NHP-GCP board trustees unopposed

Richard Tedesco

New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Board of Education incumbents Patricia Rudd and Tara Notine will be running unopposed for re-election for three-year terms in the upcoming school district election on May 20.

Rudd, who is currently board vice president, has served on the school board for the past 15 years. She said her experience is the main reason she wants to continue to serve.  

“I think it’s important to have a balance of new board members and seasoned board members who’ve seen the changes in the trends,” Rudd said. “I’ve seen budgets going up by 10 percent  to 12 percent, and now that we have a tax cap, to 2 percent.”

Notine, who ran for the seat vacated by Alan Cooper last year, said being on the board has been a good experience.

“I decided to run for a full term because I enjoyed being on the board and felt I was able to make a difference,” Notine said. “I’m running again basically in support of the children in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District.” 

The two candidates expressed similar objectives.

“My main goal is to maintain our programs and our staff, maintaining class size and keeping under the 2 percent tax cap. We’re not going to be able to add anything now. But the crucial thing is to add classes,” Rudd said.

Notine said she felt strongly about maintaining class sizes when she first ran for the school board last year – a commitment that remains unchanged.

“That’s something we’ve been working on and we’ve reduced the class size guidelines. That’s something I believe I had a hand in,” Notine said.

She said the elementary school board district recently reduced class sizes in upper grades from 29 students to 27 students per class.

Notine currently has three children attending the Manor Oaks School and also one in eighth grade at New Hyde Park Memorial High School.

I’m very involved in the community being that I have four children who are very active. By communicating with people I feel I’ve made them comfortable in approach the board,” Notine said.

She said she remains active in the Manor Oaks PTA.

Notine had worked for Estee Lauder as a marketing manager and a consultant for 15 years before leaving five years ago. She said she is currently a masters degree in early education at Adelphi University. 

Rudd served as president of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school board from 2005 to 2009. She served on the Sewanhaka Central High School school board from 2003 to 2008. 

She has also been a member of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association since 2005, where she said she is “basically representing Nassau County as a whole.”

Rudd was president of the Garden City Park Generals Soccer Club from 1998 to 2004 and for nine years coached the Garden City Park Spurs travel soccer team for whom her daughter Ann Marie played. She also served on the Town of North Hempstead soccer advisory committee from 1999 to 2008.

Rudd also coached CYO soccer at Holy Spirit Church from 2000 to 2003 and was a Girl Scout troop leader from 1991 to 2000.

Her daughter Kerri Ann is a part-time physical education teacher at the New Hyde Park Road and HIliside Grade schools. Ann Marie is an elementary school teacher working part time in Floral Park.   

Rudd has worked as director of retail operations for Event Network at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens since Feb. 2012. She held was in same job at the American Museum of Natural History from 2008 to 2012. Event Network runs retail operations in non-profit museums in U.S. and Europe.   

The school district election will take place on May 20. District voters will also be voting on the 2014-15 New Hyde Park-Garden City Park and Sewanhaka district budgets and the proposed $86.6 million bond to repair and upgrade the five Sewanhaka high schools.

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