Bay Ridge

Windsor steps down from District 20 Community Education Council

July 18, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Laurie Windsor (center) shown here receiving the Ronald Reagan Americanism Award from Brooklyn Conservative Party leaders Fran Vella Marrone and Jerry Kassar in 2014, says she will still be active in the community. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas
Share this:

The summer of 2017 marks the end of an era in the world of public school education in Bay Ridge. Laurie Windsor, who served on the District 20 Community Education Council for 12 years, including nine years as its president, has left her post.

Windsor, the mother of three children, said that her youngest child is now in high school, meaning that she is no longer eligible to serve on the district’s Community Education Council (CEC).

Elected CEC members must have at least one child in a public elementary or intermediate school in the district. 

The new term for CEC members began July 1.

Subscribe to our newsletters

Windsor announced her departure in an email to community leaders on Sunday.

“As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And this has been a very good run! It’s been a wonderful 12 years serving on CEC20 and leading it for the past nine years,” she wrote in the email.

Looking back at her dozen years of service, Windsor said she is grateful for the opportunity to work on behalf of children. 

“I hope that whether as a member or as president, I’ve been able to positively impact the children, parents, faculty and administration to better this already great district. I’ve enjoyed getting to know so many people who I can call friends now,” she wrote in her farewell email.    

CECs are 12-member panels of parent leaders in school district. There are CECs in each one of the city’s 32 school districts. CECs function as advisory panels and review a district’s educational programs, make decisions on school zoning and hold public hearings on educational issues.

Under New York state’s education law, nine of the 12 CEC members must be elected by PTA leaders in the district. The other three members, including a non-voting high school student representative, are appointed by the borough presidents.

District 20’s CEC represented schools in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and parts of Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Sunset Park and Flatbush.

In 2015, Windsor won re-election to the CEC and was then elected by her peers on the CEC to serve as their president for a two-year term.

“It’s a huge compliment. I appreciate the support. But it’s not about me. We’re a team,” Windsor told the Brooklyn Eagle at the time.

As CEC 20 president, Windsor served as the chief spokesman and advocate for parents of public school children in the district.

During her 12-year tenure, Windsor led several fights on behalf of parents, including a battle with the de Blasio administration over co-locating charter schools in Seth Low Intermediate School and Joseph Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bensonhurst, as well as clashes with the New York City Department of Education over Common Core.

Windsor, an organizer and manager of nonprofit organizations, and her husband Andrew, an administrative director for a hotel trades council, live in Bath Beach.

While she is leaving the CEC, Windsor said the community hasn’t seen the last of her and that she will continue her volunteer work.

She is the vice chairwoman of Community Board 11 in the Bensonhurst-Bath Beach area and is the chair of the board of directors of the HeartShare School, a school for autistic children at 1825 Bath Ave. that is operated by nonprofit agency HeartShare Human Services of New York.

The HeartShare School “is close to my heart,” she told the Eagle via email on Monday.

Windsor is also the former president of the Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst Chapter of the Deborah Hospital Foundation.

In 2014, the Brooklyn Conservative Party gave Windsor its Ronald Reagan Americanism Award for her work to improve the lives of children. “She commits herself to the community,” Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar said at the award luncheon.

Windsor said she was honored to receive the recognition.

“Everyday, you do what you do. Some days are exasperating and you ask yourself, ‘What is this all for?’ This award gives you a little fire to help you keep doing what you’re doing,” Windsor said.

 


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment