Callie Erickson
Callie Erickson is the only one of the soon-to-be elected School Board candidates to have experience at the job. The Dallas-native has served two terms, or six years, on the Board, calling her first years of trying and eventually succeeding in getting the $80 million bond for capital projects approved, an “inauguration by fire.”
“It was quite the indoctrination,” Erickson said. The bond followed a building condition survey report that identified $154 million in necessary building repair.
Erickson, who worked previously in business development and mergers and acquisitions at JP Morgan; AMFM media company, then Chancellor Media; and IDT Entertainment, has three children in Rye schools — two at Rye Middle School and one at Rye High School.
Erickson said she is sad to see the retirement of Chris Repetto, who has served 12 years on the board and was a “great voice of context” on issues when she was new to the board. She is also excited to hear the voices of new-comers Matt Schibanoff and Valerie Lapham, who are expected to win the other two seats in the uncontested race.
A graduate of the Dallas public schools, Erickson is impressed with the resources in Rye. “I am very appreciative in many ways that Rye can afford to meet the individual needs of its students,” she said. She cites individual pathway programs and the International Baccalaureate and Singapore Math programs as some of the offerings that impress her most.
Erickson, who graduated from Princeton and has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has a finance background, something she said was helpful in her role as chairperson of the Board of Education’s Audit Committee, though she credits the Board’s auditors and finance team as doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
“Strong administrators in these roles makes my job as a board member very easy,” she said. “My job is to be there as a sounding-board to ask the questions.”
Matt Schibanoff
The Midland father of two is a San Diego native who attended private school grow- ing up. “If I had been given the choice, I probably would have chosen a public education, but my parents saw education as one of the most important investments someone can make for their kids,” he said.
He moved to Rye from the Upper West Side two years ago, like many looking to escape the city in the midst of a pandemic. Schibanoff credits the reputation of Rye’s schools as a primary reason he and his wife chose the suburb. He said his daily experience of the school administrators and teachers has reinforced his regard for the school district.
Schibanoff comes from an extended family of educators. “I’ve worked in financial sevices for 20 years, currently at a start-up, so the avenue to be a teacher was never quite there but this is a good mix of providing oversight and serving the interest of all stake-holders, which I’m excited about,” he said.
Schibanoff, a CFA Charter-holder, works as the National Account Manager at Athletic Brewing, a company that has become the largest non-alcoholic beer company in the country since its inception four years ago. Prior to that he worked for 20 years in financial services, most recently in European equity sales at Jefferies Group.
He said he hopes his financial skills, as well as his relationship-building skills from his sales background, and experience identifying new emerging trends in the business-world benefit the Board.
Of this year’s budget, the first in nine years to exceed the state tax cap, Schibanoff said, “One of the interesting things is that 88 percent of the spending is inflexible between the salaries and pensions. There’s really not a lot of room in the budget for future investment so we just need to be mindful of spending every dollar as judiciously as possible.”
Valerie Lapham
Mom-of-two Valerie Lapham was motivated to serve as Midland School PTO co-president to improve communications with parents, because Covid had so many of them confused and struggling.
Lapham has lived in Rye for 10 years after marrying her husband, who grew up in Larchmont.
Lapham grew up in a suburb west of Boston, attending public school. “When I look back at my public school education and compare to what my chil- dren are learning today it’s almost like night and day,” she said. “The math that my fourth-grader is doing is maybe math that I was doing in sixth grade. I don’t think that’s a bad thing and I think that’s a good thing.”
She earned a Bachelor’s Degree at University of Colorado at Boulder in environmental science and then an Associate’s Degree in environmental design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. From there she worked in Boston at a commercial architecture and design firm, largely focusing on sustainable design and interiors in healthcare facilities, including a psychiatric ward at a children’s hospital.
Lapham then got a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing at Duke and worked as a nurse at UNC Chapel Hill and Columbia University.
In her tenure as PTO co-president, Lapham said, she has “always prioritized robust communication so Midland parents are well informed and represented,” a focus she hopes to expand district-wide as a member of the Board of Education.
At the most recent Board of Education meeting, Lapham made her support of the upcoming $110.6 million budget clear.
“I spoke at the meeting and 100 percent support that budget and I feel it’s necessary to sustain what we currently have,” she said. “If it weren’t to pass, it would be really difficult to fund things that the schools really need.”
Lapham is also passionate about expanding STEM offerings, especially at the elementary-level.