Three seek re-election in Highland

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 5/12/21

On May 18th Highland residents will vote on a $47,133,657 budget for the 2021-22 school year and on three incumbent candidates running unopposed for three year terms on the school board.

Mike …

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Three seek re-election in Highland

Posted

On May 18th Highland residents will vote on a $47,133,657 budget for the 2021-22 school year and on three incumbent candidates running unopposed for three year terms on the school board.

Mike Bakatsias has had a long career in public education and is presently the Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Personnel for the Marlborough School District. He has served on the Highland school board since 2016. When he first took his seat he remembers that the initial budgets he worked on were challenging after the economic downturn and recovery from 2012 to 2015.

“They were cutting a lot of programs, they were cutting a lot of electives in trying to balance the budgets,” he said. “I was concerned about that as I had three boys in the Highland schools and was concerned about their education moving forward. Just having knowledge of public education, I felt that I needed to be part of the solution.”

Bakatsias said he finds the current school board, “to be a very balanced group and one I enjoy participating in and working with.” He said the processes of the board are working and all decisions are made with complete transparency.

“There are honest, open dealings and I think we’ve been able to accomplish much,” he said.

Bakatsias said in compiling the school budgets the board members place affordability in the forefront on their discussions.

“That’s a goal, we want our kids to be able to grow up and live here and not have to have six figure jobs to do it,” he said.

Bakatsias said he looked back at past increases in the budget and the present board has worked to ‘smooth that out’ so the impact upon taxpayers is relatively flat. He said the idea was for taxes to not exceed a $1,000 increase over a ten year period, so for a $400,000 home the annual increases should be no more than $175. He said, “this is a trajectory that can sustain a present Highland citizenry so you’re not displaced, you’re not taxed out of your home. I think these kinds of parameters keep a modest budget in place for Highland’s children and still offer a good program.”
Camille Adoma is presently the Principal at the Twin Towers Middle School in Middletown and has served one term on the Highland school board.

After initially attending a number of school board meetings, Adoma decided to run for a seat on the board to find out what was going on in her hometown school district. She has two children currently in the district, a Junior in High School and an 8th grader.

Adoma said the most immediate challenge is making sure there is a safe, full reopening of the schools, hopefully in September of this year. She feels the pandemic has not only had an impact on the academic side of education but also on the emotional health of the students, areas that will need staff and administrative support.

Adoma also feels the board has been working well together, which results in doing what is best for the students.

Adoma said her time on the school board, “has been a very positive experience and I’m proud that we’ve responded to the challenges in these times when things weren’t right and we continue to do our best to correct those things that come up.”

Adoma has been actively involved in the district’s Equity Committee.

“It was to get stakeholders involved in response to concerns about having a more inclusive school environment,” she said, noting that matters about race, a lack of diversity in the school staff and sexual orientation are ongoing topics the committee has been discussing. “Given everything that’s happened over the last year with our students, families and our staff, it’s been very good at helping students feel welcome and feel safe. This is just an example of how we have been responsive s a school board.”

Adoma said they had to do things differently because of Covid, “that I think will be good once we go back to a normal state. I appreciate hearing from the community through Zoom sessions and it was very helpful. It is always good to hear because we’re here to represent the community and the more we hear, the better informed our decisions will be.”

Ed Meisel is running for a third term on the school board. He is a freelance writer and a former educator in the district.
Meisel feels there are “very good people” serving on this current school board.

“Their sincere intent is to do good things for the district and I think it’s a very balanced group and each one of them brings something to the table,” he said. “I really don’t feel like any of the board members are acting selfishly but they are actually acting for the betterment of the community and for their school district and I’m proud to be a part of that.”
Meisel feels the same about everyone in the Highland school community – parents, students, board members, administrators teachers – who have all navigated the travails of the pandemic.

“Everybody has worked together in a fashion that would be nice to see more of that in the world,” he said. “The Highland community did a tremendous job even when they didn’t agree, they were able to voice it constructively and listen to one another. From where I was sitting I saw so much positivity in terms of a community working together to get to a better place.”

If re-elected Meisel said the first order of business would be to help students get back to a feeling of normalcy.

“They are the foremost concern and getting them back to a place of feeling secure and in a safe world again and then for our school environment,” he said. “I think we’re well on our way to that and I think everybody was acting towards the betterment of the school and the betterment of the students and I was very proud to be a part of that.”