New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Board of Education President Ernest Gentile survived a challenge to his position from former school board President Patricia Rudd in a 4-2 vote at Tuesday night’s reorganization meeting.
“We have some tough questions ahead and I thought her experience would be beneficial to the board,” said Dr. Alan Cooper in explaining why he nominated Rudd for board president in opposition to Gentile.
He and Rudd voted for Rudd, while Gentile, Bongiorno and board members David Del Santo and Frank Miranda voted for Gentile.
Joseph Bongiorno was re-elected vice president unanimously as the leadership of the school board remained unchanged.
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District is comprised of four elementary schools – Garden City Park School, Manor Oaks School, Hillside Grade School and New Hyde Park School. The four kindergarten through grade six schools have 1,600 students.
Gentile declined to comment on the unsuccessful challenge to his position after the meeting.
But Rudd wasn’t reluctant to explain why she thought she was a better choice than Gentile to lead the board.
“I was board president for three years in the past,” Rudd said. “I just felt with this 2 percent cap, my leadership would serve us better.”
During the meeting, Rudd,asked Michael Frank, assistant superintendent for business, to explain what the impact of the state’s 2 percent cap on property taxes and budget increases would be on the school district.
Frank said it was “a bit premature” to give any details on the 2 percent tax cap.
“It’s not going to have a beneficial impact on the district,” he said.
Frank said he was awaiting “more precise information,” He said he hoped get more information in a series of meetings he anticipated next week.
“The [budget] process is not going to be more difficult,” he said. “It’s fitting in our expenses to the increases allowed that’s going to be more difficult.”
In his report to the board, Robert Katulak, superintendent of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District, said his administrative staff is “currently in the process of examining all staffing placements for the 2011-12 school year.”
Katulak said the school district’s summer academic and recreational programs for students had begun “without any problems,” including its Individualized education program for students with disabilities and its English Language Learners program intended to assist elementary school students for whom English is a new language.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Elizabeth Sollecito, who said she is a parent of a third grader in the school district’s special education program, read a statement presenting her objections to the district’s plan to move programs for students with disabilities from the Hillside Grade School to the Garden City Park School.
She said the only beneficiaries from the planned move would be the large class of incoming kindergarten students at the Hillside Grade School.
“Each of the four grammar schools becomes a family as each child grows over the seven years they spend in grammar school. Sadly, the kids of the special education program are never really a part of this family model but are treated like foster children shuffled from one building to another as that particular buildings needs change,” she said.
In other developments, the school board appointed five new teachers to three-year probationary positions in district schools, reappointed 82 substitute teachers and nurses, and reclassified 13 teachers to new salary schedules based on higher education credits they had earned.
