in the northeast. He's got his own public-access TV show. And when he looks at the local school board that governs the district, he discerns what he calls an "age gap."
Meet 18-year-old Dan Torres, high school senior and candidate for that very school board. If elected, he'll be the youngest public official to be elected to office in New Paltz since 23-year-old Jason West became mayor five years ago.
Torres is running for one of three three-year seats on the New Paltz board. The nominating petitions are not due until April 17. Already though, incumbent Rod Dressel Jr. and KT Tobin Flusser, a veteran observer who has been active in the district, have indicated they are running as well.
Torres figures he knows more about today's high school life than any of the other expected candidates. But he also has some other experience. Last year, he persuaded the Olympia sporting goods chain, which has an outlet in New Paltz, to donate to the high school a portion of the proceeds from each item it sells with the New Paltz High logo. The Olympia chain ended up donating about $600 to the school and about $160,000 to schools throughout the region.
Torres was involved in President Barack Obama's campaign, traveling as far away as Pennsylvania to help get out the vote. He was also part of attorney John Sennett's unsuccessful bid for Ulster County district attorney and was also active the county Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort last fall.
When Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach met him then, he was startled.
"He's a remarkable young man who is wiser than anyone his age — I'd use the phrase 'old soul' to describe him."
Torres has focused his campaign on "bringing the district into the 21st century." That means no more paper report cards when electronic reports are available, more innovative energy alternatives and bridging the "age gap" whenever possible.
Dressel, who is 48, welcomed Torres to the race. "It is great to see a high school student who has been involved actually run for a seat," he said.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, Oh My!
I am trying to communicate with as many people as I possibly can before the May 19th election. I think using things like, well this blog, is very important. I truly believe that this is where a lot of our media is going. Newspapers are dying out, while Facebook, You Tube, and similar sites are flourishing.
I decided to set up a You Tube account for my campaign. I currently have only a few videos, but don’t worry I am working on it! My You Tube account is www.youtube.com/Torres4NPschools. Here is one of the videos I have posted right now….
I learned while working for the Obama Campaign that these methods of communication are essential to truly getting out any message. I feel that as a District we should try to further explore this world. In my opinion the budget, and the proposed budget, should always be made available off of our District website. Community input is very important, and I think we need to further push things like blogs or other internet forums to let people voice there opinions on certain issues. We should host more internet surveys, and make our meeting more available to the public. People shouldn’t just have to turn to the “Letters to the Editor” portion of the New Paltz Times when they have an issue or want to see a change.
I am aware that all meetings are viewable off of Public Access, but not everyone gets that channel, I don’t! I think we should explore putting meetings, or parts of them on sites like You Tube, or maybe even live stream the meetings off of our website. This is a relatively simple thing to do, and I think it will spark up more community input in our meetings and decision making.
I decided to set up a You Tube account for my campaign. I currently have only a few videos, but don’t worry I am working on it! My You Tube account is www.youtube.com/Torres4NPschools. Here is one of the videos I have posted right now….
I learned while working for the Obama Campaign that these methods of communication are essential to truly getting out any message. I feel that as a District we should try to further explore this world. In my opinion the budget, and the proposed budget, should always be made available off of our District website. Community input is very important, and I think we need to further push things like blogs or other internet forums to let people voice there opinions on certain issues. We should host more internet surveys, and make our meeting more available to the public. People shouldn’t just have to turn to the “Letters to the Editor” portion of the New Paltz Times when they have an issue or want to see a change.
I am aware that all meetings are viewable off of Public Access, but not everyone gets that channel, I don’t! I think we should explore putting meetings, or parts of them on sites like You Tube, or maybe even live stream the meetings off of our website. This is a relatively simple thing to do, and I think it will spark up more community input in our meetings and decision making.
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