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Incumbent Michael Simpkins is 53 years old and has lived in Peekskill for 17 years. He and his family and attend the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Peekskill. He and his wife Jacqueline have been married for 22 years and have two children presently in the Peekskill City School District, ages nine and 16 plus a daughter who is a 2011 graduate of Peekskill High School now in college.
Simpkins is a proud 1979 graduate of the Leavelle McCampbell High School in Graniteville, S.C. He studied Music, Voice and Art at USC-Aiken, South Carolina, South Carolina State and in 1984 received a B.A Degree in Music/Art Minor from Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
In 1988 he began work for seven years as a certified caseworker with the New York City Child Welfare Administration. In 1994 he started and worked for 12 years with the New York City Mental Health Research Association as a service coordinator coordinating evaluations and family services for children from birth to three years old with developmental delays in New York City and Westchester County Early Intervention Program. In 2006 he started working for two years with the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Disabilities as a Medicaid Service Coordinator for Adults. Presently, He is employed as a youth counselor at Lincoln Hall, a residential treatment center that provides specialized services for boys.
Why did you choose to run for the board of education this year?
During my 10 year experience on the Peekskill board of education, I have learned and continue to be open-minded and appreciate all complaints, comments, concerns and criticism regarding the operation of the district from the public, employees of the district, students and fellow board Members. This is an environment of stressful economics, yearly cuts in educational funding, constant increases in unfunded mandates, and increases in health and retirement benefits. The implementation of the 2 percent tax cap law and common core standards and nationwide school scandals that impact negatively the morale of the effectiveness of a learning environment and takes the focus off of the children.
What issues in particular would you like see addressed?
I challenge and believe that our district, union and community can move beyond posturing and finger-pointing and instead can work together-hard and constructively to tackle some of the toughest above issues facing our district and public education. I want to continue to work to find innovative and fiscally responsible management practices in order to deliver instruction in the classroom. We must bridge the gap and increase the educational services for our struggling, special needs and gifted students. We must improve district wide reading skills. The economic climate has made it especially difficult to calculate how t provide our children and parents with all they reasonably expect from our school, while recognizing that the dollars are simply not available to meet our goals. We continue to find ourselves in unfortunate positions of having to cut even deeper into programs and district operations. Making such serious decisions that affect not only our children but also the lives of the talented, hardworking members of our workforce is a responsibility that I will continue to take very seriously as a board member.
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