Video: MP Board of Ed Candidate Profile: Mike Arnold

Mike Arnold, running for his first seat ever as a Board Trustee, moved to Miller Place in July of 1999 and has seen his two boys progress through the district from Kindegarten and first grade now to , with his oldest set to attend Villanova University in the fall.

Arnold, 45, started out as a software developer over 20 years ago and is the Vice President and Enterprise Architect for a multi-billion dollar international payments processing company. An active member of the in Rocky Point, Arnold is also the programming mentor of the Miller Place FIRST Robotics Club - Team 514 where he teaches team members who wish to learn how to program the robot, to do so using JAVA. With almost 12 years in Miller Place under his belt, Arnold felt it was now time to run for the board, and will do so as a team alongside Brian Neyland.

"I felt that the economic conditions and the changes in state government have forced the community to look critically at how the school district is being run," he said. "Folks are questioning why the costs of the education provided are not matching the quality desired."

Arnold feels that the district can not continue "business as usual," and will need to trend in a different direction, a direction Arnold hopes to help lead the district in.

"The status quo will not work," he said. "We are on a trend in the wrong direction, budgets are expanding and the programs offered are contracting.  It is convenient to blame others, but in the final analysis we have to take firm control of our spending and make better decisions going forward."

Arnold has laid out a proposition with four simple principles he hopes can change the district for the better, in his own words:

• Education - is the product we sell and service we provide.  It starts where the teacher interacts with the student.
• Cost Transparency - "We need complete visibility into our spending. We need to make decisions based on fact rather than fear, panic and doubt."
• Full Disclosure - "When a question is asked we need to have a factual, comprehensive and timely response.  It is people's right and duty to question and our obligation to answer."
• Due Process - "We must comply with the rules and regulations, conducting ourselves in such a way, so that the integrity of the institution is assured.  With integrity established there can be trust between the parties, which are students, teachers, parents, administration and community. "