Candidate Submitted Bio

Patrick and his wife Jessica have lived in Wilton for two years with their daughters Hannah (6) and Harper (4), who attend Miller-Driscoll and Children’s Day. Patrick comes from a family of civic servants who served on various boards in Orange where he was raised, and he’s excited about the opportunity to continue that tradition and serve his fellow Wiltonians on the Board of Education. When he (and wife Jess) are not watching their daughters at cheerleading or dance recitals, Patrick manages a technology sales team for Mastercard where he’s been for seven years and was recently honored with the CEO award. Patrick is a proud Eagle Scout and holds a BA from Fordham University in Political Science and also focused on Spanish and Business Administration. 

Video Interview

Candidate Submitted Op-Ed

Community Doesn’t Happen by Accident

Two-and-half years ago, my wife Jessica and I chose to move to Wilton from a neighboring city because of the world-class public school system — something you hear so often when speaking to other families in the Wilton community. During this time we’ve had the great fortune of building meaningful relationships, learning about our town’s history and most importantly, becoming part of the wonderful community that is Wilton, Connecticut. 

To me, community is everything. But community doesn’t happen by accident; it’s achieved over time by people coming together to pursue common goals (e.g. how do we build a top-tier public school system?), problem-solve (e.g. how do we revitalize the commercial district in town), and ultimately determine how to keep moving ourselves forward. 

I’m running for the Board of Education because I want to do my part to contribute to our wonderful community. I bring skills and experience that can help us continue moving our schools forward. Specifically, I believe my background in business development and finance can help create a working relationship with the Board of Finance to ensure we have meaningful engagement especially as it relates to the annual budget process. And I’m not afraid to be persistent and ask the hard questions; my kids and many of my colleagues would agree.

I’m running for the Board of Education because I believe young families like ours, who have children that will benefit from our incredible schools for the next 13-plus years, should get involved. We should have a say in how we move our schools forward and ensure that we continue to produce well-rounded graduates who are fully prepared to succeed in the bigger world outside of Wilton. 

I’m running for the Board of Education because our schools are our most important asset — they provide an education that is among the very best in the state — and they drive our property values. I want to ensure that those facts remain true. 

I’ve had a chance to meet so many of you over the past few months as I’ve gone door-to-door and attended local events and that has been a really encouraging experience. Now I’m hoping that you will put your trust in me to represent you, without conflict, on the Board of Education so that we can continue to ensure our schools remain sought after and our students receive the very best educational experience that we can offer them.

Video Clips

What is motivating you to run for the Board of Education? Expand a bit on your professional background that you’re bringing.

You talked about being relatively new in Wilton and representing that “COVID wave” of new people who moved to town. On the flip side, there’s also a significant population who do not have kids in the school, who’ve been here a long time. How much of a deep dive have you done into past issues that have impacted the town and the greater impact that setting the school budget has on everyone, not just families at Miller Driscoll per se?

What are the biggest issues facing the Wilton School District that the Board of Ed is going to be taking on?

Your role on the BOE is to start questioning where resources are being allocated and where cuts should be made, or try to sell a budget to the BOF. Considering your professional background and discussions with the BOF over the last couple of years, whether it’s where resources are put for testing, or the instructional coaching program, are there areas you’ve already got an eye on about where you’ll say to the superintendent they should look to find savings?

With the $100 million schools needs assessment estimate, if we’re faced with a situation where the town, the Board of Ed will need to put additional millions of dollars additionally into its operating budget, would you look at increasing class sizes to reduce FTE count? Especially with costs locked in because of employment contracts any thoughts as a finance person where this money will come from?

What do you think about the instructional coaching discussion? Was that the motivating factor for the BOF last time with the $1.4 million reduction to the Board of Education’s proposed budget? It’s factored into the campaign discussions with other candidates who have links to teachers in the school who may be coming in with an agenda. What are your thoughts on the instructional coaching program and the discussion that’s happened around it?

Politics has crept in, in the last couple of years, to the Board of Education, a board that has traditionally not been partisan and political. Are you prepared to work with people you’ve spoken out about, opponents who have been said to have conflict? Are you prepared to sit with them on the board, collaborate, cooperate? How are you going to approach the threat of possible partisan politics on the board?

Some people have said the BOE in the past hasn’t been transparent and that communication needs to improve. What other things does the board need to work on that you’d want address if you’re on the board?

What do you think about what happened at last May’s Annual Town Meeting? Several town officials said they didn’t feel safe following that meeting? Some residents felt unheard. In your view, especially as a newcomer to Wilton, what did you think about that meeting? And where’s the room for improvement?

How important are test scores? If you saw the last Board of Ed meeting, one of the members talked about the pressure that kids feel with the testing, how much is too much? How important is this really? It takes away from instructional time, but they have a value in placing where students are and seeing how the district’s doing hitting benchmarks. At what point does the school need to be responsible for creating a less stressful environment?

What do you think about the district’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion? What about Open Choice?

What about parental involvement in the schools and in the classroom, everything from more oversight of curriculum, to deciding which books should or should be in classroom to asking the district to remove certain books from library?

One board of finance member asked during the budget process last year about the number of health counselors that the district employs, questioning why it’s the responsibility of the district, maybe it should be pursued privately outside of the school, and why do we have so many counselors? What do you think about the district’s approach to mental health?

What is your message to voters why they should give their vote to you for the Board of Education?