<<Home Niagara Falls Reporter Archive>>

CANCEMI HAS THE RIGHT MIX OF BUSINESS AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND FOR SCHOOL BOARD

By Mike Hudson

Jimmy Cancemi is one of the good guys. After working with the Niagara Falls city police and fire departments, he embarked on a 25-year teaching career that focused on special needs children, some of society's most vulnerable kids. At the same time, he pursued a career in business, as the owner/operator of Cancemi Furniture on Sixth Street here in Niagara Falls.

Following his retirement, Cancemi ran for and won a seat on the Niagara Falls Board of Education and is now running against two opponents for his second term on the board. A first-generation American whose parents hailed from Sicily, Cancemi lives with his wife, Kathleen, in DeVeaux, and is the father of two grown boys.

Despite his success in life, Cancemi still remembers his humble beginnings, when Niagara Falls was a very different place than it is today. Growing up on Memorial Parkway near Niagara Street, even the kids had to hustle.

"I was a shoeshine boy on East Falls Street when I was 9 or 10 years old. Then I was a paperboy, and then my first real job at the old Treadway's on Thanksgiving Day in 1957," he recalls. "My two cousins and myself, who are from the same background, my mom's sister, we smuggled over the border from Italy through Canada, we made 50 cents in tips that day. That was our Thanksgiving Feast."

Highly motivated, he put himself through Niagara County Community College and earned a degree in special education from Buffalo State.

Later, the strong work ethic learned shining the shoes of tourists came in handy when he started selling furniture.

"I started it out of the trunk of my car with some catalogues selling door to door with some people. That was while I was going to college to become a teacher," he said. "While I was in school, I was hired by an interior decorator, and she encouraged me to continue, and I just started working on my own, building my own company and growing it to a store on Pine Avenue.

"It was there for 13 years. I had 12 employees, and there again with the ledgers, I am familiar with costs and working with a budget," he added.

The budgetary background gained through this private sector experience has been invaluable in his work on the school board, Cancemi said.

"We're facing a number of challenges at this point," he said. "We need mandate relief from the state. That's something we have to get, because they hand us mandates that cost the school board so much money."

Like many associated with the school district, Cancemi was stunned last spring when Niagara Falls voters turned down a referendum that would have allowed for $130 million in capital improvements throughout the district at no cost to the taxpayer.

Along with other board members, he will push for the referendum's passage when it is presented to the voters again this fall.

"That's a no-brainer," Cancemi said. "If they turn it down this year, I don't know what we're going to do. The people have to understand we are not lying to them. It is a reimbursement from the State of up to 94 percent, plus we have the 6 percent we managed to save in grant money that cannot be used for salaries. It can only be used for maintenance and building improvements. And that's the hard thing for people to understand."

Cancemi also shares the pride of other members in noting the fact that the school district tax levy has not gone up in an unheard-of 19 years.

"What we've done that doesn't show much on paper is that we have kept our tax cap. This is the 19th year, and that's unheard of in New York state," he said. "There is not another district in New York state that has gone 19 years without a levy increase."

Cancemi brings a unique skill set to the district, with a background in both business and education, combined with experience in a number of diverse fields he encountered on his way up.

"I worked on construction for four years, so I am very familiar with how construction works and the cost breakdowns of projects, I am very well aware of that," he said. "And during my time with the police and fire departments, I worked with unions. I have done that all my life."

When he's not doing school board business or working at his furniture store, Cancemi donates considerable time to community service. He spends a lot of time each year with the Italian Festival Association, as well as the Niagara Falls Boys Club, Boys Club Auction and the Niagara County Community College Foundation.

He looks at his school board service and community service as a way of giving back to the city that nurtured him, he said.

One of the things he's proudest of is having been the president of the Niagara Falls Education Foundation for the last three years, he said.

"Last year was the first year since its inception we have raised enough money to give out five scholarships, and this year we are giving out five more scholarships," Cancemi said. "It has taken seven years to get our scholarship fund up to where we can really do it and it's working."

The incumbent candidate said he wants to return to the board in order to complete the work he's begun during his first 5-year term.

"I try to do it all. I mean, we've looked at every budget scenario gap there are for four different plans based on the budget given to us by the state," he said. "And we have done that each year for the last five years. So we still have all the clubs and we still have all the extracurricular activities for our students and we still managed to do it without increasing taxes."

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com April 24 2012