Herricks school district voters will choose between experience on the school board and in the classroom when they cast ballots for one school board seat on Tuesday.
Port Washington science teacher and Williston Park resident Andrew Apicos is challenging incumbent Trustee Juleigh Chin of Manhasset Hills, who is seeking a second three-year term.
Chin has touted her experience and the strides the district has made in restoring budget cuts, while Apicos has said his perspective as a teacher would help the district improve its financial outlook.
At a candidates’ forum last week, Apicos said the district could benefit from more thorough financial planning as next year’s budget puts it in a “state of equilibrium” after major cuts in the first year of the state’s cap on tax levy increases.
“You’re doing the best you can with the situation and the cards that you’ve been dealt,” Apicos said last week.
As a 25-year teacher, Apicos said he thinks involving teachers more in making decisions and developing new programs could generate money-saving ideas.
At the forum, Chin said the district already engages in prudent financial planning.
She said this year’s $110 million budget with a 0.16-percent tax levy increase indicates a brighter outlook as the district has learned to navigate the cap by restoring cuts she described as painful and adding new programs.
“It’s not that it doesn’t hurt now, but we kind of learned how to live with it and we kind of learned to adjust and roll with those punches, but we don’t have these big reserves that some of our neighboring districts might have,” said Chin, a Northwell Health volunteer coordinator, at the forum.
Chin would also like to see more team-building for students and staff, and programs addressing issues such as bullying and eating disorders, she said last week.
Chin was elected to the Herricks school board in 2013, running unopposed to replace outgoing Trustee Sanjay Jain. She has lived Manhasset Hills since 2005 and has two children in Herricks schools, she has said.
Apicos said he has lived in the district for 20 years. One of his children is a Herricks High School graduate and another is a current senior, he said last week.
Residents will vote for the school board seat and the district’s 2016-2017 budget from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. May 17 in the gymnasium of the Herricks Community Center, 999 Herricks Road in New Hyde Park.
