GUILDERLAND — Two Guilderland School Board members — Blanca Gonzalez-Parker and the board’s president, Seema Rivera — are enthusiastically running for re-election on May 21.

The third member whose three-year term is up, Nate Sabourin, will not run again for the nine-member board. The posts are unpaid.

“While I have certainly enjoyed my time on the Board, I have some other matters — both personal and professional — that I need to refocus my attention on,” Sabourin told The Enterprise in an email.

Sabourin, a lawyer and the only male on the board, served for one term.

“In addition,” he went on, “I have always advocated for ‘new voices’ on the Board, so my hope is that this will give someone else an opportunity to do some good work for the District.”

School board candidates must be 18 or older, able to read and write, and have lived in the district for at least one year but not be employed by the district.

Forty-three signatures of qualified district voters must be submitted to the board clerk by April 22. The number of signatures is based on 2-percent of the previous year’s vote.

Last year, only the three incumbents ran but they had to gather 96 signatures because voter turnout was higher in 2022 with a hotly contested election in which 10 candidates ran for four seats. For the first time in years, some candidates ran as part of a slate. Two slates of four formed while two candidates ran independently.

One slate was formed through a Facebook group called “Taking back our school boards” as part of the national Pro-parent Choice movement that started with parents objecting to their children having to wear masks in school.

The winning slate, which was supported by the teachers’ union, was made up of three current school board members as well as a teacher.

Rivera

Seema Rivera, a teacher, was elected to the school board in 2015, became its vice president in 2018, and its president in 2019 — a post for which she has been unchallenged since.

She and her husband, Tony, have two daughters, both Guilderland students.

Rivera, responding by email to Enterprise questions, said she is seeking another term because she wants to see through goals she helped to “establish several years ago, including improving facilities, technology, and equity.

“I’m proud of all the collaborative efforts it took to support students during COVID,” Rivera said. “I’m also proud of all the work by faculty, staff, and administrators to meet the needs of all students and their continued dedication to our school community.”

Finally, Rivera, who was a strong proponent of creating the post for a director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, said, “I’m also proud to have helped establish more student voices in committee work, such as policy and DEI.”

For her next term, Rivera said, “I would love to work on improving our facilities and creating inviting spaces where students want to come to school.”

The district has recently set up a Future-Ready Task Force on which a variety of stakeholders are planning for Guilderland’s next capital project.

Asked about the challenges ahead, Rivera said, “A few of the challenges the district will face in the next several years include the continued impact of COVID, which includes meeting the social-emotional needs and academic needs of students, creating a budget that addresses all of our student and staff needs, and adhering to required regulations like electric buses.”

Gonzalez-Parker

“Yes!” responded Blanca Gonzalez-Parker through email when asked by The Enterprise if she was planning to run for another term. “I enjoy serving my community and advocating for our students. It can be arduous at times, but well worth the opportunity to volunteer.”

Gonzalez-Parker, who works in public health, was first elected to the board in 2020 to fill out one year of a vacated term, and then was re-elected in 2021, winning a full three-year term.

She and her husband, Michael Parker, have three daughters.

Asked what she is proudest of during her tenure on the board, Gonzalez-Parker said, “Getting the students back to in-person learning after the pandemic, and supporting students and staff as they reacclimated. I am also grateful for the chance to aid in the addition of our girls’ wrestling team, the amendment to our dress code policy, and the formation of the student voice committee.”

The student committee is a subcommittee of the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Gonzalez-Parker said she helped advocate for facility upgrades such as the turf field at the high school and pushed for creating the post of DEI director as well as for adding a school resource officer at Farnsworth Middle School.

Looking ahead, Gonzalez-Parker said she’d like to see an overhaul of the music and theater-arts facilities.

“I want our students to feel proud of where they go to school and a strong sense of belonging,” she said. “Congruent to this goal is that of continuing to address bullying, harassment, and school violence, which unfortunately continues to be a problem. I also want our faculty and staff to love where they work, to know they are valued, and to want to stay with us.”

Asked about challenges in the next three years, Gonzalez-Parker said, “We have some hefty financial challenges due in large part to the tax certiorari issues we’ve faced, coupled with inflation, and legislative requirements such as the purchasing of electric buses.

“In my opinion, there are several staff lines and activities that we should add in order to better support our students, including (but not limited to) teaching and coaching assistants, but this is going to be difficult given our current circumstances.

“I am particularly frustrated since the school district is not at fault for the tax assessments that have left us in financial turmoil, and I have never heard an acknowledgement, apology, or a plan from Town of Guilderland leadership on how to avoid this situation moving forward.

“This leaves us in a constant state of worry and hesitation to add expenses that could enrich the student experience. A very recent example is that of the girls’ flag football team, which we were unable to start this year mostly due to financial concerns.”

She noted that Superintendent Marie Wiles said it would cost about $12,000. “That’s actually not a lot (relatively speaking),” said Gonzalez-Parker, “but serves as an example of just how tight our belts are.”

She concluded, “Twelve of the 15 teams in the Suburban Council are a part of the Section II flag football program starting this spring. Only Guilderland, Ballston Spa and Averill Park declined to add this option for our student athletes this spring, and parents and students in Guilderland were one of only four communities to take part of the inaugural Capital District Girls’ Flag Football season this past fall, so clearly the interest is there on the part of our community.”