The Mineola School Board held its reorganization meeting on Wednesday, July 1, kick starting the 2015-16 school year. Newcomer Brian Widman of Roslyn Heights was sworn in to the board for his first run in the district. Christine Napolitano, the longest tenured board member, was elevated to board president. Napolitano moves one seat over on the dais, replacing Artie Barnett, who did not seek re-election in May. Patricia Navarra will serve as board vice president.
“I will do my best to look out for the students and well-being of this district,” Widman said. “Doing what’s best for my kids may not always be what’s best for the district. I will do what’s best for all the students.”
Napolitano will be the District Council official for the board. Navarra, a Hofstra University professor who was unable to attend the meeting because she was in Ireland with students, will serve Mineola as its BOCES representative.
“I just want to thank the community for electing me once again,” Napolitano said. “It’s my third term. Kind of hard to believe my sitting here, especially as board president. It’s going to be a great year.”
Trustee Nicole Matzer will serve as the district’s voting delegate for the New York State School Board Association (NYSSBA).
“Over the last few weeks it’s been very busy,” Matzer said. “I want to thank all the parent volunteers who worked very hard to make the end of the school year a success.”
Trustee Margaret Ballantyne-Mannion will sit on the district’s policy and regulations review committee and serve as an alternate voting delegate to NYSSBA for the second straight year. She is excited to see where the district is headed with its new connection with Queensborough Community College.
Mineola High School students will be able to earn high school and college credit in their coursework and will offer a robotics class next year. Ballantyne-Mannion currently holds a Ph.D in Hispanic studies from Brown University and is a professor of Spanish at CUNY York College.
“This is an amazing opportunity for the kids because CUNY has reconfigured all of its graduation requirements so all credits in CUNY units are accepted by all other CUNY units now,” she said. “So whatever amount of courses a student gets at Queensborough …those credits go with them [if they transfer].”
Widman echoed Ballantyne-Mannion’s sentiments.
“That was one of the things I brought up at Meet the Candidates Night,” Widman said. “To try to improve the number of classes that students can take for [college] credits. Everyone knows the costs of school keeps rising.”
