Middle school teacher Stacey DeCillis was elected to the Mineola Board of Education on Tuesday, filling the seat previously held by President Christine Napolitano, who did not seek re-election.
DeCillis received 699 votes while Trustee Brian Widman, who also ran unopposed, for his third term on the board, received 680 votes.
DeCillis has worked as an eighth-grade history teacher at Garden City Middle School for 17 years and has lived in Mineola for 13 years. She said that her family’s background in education and community involvement made running for the board a natural choice for her.
“My mom was an administrator in a district, and my father was also a school board member previously, so I come from a background of educators who want to give back to the community,” DeCillis said in an interview before the election. “Since there was an open seat this year, I found this as my opportunity to give back to the community, to make sure that the district continues the trajectory that it’s on right now.”
Efforts to reach DeCillis and Widman for further comment were unavailing.
The district’s $111.8 million budget for the 2021-22 school year also passed, receiving 718 votes in favor and 210 opposed.
The budget is an increase of almost $11 million, or 10.87 percent, from the $100.1 million budget for 2020-21.
The budget calls for no increase in the tax levy. Capital projects such as Jackson Avenue School renovations and additions call for $13 million, according to Assistant Business Manager Andrew Casale.
Jackson Avenue renovations include a new cafeteria, kitchen, playground, sidewalks, retaining walls on the east side of the school, and new grass fields for soccer and lacrosse. Also featured is the construction of a new field house, which officials expect to take about three years to complete.
East Williston
East Williston Board of Education Trustees Robert Fallarino and Leonard Hirsch were re-elected after running unopposed.
Fallarino received 259 votes and Hirsch received 250, according to election results provided by the district.
Hirsch, from Roslyn Heights, has served two terms on the board. He has two children, one in Willets Road School and one in North Side School. Hirsch, who grew up in East Williston, was first elected to the board in 2012.
Fallarino, a medical malpractice attorney, won his fifth three-year term on the board. Fallarino has also previously served as a prosecuting attorney for the Village of Floral Park.
Voters also approved the $64 million budget for 2021-22, which includes $6.81 million to fund capital projects. The budget received 222 votes in favor and 95 votes opposed.
The $63,984,675 budget is a 1.4 percent increase from the $63,091,128 budget for 2020–21. The budget also comes with a property tax levy increase of 1.67 percent.
Joseph Piscopia, a member of the Capital Facilities Advisory Committee, outlined several current and future projects underway at the district’s schools. They include the installation of a new irrigation system for the fields at Northside School and the addition of new sidewalks from the parking lot at Willets Road School.
Some projects have been completed recently at the Wheatley School, including the installation of a new gymnasium floor and replacement of the turf on the baseball field.
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District residents Binu Jacob and Danielle Fagan won uncontested election bids after three incumbent Board of Education trustees did not seek seek re-election.
Fagan received 432 votes and Jacob received 368 votes. Jacob and Fagan will fill the spots of Jennifer DeRocchis and David Del Santo, respectively.
Trustee Danielle Messina announced she would also not run for re-election, but received 20 write-in votes. Officials previously said the board would appoint someone to fill Messina’s seat if no one else was elected.
Del Santo, who has also served as the Sewanhaka Board of Education president, spent five terms on the board. DeRocchis, a former Manor Oaks Parent Teacher Association vice president, was first elected to the board in 2015 after unseating Frank Miranda. Messina, an involved parent in the school district, was appointed to the trustee position last year.
Efforts to reach Jacob and Fagan for comment were unavailing.
The public also passed the $42.3 million budget for the 2021-22 school year. The budget received 384 votes in favor, and 265 votes against it.
The budget comes with a tax levy increase of 1.14 percent. The $32,971,547 tax levy will cost the average homeowner $42 more.
It also includes a 0.69 percent decrease in salaries to $20,649,980 and a 0.32 percent increase in benefits to $10,803,115. Administrators expect a decrease in staffing needs based on enrollment projections, and there has been a decrease in staff due to retirements, according to Michael Frank, the school district’s deputy superintendent.
The district’s voters also passed a resolution to authorize the establishment of a capital reserve fund for a maximum of 15 years not to exceed $10 million with 373 votes in favor of it and 240 opposed. Another resolution was passed to increase the current transportation limits for kindergarten to sixth-grade students from one mile to 1.5 miles. It received 329 votes in favor of increasing the radius, compared with 314 opposed.
Herricks
Herricks Board of Education Trustees Brian Hassan and Nancy Feinstein were both re-elected.
Feinstein received 888 votes and Hassan received 675, according to the district.
Feinstein, a Roslyn resident, was elected to her fifth three-year term on the board. She has three children who have all attended and graduated from Herricks schools.
Hassan, an Albertson resident, was also elected to his fifth term on the board. He has three children who have graduated from the Herricks schools.
Efforts to reach the incumbents for comment were unavailing.
Voters also passed the $122.9 million budget. The budget received 825 votes in favor of it, compared with 391 votes opposed.
The budget is a $2.33 million, or 1.94 percent, increase from the 2020-21 budget.
The budget called for a 1.42 percent increase in the 2021-22 tax levy from this year, but it remained below the state cap of 2.51 percent.
The initially proposed 1.86 percent levy increase was lowered to 1.42 percent as a result of additional state aid. The district’s average levy increase since the cap’s inception in 2012-13 is 1.66 percent.
The district also passed a proposition to allow the district to spend $1.2 million of capital reserve funds for renovations to the Herricks High School auditorium. The proposition received 888 votes in favor, compared with 301 against it.
“Our Board and Administration worked diligently to develop a budget that continues to support all programs and opportunities for students yet was well below the allowable tax levy cap,” a district statement said. “We appreciate the efforts of and thank everyone in the community who participated in the budget development process and all those who express a continued interest in our schools.”
