The clear choice for Mahopac school board

Dear Editor,

This letter is in support of Alana Sweeny for the position of trustee for the Mahopac Central School District Board of Education.

Alana has been a homeowner in Mahopac for almost 43 years. In that time, she has been an active volunteer and has always been willing to support her community in numerous ways.

Her professional career has been impressive, with the common thread among all of her positions being children and education. In her last role, before retiring, she was president and CEO of the United Way of Westchester and Putnam. While there, she conducted a data study of ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) to bring awareness to the plight of underserved individuals and families while targeting programs and funding. She worked with a major university to bring a proven literacy and professional development program to low performing school districts, with students gaining more than a year of reading growth in a year.

During COVID, she partnered with the NYS PTA to bring A2i (Assessment 2 Instruction) individualized home literacy assessment and activities to families across the state. As executive director of the NYC Police Athletic League, serving 45,000 children, she partnered with the NYPD and others, overseeing summer Playstreets, sports, education, early childhood and youth development activities for children in the five boroughs. After Hurricane Sandy, she immediately built partnerships and set up additional supports with supervised Playstreet activities, food, clothing distribution and weekend activities for non-PAL children in Coney Island, Staten Island and Brooklyn.

In her role as executive director of the NYS Council on Children and Families, she coordinated the budget, regulation and priorities of the state’s 13 education, health and human services agencies in regards to children and family issues. She developed alternatives to costly, sometimes out-of-state, placements of children with complex needs. She saved the Mahopac school district $104,000 per year for one child in transportation costs alone, by developing a program through a different state agency, which met his complex needs closer to home. She chaired two statewide task forces with the state Education Department commissioner, including a school/community collaboration effort. Alana was a member of the Regent’s subcommittee on Middle School Collaboration and the Task Force on School Violence. She was a member of the Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, which, among other initiatives, created Children’s Centers in the courts.

Alana is a certified elementary and special education teacher and administrator, having done her doctoral work in curriculum development.

Alana has the education, commitment and background to serve our community as a stellar school board trustee. As a former Mahopac Central School District trustee, president and V.P., I wholeheartedly endorse her. Please consider voting for her in the May 19 school board/budget election.

-Giulio Cefaloni, past president of the Mahopac Board of Education