The Seaford School District has two candidates running unopposed for reelection in May: Lisa Herbert and Heather Umhafer.
Herbert is the current board president. She has lived in Seaford since 2013. She joined the board in 2022 and is concluding her first term.
Herbert has two children in the district, one in eighth grade and another in fifth grade. She is a member of the Seaford Harbor Elementary PTA as well as the PTSA, which is responsible for the district’s middle and high schools.
Herbert said her initial bid for a board seat was motivated by multiple factors. She wanted to help keep in-person learning moving forward as the world battled the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Herbert said she was part of the district’s task force in charge of ensuring that students, staff, and faculty were in the buildings safely.
Between that experience and her skills as an attorney, she said she decided she would be valuable to a school board.
Herbert said that knowing the laws and regulations helped her quickly adjust to becoming a board member.
“Over the last many years, the district has grown in leaps and bounds,” Herbert said. “We have been improving our campuses, we’ve been doing a lot of capital improvements, we’ve been incredibly fiscally responsible and we have been very wise in our reserves, saving money so that we can self-fund a lot of really important projects.”
As a commercial litigator in New York City, Herbert said her days are busy.
“Being president of the board of education is a major job too, and you make time for the things that are important to you,” she said.
Herbert received her undergraduate degree in political science from Quinnipiac University and her juris doctor degree from New York Law School.
When asked about the other board members, Herbert said that the members are cohesive, professional, collaborative and smart.
Umhafer has been a trustee on Seaford’s Board of Education since 2022. She is also the vice district clerk.
“I’ve always just really prided myself on being part of the community,” she said. “I grew up in Seaford, I graduated from Seaford High School and I just like to give back to the community.”
Umhafer is the co-founder and owner of Downstage Dance in Seaford, a studio currently in its tenth season.
She said the studio has a faculty of eight people and it puts on two shows per year. Umafer said she has been teaching dance for over 25 years.
Although she is not a member of a PTA, Umhafer said she donates to the PTA from her personal business.
She has two children in the district, one in the 11th and another in the seventh grade.
Umhafer said that it’s important for parents within the district to be active with the school board because they have an inside view of what is happening with their children on what is happening with
Umhafer said she is happy with the growth she has seen throughout the district and the different programs that it provides for the community.
Umhafer said the board members make a “very well put together group.”
“Everybody’s got great ideas, everybody asks a lot of questions, it’s a good group of parents,” she said. “There are issues that arise, but we always try to work through everything and work through things as quickly as we can. Everybody is there for the right reasons.”
Umhafer received her undergraduate degree in mass communications from Quinnipiac University.
Seaford community members will vote on the two Board of Election candidates on May 20, when they also vote on the district’s $85.1 million budget.
