Christine Napolitano and Brian Widman attained the two open Mineola School Board seats in the district’s board election/budget vote on Tuesday, May 19. The duo gained 909 and 800 votes, respectively. Joy Renner of Roslyn Heights and Mineola resident Mark Swensen topped out at 693 and 644 votes in the at-large bid.
Mineola’s two polling places at the Jackson Avenue and Meadow Drive schools tallied Napolitano as the top vote-getter, nabbing 575 and 334 votes at the two schools. Widman secured 480 and 320 tallies.
Renner grabbed 402 votes at Jackson Avenue and 291 at Meadow Drive while Swensen captured 397 and 247 votes at the two polling spots. Both weren’t immediately available for comment.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” Napolitano said in the Jackson Avenue hallway. “This was a mandate of all the good and hard work that this board and this district has done for the past six years. I didn’t get here by myself.”
Napolitano of Williston Park currently serves as school board vice president and is Mineola’s longest tenured trustee. It’s unclear if she’ll be tapped to serve as board president, a post she’s served before.
“We haven’t talked about that because we didn’t know what the election would bring,” Napolitano said. “I want to continue the tradition of excellence that we’ve established here across [the district].”
Napolitano feels the board’s yearly retreat during the summer, where trustees and administrators discuss district goals, will be key in Widman’s development.
“The first thing we do is we set our goals for the following year,” she said. “It’ll be interesting because having Brian now, it’ll be refreshing to hear what he has to say.”
Hearkening back to her inaugural election in 2009, Napolitano can identify with Widman’s new routine that will ensue over the next weeks and months.
“There’s always the initial shock seeing that the job is very different on the other side of the table,” she said. “I’m very confident in Brian’s ability to transition.”
Widman, a Mineola High School graduate and also of Roslyn Heights, announced in April that he planned to campaign as Napolitano’s running mate. A data business analyst for U.S. Family Health Plan, Widman’s interest in district ongoings sparked during reconfiguration, when he feared his alma mater, Meadow Drive School, may close.
“Right now, I’m speechless,” Widman said after the results were announced. “I’m honored that the community put their trust in me. I’m going to do my best to fulfill that trust and responsibility they put upon me.”
Widman feels his involvement in district affairs, from committees to school plays, is what garnered support for his victory. Widman said he plans to make an effort to understand Mineola’s special education program when he is sworn in to the board in July.
“I think the residents saw that I was an honest person,” Widman said. “I had no hidden agenda. I put out there what I planned on doing and what I felt. I wasn’t backed by any unknowns other than residents.”
Swensen, an IT consultant and veteran Mineola Fire Department fireman, feels educated by the experience and thinks issues raised by he and Renner, mainly school finances, technology rollouts and state aid allocations.
“We’re disappointed, but we’re glad that we got as many people out vote to that we did,” Swensen said. “We’re glad that we raised the issues that we did. Joy and I want to congratulate Mrs. Napolitano and Mr. Widman on their election to the school board.
“We had a group of people that worked with us, caught us up on things we didn’t know,” Swensen continued. “The issues we raised are the issues that came from them. This is the information the board has to heed. It’s coming from their voters. Albeit it’s one side of the vote, it’s still a decent amount of people that are talking about it.”
Current Mineola School Board President Artie Barnett, who was elected in 2012, revealed he would not seek a second term last month, creating the additional opening. He endorsed Napolitano and Widman in April, alleging Swensen and Renner were encouraged to run by Mineola Village Board officials.
The school and village boards had been embroiled in a back-and-forth concerning residential developments, tax breaks that help finance them and their effects on local school districts.
“They structured a campaign to come after me,” Barnett said. “I guess I disappointed them by not running. I never was [running].”
Renner and Swensen refuted the claim.
“Nobody pushed me to run,” Swensen said. “I made this decision on my own. I sought counsel from a lot of people. Friends, family, community leaders…because this is not something that should be taken lightly. [Barnett’s’ statement] is silly. I don’t know what his angle was there.”
Renner, an educator in the Uniondale School District, questioned Barnett’s leadership and affirmed her stance that her campaign was independent of village influence.
“He made a lot of public remarks that were uncalled for,” Renner said. “His conduct as a board president doesn’t represent Mineola in a fair way.”
Furthermore, she stands on her and Swensen’s outreach during campaign season.
“Mark and I had family and friends supporting us,” Renner said. “We had not done this before and we relied on them to guide us. We met a lot of community members, spoke to a lot of people, heard a lot of issues and made connections that way.”
In Widman, Barnett sees a concerned resident, ready to take the next step.
“I see [Brian] at every meeting,” Barnett said. “We were on different sides of the fence during reconfiguration. I was looking for somebody who had the best interest of this district. He was informed. I recruited him. I asked him to run.”
Budget Approved
The school district floated a $89.6 million 2015-16 school budget on Tuesday, which passed 1,074-370. The spending plan represents a 1.37 percent in the tax levy and a $1.9 million budget-to-budget increase from 2014-15.
The budget approval marks the eighth straight year the school district approved a 2.5 percent tax increase or lower.
“We’re in great shape,” Barnett said. “I think when the voters approved [Napolitano] and Brian and the budget that they approve of the way we’re doing things here. Simple as that.”
