Port schools’ $155M budget passed overwhelmingly

Luke Torrance
Clockwise from left: Nora Johnson, Larry Greenstein, Beth Weisburd. (Courtesy of PWSD)

Voters in the Port Washington school district overwhelmingly passed the district’s $155 million budget during Tuesday’s school elections.

Eighty percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of the budget. The final vote totals were 1,807 for and 449 against.

The 2018-19 budget is a 3.12 percent, or $4.7 million increase, from the 2017-18 budget. The levy increase was about $4.19 million, or 3.15 percent.

“With this support, the district will continue to provide a full academic and co-curricular program while also funding important instructional and instructional support positions to accommodate our student population,” a statement from the district said.

Voters also cast their ballots for members of the Board of Education. Board Vice President Nora Johnson and members Larry Greenstein and Elizabeth Wiesburd were re-elected; all three were unopposed.

Johnson received the most votes with 1,653. Weisburd received 1,565 votes and Greenstein was close behind with 1,536. Additionally, there were 189 write-ins.

Members of the Board of Education serve three-year terms.

Johnson has served on the Board of Education since 2012. Before joining the board, she served in leadership positions for the Home and School Association, the Community Scholarship Fund and Relay for Life. She said she ran for re-election because she enjoys her work on the board.

“We have an excellent board in the sense that we’re cohesive and work well together,” she said. “I feel like I can continue to make a contribution to the community that I love … I get a lot of satisfaction from the learning about the educational system and using my legal and interpersonal skills.”

Greenstein serves on the Curriculum Committee and has been a member of the board since 2004. His children have since graduated from the school district, but he has remained on the board to give the perspective of residents without students and to speak for those who might otherwise be forgotten.

“I thought at that point, the board really needed a voice for people on the edges,” he said. “The kids who were outliers were sort of being left behind.”

This will be Weisburd’s second term. She said earlier this month that she wants to uphold the district’s standards going forward.

“I wanted to make sure that we continue to offer the quality of education here in Port Washington that we’ve offered as long as I’ve been here, and that’s a very, very long time,” she said.

Board President Karen Sloan and Emily Beys will be up for election next year.

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