The difference between Michael S. Glickman who seeks to unseat Barbara Berkowitz from the Great Neck Board of Education is stark: Glickman’s focus is on what he calls “transparency” and complaints over inadequate parent and community engagement (while ignoring all the district’s mechanisms for parent and community engagement), while Berkowitz’ central focus and mission, demonstrated over the decades she has been engaged in Great Neck’s public education, has been on doing what needs to be done so that every Great Neck child can fulfill their potential and succeed in life.
Glickman could use the same verbiage and attacks in any campaign, from federal to state to local office and in fact, did in his failed campaign for Great Neck Plaza trustee in 2010.
One thing that has distinguished the school district is the culture on the board of education – congeniality, respect.
Watching the board for the past 30 years, I’ve been awed how trustees took the slings and arrows of emotionally intense, even irate parents and community members, listened patiently, and never failed to act with the interests of students foremost, often with Solomon-like wisdom, as when solving the burgeoning crisis with overcrowding at South schools by creating an “option zone” rather than forced redistricting, and managing to keep the budget within the state-mandated tax cap while preserving low-class size.
Berkowitz has devoted decades to the school district, starting with the parent-teacher organization at Baker Elementary, the shared decision-making committees and UPTC, joining the school board as a trustee 29 years ago, and leading the board as president of the Board since 2006 and before that, vice president.
Over the years, Berkowitz has presided over the hiring of three superintendents, navigated stormy seas of economic recession, state-mandated tax caps that do not take into account growing enrollments, changing demographics, and multiple bond issues to maintain and expand the vast infrastructure decades old, and through it all, kept the hallmark standard of low-class size, so fundamental to our children’s academic success.
All the while, as other school districts have had cannibalize their curriculum and programs down to what is specifically mandated, Great Neck students have been able to thrive with robust theater, music, arts, science research, Model UN, Model Congress, Mock Trial, Robotics, sports, clubs, a thick catalog of AP offering and state-of-the-art education technology initiatives that are the envy of school districts, none of which are “givens” in the decades-long anti-tax, anti-public education crusade.
Then there’s the summer recreation, enrichment and academic intervention programs which Berkowitz, over the years, has guided to being virtually self-sustaining, plus extensive guidance counseling, reading and language assistance, psychological services; robust Adult Education, GED and community education programs; SEAL Academy, a special needs program that brings tuition-paying students from out of the district.
Universal pre-K, expanded with the opening of the JFK school in addition to Parkville; Fun for 4s and SCOPE daycare to meet the needs of working parents. Her respect for the community is reflected in her advocacy for adding the Lunar New Year holiday to the school calendar.
The board under Berkowitz seized on anti-bullying initiatives and continue to imbue a culture of inclusion, acceptance, respect that are manifest in programs at individual school communities.
And after Columbine, the board completely restructured the district around safety and security needs, necessitating personnel, infrastructure, policy and budgetary changes. And now, she has captained the district through the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 6,800 students attend Great Neck public schools – a number that has steadily risen since the early 1990s – but another 2,000 Great Neck resident students attend parochial, private and other school settings.
The budget allocates millions of dollars for their transportation, textbooks, nursing care and other services. Berkowitz never begrudges and always says, “We gladly pay – they are our students too.”
She leads a $252 million budget, manages 2000 employees and multi-million dollar infrastructure spanning 18 buildings. Notably, these are skills she could have applied as CEO of a massive, complex organization and earned a six-figure salary for the past decades, instead of working for free on behalf of the community in what is too often a thankless effort. (On the other hand, Berkowitz has received notable and important honors from the New York State School Boards Association, New York State, Nassau and North Hempstead, Lions Club and Hispanic American Community for her leadership, trailblazing and humanitarianism.)
“Career politician,” is how Glickman demeans Berkowitz’s long dedication to Great Neck’s public schools as if serving in a volunteer position for 30 years is somehow nefarious and the experience inconsequential.
Glickman, in contrast, was CEO for a nonprofit museum with a $15 million budget and 100 staff for which he was paid $410,000. During that time he was sued after its former CFO sued him for harassment and discrimination.
Glickman describes himself as “a social entrepreneur and nonprofit executive who has led cultural institutions over the past two decades.” For the past couple of years, he has been engaged in two fundraising ventures for nonprofits, JMuse, where he is CEO, and Goodnation, where he is on the board of advisors (both loaded with ”Coming Soon” instead of actual achievements).
He has had scant engagement with Great Neck’s public education beyond having three children in school (one in North Middle and twins in Saddle Rock school) and participation in a handful of meetings on the UPTC budget committee and a short-term Citizens Committee that was formed around the last bond issue.
Glickman’s bullying tone and tactic would guarantee to shatter the culture on the board that has kept Great Neck public schools so successful, necessitating bringing together often competing and conflicting constituencies.
Our community is so fortunate that Berkowitz continues to give of herself to this volunteer position instead of trading the experience into a paying job. She deserves our gratitude and praise, not vicious insults and baseless attacks in a crass and cynical political campaign. “Career politician”? “Public servant” is more apt.
“I gave up the opportunity to have a paying job for all these years because I believed in what I was and still am doing – what’s in best interest of children,” Berkowitz said in our interview. “That’s my legacy, not to have everything tarnished by one person.”
There is no IQ requirement for living in the Great Neck School District, and our community has the same rate of special needs, as well as a higher percentage than would be expected of an “affluent” community of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, and yet our students excel – no one is left behind or loses out on every opportunity to fulfill their potential. Indeed, both Great Neck’s high schools, South and North, continue to be rated among the 500 best in the nation, out of 18,000, on US News’ annual report.
This cannot and should not be taken for granted, but is a function of who we elect to make the critical policy, budgetary and hiring decisions.
Voting for the school and library budgets and school board candidates is Tuesday, May 11.
