Barbs were traded early and often during Meet the Candidates Night on Monday, May 4, which saw Mineola School Board Vice President Christine Napolitano and newcomers, Joy Renner, Mark Swensen and Brian Widman make their case for one of the two open seats on the Mineola School Board. District Council of PTAs co-president Mary Desiderio moderated the verbal tussle. Election Day is May 19.

The Candidates
Napolitano, a 23-year Williston Park resident, is the longest serving current board member, winning her first election in 2009. Her three daughters attended Mineola schools. She has served as both president and vice president while shepherding Mineola through the trying times of reconfiguration, which saw the Willis Avenue and Cross Street schools close. Those buildings have since been rented out to Harbor Day Child Care and the Solomon Schechter Day School, respectively.

Napolitano also sat on boards that helped Mineola keep within a self-imposed 2.5 percent tax cap for eight years, long prior to the New York State passed a 2 percent cap in 2011. The district has yet to pierce the cap.
“Mineola stood at a critical crossroad,” Napolitano said of her time when she decided to run in 2009. “Many of us remember the almost excruciating road to reconfiguration. In hindsight, it was probably the most tumultuous time in Mineola’s history.”

Swensen is an IT consultant and project manager, handling projects and complex software deployments for his business, ONM Consulting. He’s served more than five years with the Mineola Fire Department as well as nine years with the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corp, achieving the rank of assistant chief.

Swensen attended Mineola schools and lives in Mineola with his wife, Olivia and their 2-year-old son. He was on the wrestling, soccer, lacrosse and rifle teams. Swensen was also involved in Mineola theatre productions in the stage crew and member of the marching band.

“This ship has been sailing on rougher seas each year with Common Core and unfunded mandates, tax caps teacher negotiations, testing rollouts and technology advancement. My point is, I have the multifaceted experience to help this ship clear the rocks.”

Widman, of Roslyn Heights is a business data analyst for the Uniformed Services Family Health Program and heavily involved in school happenings. His interest in district ongoings sparked during reconfiguration, when he feared his alma mater, Meadow Drive School, may close. Widman graduated from Mineola High School in 1986.

“I was very worried that Meadow Drive was going to close,” he said. “It was a school I attended and a school I wanted my kids to attend,” Widman said. “I wanted to be an informed parent and be able to update my community on district issues.”

Renner, also of Roslyn Heights, began teaching in Jamaica, Queens in a preschool for special education before working for District 26 in Far Rockaway. She accepted a position in the Uniondale School District in 1997, teaching kindergarten through fifth-grade special education classes.

Renner has three children attending Jackson Avenue, Mineola Middle and Mineola High schools and served as president of the South Park Civic Association in Roslyn Heights. Renner is also a committee member of the Mineola Athletic Booster Club and an active organizer of fundraising events.

“I have a vested interest in seeing our schools be the best they can be,” Renner said. “It is the responsibility of the school board to oversee that opportunities are available to every child.”

To read letters of support on the candidates for Mineola School Board, click here.

The Issues

State Tests
The New York State English and math assessments have been the subject of much debate and criticism in Mineola, with parents and educators pitted against Albany in rigmarole. The link of test scores to half of a New York State teacher’s evaluation have given parents and teachers pause in the acceptance and implementation in the curriculum. The measure was approved by the state legislature in March.

Mineola saw 18.3 and 20.9 percent of third-through eighth-grade English math students opt-out of the April exams, respectively. This has parents prodding district officials for answers. With teachers’ evaluations being tied to assessments, the tug-and-pull between the New York State United Teachers and Governor Andrew Cuomo is ever prevalent.

Renner questioned Mineola’s outreach to parents concerning the test, arguing the school board is “hiding under this oath that they’d be removed from the board.” Mineola put out an announcement of opt-out guidelines one day before the English exams were administered last month.

“Where does it state that informing parents [of options] will have you removed from a board? We are not asking the board to act in an illegal manner,” she said. “We are asking them to inform parents.”

Local school boards are prohibited in steering students toward or away from assessments, Napolitano says. Board members could be removed from their position if found doing so.

“We have to follow the law,” Napolitano said. “The law is you have to give the test. That being said, what I was very unhappy about is [opt-out] brought about a lot of anxiety into the buildings.”

Widman feels the children are getting caught up in the hoopla.

“The children are being used as a pawn in fights between the parents, teachers and Albany,” he said. “Students opting out should not be teasing or parroting what their parents say, to other students.”

Swensen feels the test is a work in progress and suggests Mineola needs to find a link between its technology initiatives and test scores.

“I don’t think it’s a good representation of our children’s abilities,” Swensen said. “Our current board members have hidden by New York State law as a reason to not inform our parents. I think that’s what it boils down to. No one is asking the board to advocate opt-out.”

Residential Development Tax Breaks
The Mineola school and village boards were entwined in a myriad of verbal tussles via letters, statements at meetings and public hearings regarding The Village Green, a proposed 266-unit apartment complex on 2nd Street by New Hyde Park Developer Kevin Lalezarian. School reps contend the Village Green along with ongoing apartment complex construction on Old Country Road, would leave the district little wiggle room in budget preparation and possible program cuts in the coming years.

While school’s receive revenue from proposed tax breaks dubbed payment in lieu of taxes (PILOTS), districts cannot use the funds in tax levy calculations.

“They shut us down [at Village Green meetings],” Napolitano said. “[Swensen] can stand up here and throw out numbers but it’s called a PILOT for a reason. Those three buildings together are going to cost this district about $30 million. This affects all taxpayers.”

School officials claimed they were left out of the loop in negotiations of previous Mineola housing developments. This preceded three years documents and certified mailings from the village to the district surfacing, which suggested advanced notice. The mailings, addressed to District Superintendent Michael Nagler, included letters from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency and its meetings concerning tax break negotiations for the 275-unit Mineola Modera and Lalezarian’s 315-unit complex at 250 Old Country Rd.

“Our current board handled the PILOT situation very poorly as they failed to attend meetings [on Mineola Modera and 250 Old Country Rd.] that they were invited by certified letter to, not once, but multiple times,” Swensen said.
School reps in March argued the village’s recent downtown housing study would lead to an influx of 600 school-kids in future years. The village’s findings based on a 2006 Rutgers University report suggested less.

“I’m not going to tell the Village of Mineola what they can or cannot build,” Widman said. “But at the same time, the taxes Lalezarian is not going to be paying, that’s going to be spread out among all the residents.”

The letters were misplaced by an office clerk, Nagler said at the time.

“Mr. Swensen has been in favor of the apartments,” Napolitano said. “Do you think he’s going to be showing up at IDA meetings when the apartments are, probably going to be granted [by the village board]. Fighting for you? We were [at Village Green hearings]. We were fighting for you.”

Turf Fields
The school district has been painstakingly pursuing the installation of a $3 million synthetic turf field and new running track at either Mineola High School or the Hampton Street School since late 2014. The initial debate was centered on the turf’s infill, as popular turf products consist of recycled tires, known as crumb rubber. Numerous studies fall on each side, stating crumb rubber is linked to skin cancer, while others argue the amount an athlete would need to ingest to cause harm is sizable.

Alternatives to crumb rubber are pricey. Turf plan designer Michael Mark of Mark Designs said a plastic pellet infill would fetch between $60,000-$150,000. Other fields use cork flakes and husk culls, which according to Mark are softer than crumb rubber, but decompose easily. Cork infill on a turf field would set Mineola back $250,000.

“It’s been a safety issue,” Renner, a Mineola Athletic Booster Club member, said of the grass field. “Kids have been getting hurt, games have been canceled many times. We spend a lot of money reseeding and surfacing the [Hampton] field. I think we’ve finally seen the board of ed. moving forward.”

To pay for the project, Mineola expects to tap its capital reserve fund, which allows the board to designate future monies toward other capital projects to be used via voter approval. The reserve was created in 2011 by a proposition attached to an election day budget vote.

“I think the turf field is something that is beneficial to the district,” Swensen said. “There are a lot of questions going back and forth in terms of the infill. We need to make the decisions based on sound information, perhaps slowing things down. The amount of money we’re talking about spending is not small and ultimately needs to be vetted by the whole board.”

Napolitano refuted Swensen’s statement, saying “I find it odd that Mr. Swensen says we need to slow down, considering Mrs. Renner says we need it.”

“Mr. Swensen is incorrect,” Napolitano said. “The money is there. We will be able to afford a new turf field. The board is not rushing in terms of what we were going to use as an infill. We’ve done a lot of research on it.”