Board of Ed Candidate Forum This Thursday, May 9th at Middle School

This Thursday, May 9th at 7pm there is a League of Women Voters of Rye, Rye Brook & Port Chester candidates forum featuring candidates for the Rye Board of Ed. The candidates will discuss the issues and answer questions. 

Thursday's forum will be held at the Rye Middle School multi-purpose room (1 Parsons Street, Rye).

Note this is a contested election – there are three candidates for two seats. The actual election is on Tuesday, May 21, 2019.

Below please find bios and statement from each of the three candidates:

I also have bios on and quotes from on all the candidates. Here they are:

Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson has lived in Rye for six years and has two children at Milton School. She has been an active volunteer for a number of school organizations. She is currently a member of the School District’s Curriculum Council and the Math Curriculum Review Committee and Heard in Rye. At Milton School, she was parent organization Co-President, Treasurer, Fair Chair, and Auction Chair. At Christ’s Church Nursery School, she was Co-President, Auction Chair, and served on the Search Committee for the new Director. She is currently Co-Chair of the Friends of Rye City Schools.

She has worked as Human Resources Director in the Greenwich, Stamford and Wilton, CT, Public Schools, and as a Staff Development Teacher in Stamford. She began her career as a 5th-grade teacher in the Montgomery County, MD, public schools. Jane has a BS from Villanova University, a Master of Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Administration Certification from Johns Hopkins University.

“What you spend your time doing is a reflection of what you are passionate about. My entire professional career, as well as all of my volunteer commitments, have been focused on public education. I believe that high-quality public education is a right for all students. Having worked as a substitute teacher, classroom teacher, staff development teacher and Director of Human Capital Development in large urban school systems as well as small high achieving school districts provides me with valuable insights that I look to bring to my work as a Board of Education member. “

Jennifer Boyle

Jennifer Boyle has served on the Board of Education since 2016, currently as Vice President. She is co-chair of the Wellness Committee and serves on the Facilities and Communications Committees and on Management Council. During her Board tenure, she has also served on the Audit, Health and Safety, and Policy Committees.

Prior to joining the Board, Jenn served for 4 years as Co-Chair of the Friends of Rye City School District. Jenn has served the broader Rye community through volunteer work with the Rye Newcomers and Neighbors Club, the Auxiliary Board for Rye Presbyterian Nursery School as Personnel Chair and a co-head of the search for a new Director. She previously worked in Public Relations for Edelman, New York, and has a BA from Loyola University. Jenn is a 12-year Rye resident and has three children in the schools.

“As part of my service on the Rye City School Board of Education, I am proud to have been instrumental in the formation of The Rye Commitment, which emphasizes supporting the important work of our students, faculty, and staff, and engaging with the broader community. It has become the touchstone to which the Board and Administration continually return when we make critical decisions about addressing the educational needs of today and planning for the future. I very much look forward to the opportunity to continue my service to the entire Rye community.”

Pooja Kotecha

Pooja Kotecha has lived in Rye for three years and has one child at Midland School. She has served on the District’s Technology Committee for the past year and a half. Pooja has over 18 years of software engineering experience; she previously worked at IBM and is currently Director of Engineering at Turbonomic. She has 6 issued patents for her work on software algorithms. Pooja has a BE in Computer Engineering from L.D. College of Engineering (Gujarat, India) in India and an MS in Computer Science from New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“I would like to serve as a Board member in order to contribute to the collective interests and goals of our community’s children with the overall objective of betterment of public education. In these challenging times for the public education system, I want to bring new ideas, build consensus, make decisions and provide effective bilateral communications between the community and the school administration with increased transparency. My overall interests in schools are in areas of curriculum, hiring and retaining great teachers, technology, facilities, and physical education. If elected, I would bring diversity to the Board; firstly ethnic diversity as an Indian-American, and, secondly, technical expertise because of my extensive background in Computer Science and passion for STEM, as well as my leadership and managerial experience. I hope to help make learning exciting, fun and contagious, and lead our schools into the 21st century.”