Thursday, October 1, 2026
James Rickard, a longtime Oyster Bay resident, father and current president of the district’s Special Education Parent Teacher Association, is running unopposed for a seat on the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District Board of Education in the May 21 election.
Incumbent Michael Schindler is also running unopposed for reelection, but did not respond to requests for interview by print.
Rickard, 47, is seeking to bring his experience as a parent of a student receiving services and his advocacy work through SEPTA to the district leadership. Though the outcome of the race is a foregone conclusion, Rickard said he hopes voters still show up to participate in the vote and educate themselves about the proposed 2024-25 school budget.
“Right now, regarding the proposed budget, it’s facing some uncertainty because of some restructuring decisions that happened in the district,” Rickard said. “I think it’s important to point out that the budget is there to support our children and no matter what your thoughts are about the Board of Ed or individual administrators, it’s important to remind people that the budget is much more than that, and it’s our commitment to the students.”
Rickard, who graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1995, lives in the hamlet with his wife and their 8-year-old son, a third-grader at James H. Vernon School. After earning his degree from Towson University, Rickard has spent most of his career in retail management and currently works as a customer experience manager at Macy’s Furniture Gallery in Carle Place.
According to Rickard, his path to school board candidacy started with a single email to SEPTA leadership several years ago.
“I had reached out to the president when my son was in kindergarten to just ask a question about one of those nationally recognized weeks,” he said. “And about three months later, I got another email saying, ‘Mr. Rickard, I’m leaving the district, and we don’t really have anyone. Would you be interested in picking up and carrying on?”
Rickard stepped in and helped grow SEPTA’s membership and reach over the last three years. He said that experience opened his eyes to the impact that consistent advocacy can have on ensuring students’ needs are met.
“I think that equity is really it’s more than just opening the door. It’s building the ramp,” he said. “And I want to make sure that we understand that real inclusivity isn’t just a gesture, it’s a structure and designed into everything we do.”
Rickard said he believes the current school board and Superintendent Francesco Ianni are committed to improving the district, and he wants to support that work by focusing on access, transparency and communication. While acknowledging the high marks Oyster Bay High School has recently received in statewide and national rankings, he said more can be done to help families feel connected and informed.
“We have a very strong, close-knit, small community and I think that there’s been a lot of talk recently about transparency and how we come to decisions and how we present decisions,” Rickard said. “And I don’t think necessarily that anyone is doing anything wrong, but I do think that there’s an opportunity to make sure that the community has the information a little bit sooner than it’s provided now.”
He pointed to board meeting agendas on the BoardDocs platform as an area that could be improved.
“Even toggling back and forth between that website and the attachments to PDFs to get back,” he said, “it’s not very user friendly.”
Rickard emphasized that his unique perspective—as a former student, a parent and an advocate—gives him insight into how differently children can experience school depending on their needs.
“There are all these just little things that made the experience different, and it’s going to be different,” he said. “But I think I’m better prepared to bridge that gap and try and bring as typical an experience to our families as I can.”
