Teresa Sadak, 41, a Republican of 207 Webbs Mills Road in Raymond, is running for the Raymond School Board.

Sadak has had one year of college and has owned her own licensed daycare facility for the past 10 years. She was president of Raymond Baseball/Softball for three years, and has worked with both Odyssey of the Mind and the Girl Scouts. In addition, she has regularly volunteered in the Raymond schools.

Why are you running for the School Board?

Teresa Sadak: There needs to be change in the schools. A lot of teachers who have been there are resigning and I want to know why. I feel the teachers are not being heard. I feel that programs that are being offered to the kids are being taken away. I read the superintendent’s report [in the Road Runner] and one of her comments was that it was hard for them to distinguish between the wants and the needs. Wait a second! Wants are like painting the gym, wants are new basketball uniforms; needs are teachers, needs are social workers, needs are extra help. It’s very clear what are wants and what are needs…

How do you think you can work with a board, whose opinions may vary at times, to effect change?

Sadak: I feel it’s only one to a handful of people that are making the decisions for the school. Communication needs to be opened up between the board and the school and the teachers and the public because right now, teachers don’t feel they can be heard by the board. As far as making budget cuts, I want to sit with the teachers; I want to hear what they have to say. Why is it that the superintendent and the school board are not listening to them when they tell them what the program needs?

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What do you think has prepared you for this position?

Sadak: I think just seeing what’s happening in the schools. I think just being frustrated, and instead of sitting and complaining about it deciding to try to do something about it.

What do you think is the biggest single challenge that Raymond schools face in the next three years?

Sadak: The biggest challenge is the standards. There really hasn’t been any kind of model for the teachers to follow. And the budget is over-padded. If you take some of those areas and break them down-our superintendent’s salary for one and there’s maintenance of the building. I started checking out the pricing and there’s $16,000 they can’t account for. Why did the school need to buy a field harrow? And all the money that gets wasted on legal fees. The money that’s being put out for lawyers is somebody’s salary.

How does having someone new on the School Board benefit the citizens of Raymond?

I think having new, fresh ideas (is key). The biggest thing we can do is to open communications because the teachers need to be heard, the kids need to be heard, and the public needs to be heard. Until that gets done there’s only going to be hostile feeling, anger and mistrust. It needs to change.


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