Robert “B.A.” Schoen
Trustee, Nassau BOCES
For nearly 30 years, Robert “B.A.” Schoen has served Nassau County as an educational leader, an advocate for students, and a champion of local school districts and their communities. He has served on his local school board in his beloved town of Baldwin, from 1996-2012. He has been a trustee for Nassau BOCES for 14 years.
A force for educational reform and improvement throughout the state, he served three terms as President of Reform Education Finance Inequities Today (REFIT), a consortium of school districts that have joined together to secure a fair and equitable share of New York State Aid. In addition to being elected to the executive board of REFIT, he continues to serve the organization as ex-officio.
His work for REFIT led Mr. Schoen to join the Center for Educational Equity and inevitably to become an essential member of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity working to guarantee the rights of all students to a “sound basic education.” To that end, he joined the Safeguarding Sound Basic Education Task Force, which is dedicated to effecting the policy reforms necessary to achieve equity in education.
Mr. Schoen’s success as an educational leader eventually reached the attention of the state, and he was elected Area 11 Director for the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), in which capacity he continues to serve. As director, he lobbies on behalf of public education on all levels of government, from local and county to state and federal. He is a member of NYSSBA’s State Legislative Network, as well as the National School Boards Association’s National Advocacy Institute.
Mr. Schoen has served the Nassau Suffolk School Boards Association (NSSBA), earning many of their top honors in the process, including the Distinguished Service Education Partner Award. He is the Nassau BOCES representative to the Long Island Association and the Long Island Education Coalition, in which capacity he advocates for BOCES as a partner to Long Island businesses. He has received numerous honors, including the New York United Teachers “Friend of Education” Award and the NSSBA “Distinguished Service” Award. He was recently inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his lifetime of service to wrestling.
