Mr. Zamor is currently the President of the Board of Education in Mount Vernon, New York, just outside of New York City. The Mount Vernon City School District has an annual budget of $250,000,000 million dollars. In Mid-2015, Mr. Zamor joined the Board of Trustees as an agent of change. The city’s school district has for decades been troubled by decreasing morale, neglected infrastructure, poor academic results, and budget and fiscal challenges, while school districts in neighboring towns have been thriving.
Mr. Zamor felt that a change in leadership in the Administration and the Board was critical in order for a transformation to take place.
The district was in dire need of a “Big- Turn Around.” Hence, by implementing the following steps for a successful transformation, Lesly laid out a road map for change.
The district needed a visionary and progressive Board to create a successful educational program and to renovate the school district’s crumbling infrastructure which would add value to the community and properties. As stewards of tax payer dollars, staying conservative, accountable and working within its means, Mr. Zamor sought to “restore and restructure” decades of failure and neglect of the 16 schools that comprise the district starting with the largest one on the south side of town, where many residents are economically challenged and whose children experience low morale and self-esteem due to existing social economic conditions. “The restoration of Graham School, both physically and academically will become a beacon of success and pride for the residents in this part of the city.” Said Zamor.
Together, with his team, Mr. Zamor outlined the goals that would bring about the “Big Turn Around”, and to that point, here’s what they accomplished:
1. Achieve the goal of a zero increase budget and stop the increasing tax burden on homeowners:
This team campaigned on stopping frivolous tax increases and they delivered. Now they needed to continue the progress towards ending ridiculous tax increases with another ZERO increase budget for the upcoming school year. Mr. Zamor said “We can continue to achieve this by creating a strong, vibrant and successful district. This will help to retain our current residents, and attract new residents to our great city, thereby broadening our tax base”. There are so many homes in Mt. Vernon either near or in foreclosure, for sale or completely vacant and abandoned, yet they have few buyers. “We all know that good schools are the number one reason new families move into a town. It’s no wonder why we have so many homes for sale, and with the lack of new families moving here, the city and school tax burden continues to be absorbed by those who remain in Mt. Vernon, and we must change that..”, said Mr. Zamor.
2. Hire a new and accomplished Superintendent of schools to build a new cabinet of progressive administrators that would carry forth the vision of an educational renaissance in Mt. Vernon.
The Superintendent search team created by the Board sought a respected and visionary new leader for the district’s new academic vision. This team recognized that ability in Dr.Kenneth Hamilton. Mr.Zamor and his team believed in Dr. Hamilton and won the majority over to his camp. The symbol of his hard work and dedication has been very visible from the succesful passing of a $108 Million dollar school bond that would begin to restore pride in the district that can be felt from all parts of the city.
3. The creation of an Academic High School of Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics(S.T.E.A.M) and the return of a strong Vocational High School
All parents want the best education for their children. With many Mt. Vernon schools failing or underperforming, many families do not have the option to send their children to private or parochial schools. And those that do, struggle with daily expenses, unintended home repairs and very little savings while continuing to pay high property taxes. Under the new plan, AB DAVIS Middle school will become the new S.T.E.A.M high school and parents will have the opportunity to educate their highly achieving children right here in Mt. Vernon. There will be a criteria of entry with a combination of grades, test scores and teacher recommendation to ensure that students who attend this school can succeed with the vigorous curriculum that will be offered. This will help to reverse the “Brain Drain” in the city, where many of the brighest children had left the district to attend private schools. This new “smart school” initiative would attrach new families to Mt. Vernon while helping to keep the current ones form leaving!
Also, while recognizing that many students will want to take a career path straight out of high school, Mr.Zamor supported the return of a strong career, technical and vocational program at Mt.Vernon High School and a performing arts program at Thornton High School. At MVHS, students will see the return of multiple disciplines ranging from Film and Television, Culinary Arts, Auto Mechanics, all the ways to cosmetology. While at Thornton HS, they will fully engaged in the performing arts and music from grades siz to twelve. All three high schools will have academic rigor and sports. Students at the Mandela alternative high school will have the benefit of smaller class room sizes and more project based learning opportunities that will help them merge the standard learning curriculum with real world challenges…thus engaging students in the educational process through their life experiences. This “tailored” approach to teaching recognizes that not all children learn with the same teaching methods. Students here will also have the opportunity to engage in the career and vocational paths as well as athletics, arts and music offered at the other high schools.
4. Strengthen early childhood education and enrichment to give our children a strong reading and math foundation.
Under the leadership of the Superintendent and Mr.Zamor, the district is now moving towards full day Universal Pre-k for all children in the community. Studies show that by giving children a head start with Pre-k education, these children are more likely to advance, stay in school and achieve more than children that do not.
In addition, full day Pre-K, will give parents who need it, extra time to go to and from work to help make ends meet. Too often, with many existing Pre-K programs that start late and end early, parents rarely have the time to accomplish anything meaningful during the day. This will greatly give them the time they need to be most productive for their families.
5- Repairing and maintaining school grounds which encourages learning by creating a quality educational environment
We all recognize the importance of a first impression. For too long, many people have a negative impression of Mt. Vernon Schools strictly from the physical appearance of its school buildings and grounds. For those in the community that do not have children in the district, most of what they experience is the blight that these ill maintained facilities create in their neighborhoods. If you want to instill value and pride, then you must first do so by creating a clean and nurturing environment in all three pillars of the community…the Schools, the City and the places of Worship.
It is the districts responsibility to generate the maximum beautification and functional utility per dollar spent throughout its facilities. Items such as good curb appeal, attractive classrooms, auditoriums, gymnasiums, libraries, well-landscaped and litter free grounds, and the use of pleasant colors inside and outside the building will create the sound learning environment for education that will in turn increase marketability of homes and market value for all property owners, not to mention pride in our children, neighborhood and city.
6- Focus on parent engagement and participation in the educational experience. Higher rated schools have strong parent participation in the homes, and in the schools.
Even greater than before, with the new $108 million dollar Bond the $45 million dollar State awarded Energy Performance Contract (EPC), the BOARD of TRUSTEES will need to be vigilant about safeguarding tax dollars from erroneous contracts and the improper use of funds from these sources… with unprecedented oversight, the district will achieve greater savings and maximize its use of funds. However, the institution and implementation of contracted services and their deliverables must be closely coordinated and monitored for maximum efficiencies while staying mindful of the design and visual impact from these projects to produce the most desirable outcomes.
With the return of the Facilities Department, Mr. Zamor has pushed for and installed a Senior Architect for the District. This improves the Board’s capacity for professional oversight with subject expertise in these matters. The errors of past Boards and Administrations, is that they just did not have the expertise to properly supervise the implementation of professional services throughout the district. They had to solely rely on the word of the vendors or contractors providing the services, which quite often was inferior and went incomplete. Too often in the past, outsiders would come to Mt. Vernon and expect that the district would pay them for work that may be a little better than what they had. Somehow the word is out, that there is no oversight in Mount Vernon and that the community does not know any better. Well, the winds have shifted, and we have true leaders on this Board that know better to hire the experts that we need to preserve our schools, save tax payers money, and get the best services with the money that we spend.
Mt. Vernon Schools, moving forward, will only accept excellence in everything that we do!!