He was elected to Kent’s Town Board this past fall
In a case of ‘putting your money where your mouth is”, a face familiar to the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery community — at least to those who have had high schoolers in the last 20-plus years — is now not only a teacher, but a politician.
Basically no O’Neill High School student since 2000 has graduated from the school without having been taught by Jorma Tompuri. He has taught government classes of all varieties, currently economics and public affairs, at the high school.
In those classes, he has preached ‘pay attention to what your elected officials are doing’. This coming semester, however, will be the first ever that Tompuri is one of those elected officials.
On Saturday, January 1, he was sworn in as a Town of Kent Town Board member. He won his November election with 1665 votes — the highest vote-getter of five who were seeking two seats. He will serve for four years.
The married Lake Carmel resident, who is the father of two, is very much looking forward to serving the residents of his community. He’s also looking forward to sharing what he learns with his students.
This was his first-ever foray into politics. What made him run?
“I tell my students if you can make a positive difference in the lives of others, do it!” Tompuri said this week. So he did.
As he campaigned last fall, he promised just one thing — that he would “listen to all the residents of the Town of Kent and govern in their best interests, not the interests of the few.” He says he plans on taking a “common sense approach to governance: listen, think and do the right thing for people not for individuals.”
Tompuri attributes that way of looking at government as a result of his years of teaching, and the result of bringing local leaders into his classes to talk to students. Namely, he says, he thinks he has learned from NYS Senator James Skoufis, who is a familiar face in his classes — in person prior to the pandemic, and virtually in the last two years.
“I plan on taking a common sense approach,” he said. “That’s what Skoufis has taught me!”
Those visits from local leaders have resulted in some of his students going on to careers in government; he says he’s proud of the public service work many of those he has taught are doing.
“Without a doubt, in class, we question why our government does things and not always the right things,” he says. “I have always been honest with my students and I think that is one of the reasons so many of my former students stay in touch.”
Those current and past students supported him during his campaign, and were excited about his win.
“They were more excited than me when I told them I won,” Tompuri says of his current classes.
Tompuri says he’s loved history and government for as long as he remembers.
He was born in Finland — coming to the U.S. at four months old — and had to go through the naturalization process.
“It was such a great experience since I knew we had found the greatest country in the world,” he recalls. “That just made me more aware of the political process.”
He believes local government is very important and is enjoying learning more about it.
“Local politics is much more engaging than national or state,” he said. “When campaigning, we would go out and meet people outside deli’s, restaurants, shopping centers, etc. and just talk to them about things that interested them in the local region. Another lesson well learned from Skoufis.”
Some other fun facts about the new councilman: he’s a graduate of Carmel High School; he’s also coached many local high schoolers in various sports (although he’d probably tell you his favorite was golf!); he has served as the Section 9 Boys Golf Chair; he’s worked as the videographer for the Carmel varsity football team; he’s coached and coordinated Rec level sports in his community for more than 20 years; and he serves as the tournament director of the Jerry Guglielmo Memorial Golf Outing, raising over $250,000 for a wide variety of charities. That tournament is named for the late husband of former HF-FMCSD Superintendent Dr. Geniene Guglielmo.
While Tompuri plans to remain in his classroom at O’Neill for several more years before his eventual retirement, he’s not sure what his political future holds.
“I’m looking at it as a one-and-done type of gig,” he said. “But … you never know???”
