Thanks so much for visiting my website!  My name is Hilary and I’m running for a third term on the Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education. 

In education, we talk a lot about the “why.”  My “why” on running for the school board was quite simply to use my 15  years of experience in school law and governance as well as my decade of experience teaching those subjects to law students, to help our schools be as great as possible for all of the students and families in our district.  I sincerely hope to have the opportunity to serve this community that I love for one more term.

My husband and I have lived in Chappaqua for almost 18 years, and we have a wonderful daughter who is in the 7th grade at Bell.  We moved here for the schools, even before we had a child, and we feel so lucky that she gets to attend school here and that I’ve been able to play a role in our district.

When I joined the school board in July of 2019, I expected the learning curve that comes with any new position, but nobody could have predicted Covid and the complete rethinking of what it meant to operate a school district that we faced before I had even completed my first year.  I am very proud of how Chappaqua worked through that time, and how we have adapted to the myriad challenges that have followed in its wake.

Before running for the board, I spoke with many families about their challenges navigating special education in Chappaqua, and I have continued to do so while on the board. My background as an educational attorney with a focus in special education means that I have a deep understanding of these issues and also a drive to ensure that every child is getting what they need.  Since joining the board, CCSD has had a comprehensive special education audit that has resulted in some major programmatic additions including resource room at the middle school level and CTT/ICT classes in Regents-level classes, ensuring that our students with special needs are able to take grade-level coursework with the support they need.  I am thrilled that we are continuing to work on our continuum of services and also expanding our supports for our students’ mental health needs.  I am really proud of the district’s partnership with Northwell Health to ensure that students and families can access mental health support and resources when needed. 

I have served as the board’s advocacy liaison, to both county and state-wide school boards associations, which has been really interesting work, and have also been serving on the electric bus conversion task force.  In both instances, I have used my experience and understanding of education law to try to further both Chappaqua’s goals and reasonable policy initiatives for the state as a whole. I was recently asked by the New York State School Boards Association to serve as a BOE representative to the Commissioner’s Advisory Panel for Special Education Services, which is a state-wide panel of practitioners.  They’ve never had a BOE member before and I was asked based on my background as a special education lawyer – I truly hope to be able to serve the district and the state on this panel if I am re-elected in May.

The district is embarking on some exciting initiatives.  For example, I’ve been pushing to bring world language down to the elementary level for as long as I’ve served on the board, and that’s happening in the fall of 2025 – I’d love to be able to support the district through that roll-out. 

We are exploring bringing International Baccalaureate to Chappaqua – the LIFE school is introducing the IB career program and we have a team looking at whether the more traditional IB program would be a good overlay to our K-10 curriculum.  It’s a really interesting and exciting inquiry because it’s not curriculum per se, but a thematic and interdisciplinary approach to how our curriculum works together.  Given the global reach of the IB program it could be an asset to our students heading out into a world that increasingly operates without borders.  We already have a very international community and it could make it easier for students moving into the district from abroad, and also those whose families move on from here, as there are IB programs around the globe.

As anyone who has served on a board of any organization will tell you, boards work best when there’s a combination of new ideas and institutional knowledge.  We have, certainly by CCSD standards, a very new board right now.  We have a great board, but I am the only board member who has served two terms, and one of only two with more than one term under my belt.  Stability and continuity are important, especially in these turbulent times.  While I promise you I don’t intend to try to do this forever, I do believe it is important to maintain stability on the BOE this year. 

I would love to talk to anyone about any questions or concerns you might have.  Please reach out to hsgrasso@gmail.com

Thanks for visiting!