Port Jervis resident Michael Witt said he is running for the school board to contribute his ideas and help make the district better.
A native of Yonkers in Westchester County, Witt used to spend the summertime at his grandparents’ house in Cuddebackville as a child and grew to like the local community in Orange County.
During his stay, his family would drive to Port Jervis for parades or other activities. One year, Witt attended a summer math program at Port Jervis High School.
“The people here are just super friendly. It is a small community where no matter where you live, everybody knows each other,” Witt told The Epoch Times.
He went on to study political science at Orange County Community College in Middletown but quit after a year to work at his father’s business in Westchester County.
“I wasn’t really the greatest student in high school. I was about a B student,” he said. “School was not my love, and I just started working and kept working and never went back [to college].”
Then he worked a few different jobs in several cities before moving back to the Port Jervis area in 2017 to care for his sick father.
He ran for school board in 2021 but narrowly lost.
Hamilton Bicentennial Elementary School in Cuddebackville, N.Y., on Oct. 9, 2022. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)Launching a second run, Witt said he wanted to advocate for more parental responsibilities if he was elected.
“We need to bring back the fact that you have responsibilities as parents to teach and raise your children at home,” he said. “You don’t just send him to school and expect the teachers to be [both] parents and teachers.”
He noted that some younger students entered elementary schools without proper potty training, while some older children cursed at teachers or threw things around in classrooms.
“My parents taught me how to tie my shoe and how to pay attention,” he said. “Society has changed nowadays, especially when you have young people raising children. It is hard for a kid to raise a kid.”
He had no panacea to cure the problems, but he said pointing them out was the first step.
Witt also wants to advocate for more funding to bring the high school auditorium up to par, perhaps fixing its microphone systems or having trained students work on the lighting.
His two stepkids used to be in the middle school drama club.
“It is great we buy football uniforms, but let’s put some more money into performing arts, too,” he said. “We have so many kids that love theater, singing, and drama.”
Witt also supports more funding for special education and preventive programs that help kids stay away from smoking, drinking, and drugs.