Sattinger touts political background

Sarah Minkewicz

Port Washington resident Dave Sattinger is no stranger to politics. 

“I studied politics and I’ve been sort of politically active my whole life,” said Sattinger, who’s running for a seat on the Port Washington school board. 

Sattinger graduated Roslyn High School in 1981 and went on to receive a bachelor’s in political science at Binghamton University.  

After he graduated he stayed in Binghamton for three years working with the New York Community Action Network on environmental and social justice issues. He then moved to California in 1988, where he lived for 18 years, to work on political campaigns. 

He said he and his son moved to Port Washington In 2002 to help take care of his parents and because, he said, he liked what Port Washington had to offer. 

“I was looking for a nice community with a good school district and easy access to Manhattan,” Sattinger said. “I basically flew in for a couple of weeks, found a place to live and we moved.”

Sattinger, whose son is now an eighth grade student at Weber Middle School, said he became interested in school board politics when his son was in the Port Enrichment Program program.

“About five years ago the board was discussing how to budget crunch and then was discussing cutting the program and so I started attending board meetings and at that point in time they decided to reduce the program, even though there was a lot of pressure to kill it completely and word filtered through the board that ‘well we feel like the PEP program and enrichment should be open to more of a districtwide situation and to involve more of the students,” Sattinger said. “At the time I understood that but if there’s one thing I know about politics is once you unfund something it’s very hard to refund it.”

Sattinger said he’s running because he believes he can offer a new perspective to the school board. He said there is a lot he’d like to change but he wants to start with increasing the communication and transparency between the school board.

“You get the distinct feeling that much of this is being discussed behind closed doors, rather in executive session or via email and the vast majority of committee meetings are held mid-week during the morning when most working people can’t go, including myself,” he said. 

If elected to the school board, Sattinger said he’d push for not only board meetings to be streamed and housed on the district website but all committee meetings as well to make sure more information is available to residents. 

“More people should be able to have a voice that don’t currently,” he said. “Family comes first, people have their professions and their lives. We must find ways to get people more informed and involved. Nobody here has a patent on great ideas, and we should do everything we can to encourage people to play a part.”

Sattinger described himself as a ‘political junkie.’

“I think I have a very good understanding of not only educational politics in Port Washington and the community but I have an understanding of education statewide and at the national level and I think understanding not just the community but how and what we do in Port Washington has an impact and reflects on other districts and what they’re going through matters,” he said. 

Sattinger along with Port Washington resident Emily Beys filed a petition on April 18 to join school board President Karen Sloan and Trustee Christine Nadolne in the race to fill three seats.

Residents will vote for the 2016-17 budget and the board seats on May 17 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The proposed budget call for $146,639,452 in spending and includes a tax levy increase of 0.80 percent, which is within the state-mandated tax cap.

 

 

 

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