Classroom to Boardroom

New Paltz teen to run for school board seat

New Paltz High School senior Daniel Torres Photo by Lauren Thomas

By 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.