Ramona Burton, who has sat on the school board since 2018, is now seeking re-election in the upcoming Newburgh Enlarged City School District school board run. Burton attended K through 12 at the district herself, is a prominent community leader and an educator. If re-elected, she plans to continue intersecting community and school by “broadening people’s perspectives through education.”

Three years ago, Burton was approached by Runston Lewis who encouraged her to run for school board. He then guided her through the process and mentored her while she campaigned. For her, it made sense to run as she had a thorough background in youth development and education. Burton has worked as a substitute teacher, at IBM for five years, and SUNY Orange for 25 years as the Director of the Center for Youth Development.

“I have a very strong background in grant funded program and budget management, accountability, curriculum development and implementation, and being responsive and intentional with community engagement and collaboration,” said Burton. “I’ve worked more than 30 years in partnership with the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.”

Burton has her masters in counseling and a bachelor’s in business management. Education aside, she has previously sat on a number of boards and committees in the City of Newburgh, including Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital board of trustees, the YMCA board, and a Newburgh Community Action poverty initiative board. Today she not only sits on the board of education, she is on the City of Newburgh Human Rights Commission and is on the board of directors for the Newburgh Urban Farm and Food Initiative.

“Looking back three years, I had little knowledge, really, of the massive extent of this organization and what it involved,” said Burton. “This is a huge, huge organization.”

Despite the learning curve with her last term, Burton is ready to tackle another one. With a nearly $300 million budget and being one of the largest employers in the area, Burton understands just how important the school board’s function truly is. Throughout her time on the board, she has served on a number of different committees including the finance committee, building and grounds committee, the diversity committee, the curriculum instruction committee, exceptional learners committee and more. The one committee she served on for all three years was the library committee, as she has always loved the Newburgh Free Library and “spent a lot of time there” growing up.

“My overall goal has always been about accountability and transparency,” said Burton. “I think accountability has to be at the forefront of this work, particularly when we look at the demographics of Newburgh, which is a majority of people of color.”

With her early work in youth development, Burton focuses heavily on dropout prevention and college readiness, especially for students of color. If re-elected, she plans to work closely with the outlined five year strategic plan, Imagine 2025, which focuses on four priorities including teaching and learning, wellness, transformative leadership and efficient operations.

“We must ensure all voices contribute to this strategic plan and process, particularly because of the demographics of our community,” said Burton. “We need to ensure the needs of all of our student populations are met and that the best practices are integrated equitably with the overall goal of increasing achievement for all of our scholars.”

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Burton plans to not only promise physical safety by working with the building and grounds committee to ensure there is proper ventilation and that protocols are followed, but also to focus on the loss of learning that has occurred for some students.

“We have to make sure our scholars’ needs are met, and that’s going to include wrap-around services and data to inform the learning loss so we can provide the necessary interventions,” said Burton. “We have to make sure our school counselors are addressing the mental health issues and their social-emotional needs.”

Students aside, Burton wants to ensure that the professional staff is getting what they need in terms of professional development in a time of social unrest.

“There’s a lot of work to be done in that area as well,” said Burton. “We’ve been doing work around cultural responsive learning and implicit bias training, making sure all staff are involved. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we are going to continue the work.”

School board aside, Burton is a prominent community activist and, to her, the greatest strength of her work is the intersection of school and community.

“Education has always been at the forefront of my work in one capacity or another,” said Burton. “For me, school is community and community is school. The two are a trajectory that has never changed. It’s always been my purpose.”

Burton was born and raised in the City of Newburgh, who grew up in the 60s and 70s. Her father was a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church and her mother was a teacher at the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.

“You can see how it all parallels,” said Burton. “I think Newburgh Enlarged City School District’s education system, at this time in history, is primed to provide state of the art educational experiences and opportunities for all of our scholars. I am unequivocally committed to do my part to ensure that and make sure that everyone in the system has exemplary public education.”