Local residents will take to the polls to vote for two open seats on the Hicksville Board of Education on May 19. Trustee Brenda Judson is running unopposed and Phil Heckler will be vying for his seat against PTA Council Vice President Angela Kobetitsch.
Heckler has served on the board for one term; two of those three years he has served as board president. He said he is running for a second term because he wants to serve the children of the Hicksville School District and ensure they receive a quality education.
“As a grandparent of children in Hicksville schools, I understand that our children’s education is our most important responsibility, and as a 40-year resident of our town, I know that the values of our homes are directly correlated to the quality of our schools,” Heckler said.
He said he found his first term highly rewarding, as well as beneficial to the district, saying he helped institute several changes to improve transparency and establish a collaborative environment within the district. He is running for re-election to make sure the enhancements that the board has proposed are successfully implemented, as well as to address the challenges the district faces.
Kobetitsch, a 16-year resident, is currently the vice president of the PTA Council and a council delegate for the middle schools. She sits on several committees, including site base, youth advisory committee and curriculum council. Kobetitsch is a retired NYPD captain with two daughters in the district and said she is running with the future of the district in mind. She said if elected, she sees herself rallying everyone to continue to improve the education system, and will listen to all the different voices that make up the district.
“If this community is to succeed we all need to start thinking about the future. We as a community need to make sure that all aspects of education are being covered,” she said. “Having worked as a NYC Police Captain, I was taught to see the big picture when working in a community. I have spent the last seven years volunteering in numerous committees interacting with administrators, teachers, parents and the students and have realized that we all need to be part of the solutions. This district has an amazing, hardworking staff and the Board of Education needs to continue finding ways to work with them and support them.”
Both Heckler and Kobetitsch noted the 2 percent tax cap and Common Core standards as some of the district’s biggest challenges.
“I believe we must improve educational opportunities in Hicksville and this could be thought of as a two part approach. First, to maintain current services we must hold the line on increases to within the state cap of 2 percent per year (i.e. contracts, building improvements, etc.),” Heckler said regarding the tax cap. “Second, to fund further educational enhancements we need to find efficiencies, re-purpose resources and make use of our reserves in a manner that does not create long-term structural problems.”
Heckler said the board created various committees to address the fiscal challenges that arose because of the cap, and if re-elected he wants to help implement those solutions, which include expanding special education programs, expanding evening high school and opening up an alternate path to graduation via BOCES vocational education.
Kobetitsch said working within the tax cap requires a lot of collaboration.
“The 2 percent tax cap is a major concern. While this is good and popular for a working middle class community like ours, it requires that the board—in a collaborative approach with the administrators, educators and parent—look at all avenues to keep costs down without effecting the quality of education our children receive,” she said. “We need to continue and expand this collaborative model that the district is currently using.”
She said that while the district is doing an excellent job incorporating the changes associated with Common Core, it causes stress for students, parents and educators.
“Linking teacher evaluations to test performance is causing the students to disengage due to the overemphasis on test preparation. While testing for the right reasons is important, the Common Core using this as a means to evaluate teacher’s performance only leads to teaching to the test,” she said. “We need to inform, educate and get the community involved at the district and state level. We need to use all the different avenues in the community to inform them of what is happening in the education process within the district and the state.”
Heckler noted that if re-elected he would lobby state representatives for changes to evaluations and testing.
“Linking teacher evaluations to standardized state tests ignores the many socio-economic problems of the at-risk students that cannot be reached solely by the individual teachers,” he said. “I will help address current concerns raised by several district parents regarding an over focus on math and ELA at the expense of a broader curriculum to include science and social studies.”
The Hicksville School District budget and trustee vote takes place May 19 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the districts’ elementary schools.
