Board of Ed 2011 Elections

[jdelisa]

the Citizen reported on April 21st that Mike Cucci is running for re-election.

any idea who else is running or re-running?

[Chris_Wendt]

Mike Cucci must be running un-opposed, or else the District Clerk would have informed the Citizen of any other candidates. I am sure the Citizen would have solicited bio's from any other candidates and ran them all side-by-side, you know, to avoid any appearance of favoritism or bias on the part of the Citizen, or of untoward influence by a candidate. So, I must conclude this to be a one-horse race. Mike Cucci versus nobody.

(But then, why would Mike Cucci even submit his bio to the Citizen, and, why would the venerated Citizen but a blurb about "Mike Cucci" on the FRONT PAGE, if there was nobody running against Mike Cucci? Difficult possibilities to ponder: favoritism, media bias, influence, or, nobody running?)

One could ask the standing Wantagh School District Question of the Month: What's New in Wantagh? To which the response might be, nothing...

...yet.

Chris Wendt

[bnjasper]

Today, I saw that Mike Cucci had the Citizen publish an article indicating he is running for another term on the Board of Education (BOE). He states to his credits that he has been a BOE member for 12 years. I personally admire folks that give of their time to do volunteer work especially with our youth. However, I did not see¡K

Some additional points (facts) I would like to add to the biography:

ľ The school budget has gone up 77% in that time while the inflation rate was 30%.

ƒæ As president of the BOE Mr. Cucci led the district into contingency by not respecting the voter¡¦s defeat of the original 2008/09 budget. Despite announcing to the public that the BOE would ¡§¡Krespect the will of the people¡K¡¨ he called for a re-vote on the same budget. Needless to say it was defeated by 5 times worse than the first vote.

School leadership should have used the defeated budget to show the students the power of voting. Instead the BOE told the students when you don¡¦t like a vote just do it over again. Is this school leadership?

[lilly]

What I found interesting is that the bio was a list of volunteer committees/org's but not what was done while on them. No list of accomplishments. What is his legacy and what he is most proud of in terms of effecting change?

During his tenure, in fact the first year the bond payment on the sportsplex was due, the HS arts programs were cut to a fraction of what they were (even one that was at zero cost to taxpayers!). So, not a lot of visionary pre-planning there. And a huge, not good, change in Wantagh philosophy.

Anyone who thinks that the proposed 2011/12 is a budget for 'all kids' is sadly mistaken no matter how many times Lydia Begley stomps her feet insisting that Wantagh is about "arts, athletics and academics". No surprises here - I for one, will not be supporting this budget bc of these facts or any incumbent BOE candidate who had a hand in this damaging development.

Special ed legal expenses escalated to an all time high during his tenure. That may have something to do with the last two horrendous PPS Director hires (not the current interim PPS Director). That is an issue that affects all - taxpayers & kids. Every $ spent on due process against our own parents is a disrespectful waste of $. High legal fees mean higher taxes and/or less $ spent on the kids. That may a contributing reason to why tax/spending increases have outpaced inflation to the degree they have.

According to the Patch, Michael Soethout and Mitch Zerner are running for BOE.

wantagh.patch.com/articles/school-board-elections-set-for-wantagh-and-seaford

[psdoff]

if you think the board is doing such a bad job and think you could do a better job why not run yourself. its so easy to point fingers but to take action is something to admire. i would bet you do no better.as for the special ed spending that has everything to do with state mandates.

and i no i could not do any better than our current BOE

[lilly]

Here are good things that are happening with the Wantagh BOE since its composition/members has changed in the last 2-3 years.

The problem in special ed was (finally) recognized and acted on, just ask the long suffering parents who have plunked down $10k retainers and much more in this economy to get their child an appropriate education out of Wantagh SD. Chalking up a clear indication of a problem (from zero to several/increasing due process hearings) to 'misunderstood' mandates is quite frankly, utter BS.

The BOE took a hard line with teacher contract negotiations, one of if not the biggest item negatively affecting our taxes. The prior contract was unsustainable for taxpayers. Now, the trick question is we don't know what is in the new contract until ratification so don't know yet if there is cause for celebration. (Celebration being some level of relief for taxpayers and hopefully stemming cuts to the kids, not a vindictive statement against our teachers, the majority of which are good/great teachers.)

Oh and btw, as I stated in my post, none of this is a surprise. I've had numerous one on one conversations as well as have made public statements about my concerns with our BOE. I'm not "pointing fingers" but stating fact. Do you want to live in a town and pay high taxes for a school budget that does not support ALL kids to the same degree? I don't.

And, in case you haven't noticed, Nassau County has the illustrious distinction of having the highest taxes in the NATION. ~75% of those taxes are SCHOOL taxes. The public school system is in a bit of a crisis to say the least. An informed, educated vote is in order, not an emotional knee-jerk one.

[hightax]

How many people are running for the Board of Ed

[jdelisa]

to hightax - Lilly was kind enough to answer three or four posts earlier.

to everyone else - what happen to district sponsored "Meet the Candidate Night" and the usual debates or chance to hear from the candidates?

I keep hearing, second and third-hand, about "irregularities" or flat out changes in election campaigning or procedures this year.

any truth to these persistent grumblings in what I thought was going to be a no-drama (sorry Lilly) year?

[Chris_Wendt]

RE:""what happen to district sponsored "Meet the Candidate Night" and the usual debates or chance to hear from the candidates?

I keep hearing, second and third-hand, about "irregularities" or flat out changes in election campaigning or procedures this year.

any truth to these persistent grumblings in what I thought was going to be a no-drama (sorry Lilly) year?

Now that the election for BoE is a real horse race, "they" have decided that a "debate" format would be messy and would probably cast a different, or at least a much brighter light on the individual candidates' grasp of the issues and their ability to articulate what they stand for, or, how the incumbent could possibly justify his record of failed bond and budget votes in the past, cutting all sports that year he cut all sports, punishing the voters by not allocating ANY fund balance (as promised in the budget brochure) that year he pulled back the entire fund balance allocation, and, for increasing taxes in the face of declining enrollment, at a rate much higher than inflation and way above any reasonable expectation of the state to increase aid to the district during his entire tenure on the board.

Tenure is a poor choice of words, because school board trustees do NOT get tenure; which is why we have elections for the voters to evaluate their records and bring in new ideas, new blood and new names to the school board and to keep things fresh and current, and real.

So, they concocted this meet an greet event for the three of them to make nice in front of the 300-pound gorilla they are so afraid of.

To me, the race is shaping up to a jocular morning sports show on the one hand, and a more serious and business-minded professional on the other hand. Sounds like an easy choice, except for that 300-Pound gorilla, and, those jocular sports show co-hosts being seemingly joined at the hip.

That's my take.

Chris Wendt

[bnjasper]

Today I found flyers in my door for school board candidates Cucci and Soethout. I took note on Mr. Soethout’s flyer that he failed to note that his wife is a teacher. Since he states he is committed to the facts I thought I would point this one out to the community. Will this be a conflict of interest??

[ducky]

Mike Cucci is running again. He has been too busy cutting down trees at the back of his property. I guess he's getting ready for construction to begin. The Wantagh Community doesn't want construction there. They wanted it left "Green Space and Bird Sanctuary".