The New Hyde Park Garden City Park Board of Education elected Patricia Rudd vice president at its reorganization meeting on Tuesday.
Rudd replaces Joseph Bongiorno, who chose to not run for re-election. Ernest Gentile was re-elected president.
“She’s been on the board for a number of years and she’s been the past president of the school board,” board President Ernest Gentile said of Rudd. “She’s quite capable.”
Gentile and Trustee Joan Romagnoli were re-elected to the board after uncontested races in May and were both sworn in with newly elected board Trustee Jennifer Kerrane.
Rudd and board Trustee David Del Santo said the proposed bond to renovate district schools has started to “move forward.” Del Santo said that the number being discussed for the bond is between $65 million and $105 million.
“It is a very robust plan to bring these schools into the 21st century,” Del Santo said.
He said board members are seeking science, technology, engineering and math labs to be built in all five schools and for four of the schools to have synthetic turf fields among the improvements.
Floral Park Memorial High School would not be receiving a turf field, but Del Santo said part of the bonding program is to rehabilitate the former Alva T. Sandforth Junior High School fields adjacent to the Elmont Library for use by Floral Park as a home field.
The Alva T. Sandforth fields are currently being used by the high school because the high school field is not up to standards.
Del Santo said in his business and personnel report that the district was able to keep all high school positions.
“It’s thanks to the folks in these communities who support us from the start, I offer my thanks,” Del Santo said.
Superintendent of Schools Robert Katulak reported to the board about some summer programs offered by the district. Summer school for special needs students and the English Language Learners program both opened on July 1 at the New Hyde Park Road School.
“We have also renewed our summer camp recreation program under the direction of Carolyn Magoulias with 202 children enrolled in this K-6 program,” Katulak said. The program runs for four weeks and is self-sufficient as the parents of participating children pay to fund it.
Katulak also announced that the board has worked on a three-year district plan that the board will consider at next month’s meeting.
“This plan replaces the recently completed five-year plan and will be the guiding force for all our educational and fiscal action plans,” Katulak said.
In other developments:
• The board appointed five new elementary school teachers who were present at the meeting: Jacquelyn Price to Hillside Grade School, Jennifer Garvey to New Hyde Park Road School, Joseph Carroll to Manor Oaks School, Terri Blanc to Hillside Grade School and Kara Passeretti to Hillside Grade School.
The teachers expressed their thanks to the board and Carroll said, “I want to thank you all for this great opportunity and I can’t wait until next year.”
