Ridgefield Candidates '97
Board of Education

Mary Miller

Mary Miller is a banker, a mother and an active volunteer in many town activities; an over-achiever in every endeavor she has tackled. Born and raised in Fairfield County, she has lived and worked all across this great country and knows the value of a wider perspective.

Mary Miller Her professional career has been primarily in banking and finance, where her financial and administrative skills were highly valued. Her first banking post was with State National Bank (now merged into Fleet Bank) which was one of the largest commercial banks in Connecticut at the time. She was directly responsible for implementing multi-million dollar credit arrangements with Fairfield County businesses. In her eight years with State, she was so successful that she rose through the system to become the first female commercial lending officer, breaking a "glass ceiling" almost a century old.

Citicorp was attracted to this rising star in the New England world of finance, and hired her to help establish a new division: the Industrial Credit office, which leased equipment to industry. For four years, first in New York and then in California, she was responsible for the growth and development of this enterprise. One of the top performers for developing and closing leasing transactions, she worked on such divergent opportunities as leasing a fleet of Greyhound buses and financing personal computers for small businesses.

Ready to start a family, she switched to Ridgefield Bank when she moved into town. There she worked on mortgages, student loans and secured lending, but even there her additional skills surfaced and she assisted in the inception of a departmental computer system upgrade.

Her recent volunteer work gives her great satisfaction. From 1995 to the present, Mrs. Miller has been a member of the Executive Board of the Ridgefield Council of PTAs. From that position, she has been responsible for monitoring all Board of Education (BOE) and Board of Finance activities. Unlike many people in town government today, Mrs. Miller's business experience has taught her the value of communication -- she feels strongly that the quality of the information that travels up and down throughout an organization directly affects the quality of the output of that group.

Bringing that experience home to Ridgefield, she was directly responsible for all of the feedback to the PTA membership about the annual budgets. She created an informational budget brochure which has been widely distributed at numerous PTA and other community events. She also established a monthly Budget Update which is published during the school budgeting season to keep members up to date. To help the school system's top management hear the requirements of the classroom, she initiated the popular Budget Forum which brings together the public, the BOE and School Superintendent in an informal and informative dialog.

Mrs. Miller also has been active at individual schools. While on the Branchville PTA, Mrs. Miller was Chairman of the Budget Committee in 1995-96, a member of the Executive Board 1996-97 and the representative to the Council of PTAs. Unlike many candidates for the Board of Education, Mrs. Miller has actually worked with the children in classroom-related activities, such as the Great Books program, the Book Fair, the River Study project and the school musical, just to name a few.

Of course, the schools are not her only interests. Mrs. Miller has been active with the League of Women Voters, where she has been a member of the Executive Board and Chairperson of Voter Services during 1996-97. In this role, she was responsible for the Candidates Forum and the mock election at Ridgefield High School. In November 1996, she organized the "Get Out the Vote" campaign for the national elections and helped arrange voter registration forums in Ridgefield. Mrs. Miller also has been highly active in other community activities: she was a founding member of the National Charity League and served as a Girl Scout Troop Leader.

Her education is from the University of Bridgeport, where she received a B.A. in 1973. She has begun work on a Masters in Finance from the University of Connecticut. Mrs. Miller has two children, Katherine who will be attending the Middle School this fall, and Jacob who will entering the first grade at Branchville School. Her husband, Robert, is a Vice President of American Bank of Connecticut, Waterbury, and the whole family is active at Temple Shearith Israel here in Ridgefield.

In terms of Campaign '97, Mrs. Miller feels the educational system is in turmoil because of a lack of positive, forward-looking leadership that tackled the problems before they became a crisis. The recent Middle School debacle is the most prominent example of this leadership gap, but there is much more to do:

Determine the Needs -- Strive to provide a system that addresses the needs of all its students. From early intervention to advanced placement courses and everything in between, a school system should enable each and every student to discover and develop his or her individual strengths. And through those strengths grow in self confidence and leave our system fully equipped to achieve his or her personal best.
Enrollment Crisis --Facilitate the realization of an educationally progressive and fiscally sound response to the enrollment crisis. The configuration does not make the district -- it is the maintenance of small class sizes and the attraction and retention of superior teachers that creates an environment of excellence.
Improve Communications -- Parents and taxpayers become more involved when they are better informed. Working together we can create a dynamic system that genuinely reflects what we all want. A formal communication network between all town Boards & Commissions must be implemented to insure that we are all working cooperatively, not as adversaries, in responding to the challenges that lie ahead.
Listen to the Professionals -- Establish a dynamic and mutually respectful working relationship with the Superintendent and Administration. A strong, innovative superintendent working with a Board of independent thinkers produces an affordable, solid, forward-looking school system.
Fiscal Prudence -- The Board of Education must work cooperatively with the Administration to produce an annual budget that is fiscally responsible but continues to support Ridgefield's many excellent programs. The budget also should be flexible, and accommodate the improvements and enhancements necessary to prepare our children for participation in an ever changing world. The budget must also provide for the development of a sound maintenance program for all of our buildings. No more ceilings falling in!

The Democrats of Ridgefield are proud to urge all our friends and neighbors to elect the pioneering businesswoman and hard-working volunteer, Mary Miller.

The following issue papers have have been archived. They are no longer available on this web site. Please e-mail the webmaster if you would like access.

Ms. Miller's statement on Preparing Our Children

Mary explains why It's Time To Put Things Right

Ms. Miller's plans for More Effective Budgeting

See Mary on Picking a Superintendent

Candidate Miller on Board Needs To Communicate

Mary Miller's latest statment Enrollemnt Crisis is here.

Click to see Ms. Miller's latest statement on keys to education success.

See Mary Miller's 9/11/97 statement to the Ridgefield Press here

See the announcement of Mary Miller's Election Committee here