Ewan McNay
elected to Bethlehem Central School Board!
Educator • Scientist • Parent
Folks - thanks for the vote of confidence!! I start my term of office July 1 and will work to follow-through on everything I said here :-). Please don't hesitate to be in touch for any reason; I really do want more communication.
Who is Ewan?
Thanks for taking the time to visit this page. I'm running to improve student mental health and bring a teacher/scientist perspective and skillset to the board.
As an educator for more than twenty years - currently, professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at UAlbany - I have earned more than 30 awards for excellence in teaching, mentoring, and student research and gained first-hand knowledge of what it takes to support excellence in teaching.
I'm a scientist with expertise in brain and mental health, and the neuroscience of learning. This knowledge and training will help me lead improvements in our students' mental health, well-being, and learning. My data-driven approach and training will guide decisions based on facts without any preconceptions or biases.
We've been BCSD residents for almost fifteen years: like many of you, we moved to Bethlehem in large part because of the excellent schools. Our elder son graduated from BCHS in 2020 and our younger son is a high school freshman. I don't claim to fully understand the teenage mind 😀 but I've had first-hand experience of all levels of the BCSD system. I've also been active in several volunteer roles within BCSD and the Bethlehem community.
This is a brief summary; more detail on each of these points is on the 'Meet Ewan' page.
Taken together: I have the background, expertise, and experience to make our School Board better at supporting student excellence, ensure that we're paying appropriate attention to student well-being, and bring a teacher's perspective to the Board discussions.
On the School Board, three initial priorities will be:
To build and maintain excellence for all students. Support existing excellence and prevent loss; push for new effort and initiatives where needed.
To protect student mental and brain health: take a more active approach to monitoring and supporting well-being especially in early teen years.
To support well-rounded students. The benefits of sport and music (for example) on class performance and brain health are well documented; Bethlehem does a great job of promoting a multi-faceted education, and I want to ensure that continues.
These are very much just the bullet points - more detail on the 'Vision' page.
Hiking with my lab: mental health boost!