[img]1261|left|Laura Chardiet||no_popup[/img]Reputed to be armed with the strongest resumé of any School; Board candidate in recent years, a mavenette of miracles, Laura Chardiet unofficially won office nearly 40 hours ago and still she has not attempted to stroll the length of The Plunge without getting her shoes damp.
If anyone can mollify the devastated supporters of departing Board member Scott Zeidman, it is only the vivacious Ms. Chardiet.
Will she emerge as the most stentorian voice on the reshuffled School Board?
The holdover members will have something to say about that. Maybe. But when Mr. Zeidman and Steve Gourley swept into office four years ago, they didn’t poll their new colleagues. The asserted themselves and their visions.
From early returns and from the testimony of a ring of steel-loyal supporters who have been her friends and studied her PTA meetings for almost a decade, she deftly blends pizzazz with wizardry.
Above it all, she sings and she dances like a veteran of the stage she once pursued.
Could Have Been a Sweep
If only the community could have seen her hoofing, warbling and cheering on Election Night in the crowded, noisy living room of the Madeline and Paul Ehrlich, she would have gone undefeated at the ballot box.
A pepperpot whose batteries never run down, she possesses the personality, the charm and most importantly the professional tools to confidently step to the lever of the complicated, mystifying, nuance-laden budgetary process,.
A demonstrated leader, she is capable of controlling and directing the dialogue.
Like Mr. Zeidman, Ms. Chardiet promises to be a sui generis School Board personality, distinct though from Mr. Zeidman and quite unlike conventional Board members in style and intellectual content.
Running second in a three-cornered race, she finished 28 votes in front of Mr. Zeidman on the way to official certification. This should clinch the second chair on the Board after Nancy Goldberg won the first one as the top votegetter.
As charismatically confident as Ms. Chardiet appeared to be, however, she occasionally entertained doubts about her sustainability with voters. Yes, she had risen to the top of the PTA world. But the community universe was much wider, and she was a stranger to many.
Why She Had Doubts
“Yes, of course, sometimes I had doubts about whether I could win because I was running against an incumbent and against someone who is very beloved in the city.
“I didn’t think my chances were as good as they would have been otherwise.
“I got a lot of help from a lot of different people. I ran my campaign the way I am — working with groups of people. Throughout my campaign, I had groups of people walking with me and groups of people phone-banking with me.
“I have done everything with a group,” a concept that is a window to Ms. Chardiet’s proven style of leadership.
After being seated at the Tuesday, Dec. 6, meeting of the School Board, she said she is eager “to address the issues surrounding the (four) capital improvements projects.
“We want to make sure we bring the stakeholders in and establish our criteria for allocating funds. At the very least we want to make everyone aware of what we are hoping to do with that money.”
The most important event at last Tuesday’s Election Day Board meeting was the formal presentation of an assertive letter by a group of parents seeking a partnership with the Board in traveling the remaining distance on the capital improvements projects.
Said Ms. Chardiet of the letter:
“It is good for the group to come forward and formalize exactly what they would like to see happen. Previously, if it wasn’t so cohesively presented, you were speaking to individuals. It is good for them to have something in black and white so you can make an intelligent response.”
What would Ms. Chardiet tell the parents?
“That we need to work together so we can complete these projects.”
