schoolvotersguide
Information on the Longwood Central School District and the Valley Stream Central High School District
was omitted from the School Voters Guide yesterday. In Longwood, three school board incumbents
running in tomorrow’s district vote were not included in the guide. In Valley Stream Central, details on the A15
makeup of the school board were omitted. Here is complete information on both districts.
LONGWOOD CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
VOTING
7 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at
Coram Elementary School, West
Middle Island Elementary School,
Ridge Elementary School and
Charles E. Walters Elementary
School.
THE BUDGET
The district proposes a
$227,000,000 budget for 2015-16,
a 2.02 percent increase from the
current $222,500,000. The local
tax levy would increase 3.2 percent,
from $127,312,951 to $131,386,541.
This increase is equal to the
state’s tax-cap limit of 3.2 percent,
so a simple majority vote will be
required to approve the budget.
School taxes for the average
single-family home for 2015-16
assessments were not available, so
the district could not calculate an
estimate.
The proposed budget uses
projected salary figures because
the teacher contract is under
negotiation. The district would add
positions in general education,
special education, English as a
second language and academic
intervention services. It also would
restore a social worker, a school
counselor, a psychologist, math
support and an assistant principal.
The district also would restore a
fourth-grade music program.
] District website:
longwood.k12.ny.us
THE CANDIDATES
Incumbents William K. Miller,
Maureen E. Silvestri and Daniel
Tomaszewski and candidates
Penelope Blizzard-McGrath and
Victoria Molloy are vying for three
at-large seats. Terms are three
years.
William K. Miller
] BACKGROUND: William K.
Miller, 42, is a commercial banker
who has served on the school
board for 24 years. He has a degree in augmented studies from St.
Peter’s University in Jersey City,
New Jersey, and the American
Institute of Banking in New York
City. He is chairman of the Longwood Legislative Committee and
president of the Long Island Metro
Business Association, and has
been a board member of Eastern
Suffolk BOCES since 2006. A
29-year member of the Central
Brookhaven Lions Club, he is
president of the Colonial Youth
Family Services in Mastic/Shirley.
His two children graduated from
Longwood schools.
] ISSUES: The most important
issue facing the district, Miller said,
are the roles of career and technical education. The future of these
at the high school level, he noted, is
being debated seriously across
New York and the country. “Questions that are critical to state,
federal and local strategies are to
raise high school students’ achievement and reduce ‘leaks in the
pipeline’ into and through postsecondary education and careers,” he
said. “Future high school reform
cannot be addressed without
including vocational programs.” To
help in achieving this, the district
“must integrate math, science and
technology and achieve a balance
with all subject areas,” Miller said.
“We need to address the productive social and business environment so that our students can be
able to compete in the complex
society that awaits them.”
Victoria Molloy
] BACKGROUND: Molloy, 38, is a
nurse. She is a graduate of Longwood High School and the Eastern
Suffolk BOCES nursing program in
1996. Molloy has been a nurse for
18 years and works in critical care.
Molloy is vice president of the
Ridge Elementary School PTA and
treasurer of the middle school PTA,
the Share Decision Making Team
at Ridge Elementary and the Longwood legislative and policy committees. She also serves on the
BOCES Career and Technical Task
Force and BOCES STEM and
Engineering Advisory Board and is
business advisory chairwoman for
the Time to Play Foundation. She is
a former co-president of the Ridge
Elementary School PTA and served
on the Longwood Safety Committee. Molloy has a third-grader at
Ridge Elementary School and a
sixth-grader at Longwood Middle
School.
] ISSUES: Molloy said the district
faces many challenges, including
the new Common Core curriculum
and testing and unfunded man-
dates that “are taking much-needed funds from the district when the
money would be better spent
elsewhere.” Another challenge is a
“flawed state-aid reimbursement,
which exhausts our already overburdened taxpayers.” Molloy wants
to continue to lobby and build
“working relationships, continuing
to research methods to bring in
more revenue for the district and
creating a pathway for relief. . . . I
would like to help facilitate increased open dialogue, advocating
for better understanding and
awareness, and building on maximizing a cohesive relationship
between the board and the community.”
Maureen E. Silvestri
] BACKGROUND: Maureen
Silvestri, 72, a homemaker, is a
24-year member of the school
board and currently chairs its
safety committee. She has served
on all school board committees,
including the legislative committee,
policy committee and budget
advisory committee. She was
president of the Longwood PTA
Council and high school PTSA,
special education president for
SEPTA, and a longtime member of
the Longwood Junior High School
PTA. She also was a delegate for
the New York State School Board.
Her four children attended Longwood schools, and she now has a
granddaughter in the seventh
grade at Longwood Junior High
School and a grandson in the third
grade at Charles E. Walters Elementary School.
] ISSUES: Silvestri, noting she is
the board’s second longest-serving
member, said she represents “all
the children, citizens and groups
fairly. I am not obligated to special
interest groups. I am visible and
accessible to all the citizens of our
community.” She said she believes
the state-imposed tax cap “has
given us the challenges to provide
first-rate education at a price we
can afford. As a senior citizen on a
fixed income, I am aware of how
important it is to keep our tax levy
as low as possible. My years on the
budget committee make me the
right candidate to make the tough
choices.” Silvestri said she believes
implementation of the Common
Core academic standards and the
state’s policies stemming from
them “are another challenge. While
we all strive for highest standards,
we must make sure that they are
appropriate.”
Daniel Tomaszewski
] BACKGROUND: Daniel Tomaszewski, 68, is a retired teacher/administrator at Longwood
High School who has been a school
board member since 2003. He has
a bachelor’s, master’s and school
administrator’s degrees from LIU
Post. He is a former chairman of
the social studies department at
Longwood High School and a
former director of the high school’s
evening alternative program. An
active member of the Yaphank
volunteer fire department, he also
is chairman of the Longwood
Community Council. Tomaszewski
has four sons who graduated from
Longwood schools and four grandsons in district schools — a kindergartner and third-grader at Charles
E. Walters Elementary School, a
sixth-grader at Longwood Middle
School and a 12th-grader at Longwood High School. On the board,
he served as president for five
years and vice president for four
years.
] ISSUES: Tomaszewski said the
district needs to implement “higher
standards to meet the critical
needs of an educated population
capable of competing in the global
economy.” He said “political agendas have created difficulties even
greater than initial challenges.” The
bottom line, Tomaszewski said, “is
that a broken system needs to be
fixed in such a way that works for
our children’s future, without
bankrupting our taxpayers,” and
the way to accomplish that is to
“bring everyone involved to the
table and be part of the solution.”
Parents and families “need to see
evidence, created by professional
educators, that show how their
children can benefit,” he said. “Our
districts and communities need to
be led by skilled leaders who know
how to communicate reason and
advocate productively for the
greater good of our students.”
VALLEY STREAM CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
THE BUDGET
Thedistrictproposesa
$109,702,140budgetfor2015-16,a
1.55percentincreasefromthe
current$108,025,843.Thelocaltax
levywouldincrease2.13 percent,
from$83,372,366to$85,149,418.
Thisincreaseisequaltothe
state’stax-caplimitof2.13 percent,
soasimplemajorityvotewillbe
requiredtoapprovethebudget.
Schooltaxesontheaveragesinglefamilyhomewouldchangeasfollows:in District13,down2.49per-
centfrom$3,452.72 to$3,366.89;
District24, up0.09percentfrom
$2,900.34to$2,902.93;andDistrict
30,up0.31percentfrom$3,237.14
to$3,247.22.
The proposed budget includes
a referendum on a capital reserve
of $2,500,000 for renovations to
bathroom facilities, doors and
other needs. The expenditure will
not exceed the district cap.
Undertheproposedbudget,
teacherswillreceivea 0.85percent
increaseinsalary, includinga 1.29
percentstepincrease.Additional
hiresinclude twoteachers tomeet
newPart 154regulationsforEnglish
languagelearners.Further,the
districtwouldrestore threestudent
clubsperschoolandrestoretheair
rifleteam. Staffhireswouldincludea
part-timesocial worker,twopsychologistsandthreeguidancecounselors.Deans wouldberestored to
full-timestatus.
] District website:
vschsd.org
THE CANDIDATES
School board members are not
elected. The boards of education in
the three component elementary
school districts — Valley Stream
districts 13, 24 and 30 — each
appoint three trustees to the Valley
Stream Central High School board.
The district, with students in
grades 7-12, covers South Valley
Stream, much of the village of
Valley Stream and most of North
Valley Stream, as well as parts of
Elmont, Franklin Square, Lynbrook
and Malverne.
NEWSDAY, MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015
VOTING
District13: 6a.m.to9p.m.tomorrow
atWheelerAvenueSchool;JamesA.
DeverSchool,HowellRoad School
andWillowRoad School.
District 24: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at South Corona Firehouse;
William L. Buck School; Brooklyn
Avenue School and Robert W.
Carbonaro School.
District 30: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Clear Stream Avenue
School; Shaw Avenue School and
Forest Road School.
newsday.com
Penelope Blizzard-McGrath
] BACKGROUND: BlizzardMcGrath, 48, a lawyer, earned an
associate degree in applied science
from Briarcliff College, a bachelor
of science degree from Dowling
College and a law degree from
Touro College. She is a member of
the Suffolk County and New York
State bar associations; New York
State Dispute Resolution Association; Longwood Legislative Committee; and the Longwood Safety &
Awareness Committee. She is a
former member of the Longwood
Policy Committee; a member of
the Longwood PTA/PTSA; Central
Brookhaven Lions Club; Ridge Civic
Association; founder/president of
the Touro Family Law Society; and
former secretary of Alpha Chi
national honor society. She has a
ninth-grader at Longwood High
School.
] ISSUES: “High school Regents
exams are Common Core-based
and they cannot be refused,”
Blizzard-McGrath said. “Imagine
being 13 again. Imagine spending
years learning math one way and
suddenly in the midst of your
education in eighth grade you’re
learning a new way to do math
while still being taught the old way.
Imagine having to take two algebra
Regents exams — one on the old
standards and one on the new
Common Core standards. Remember, the results of these exams will
determine whether or not you will
graduate high school. This is what
our children in algebra faced last
year.” Blizzard-McGrath said as a
result, “high achievers will pass”
while many others will not. “These
students will be left behind,” she
said. Blizzard-McGrath proposes to
create a local task force of unbiased expert educators and parents
to review and report on the testing
and teacher evaluation system.
“Let teachers teach. That is what
they are trained to do.”