Lots of activity but not here

[carolann]

There has been a huge movement in the community to refuse taking the tests....there are seven (!) people running for the Board of Ed....yet it seems to be very quiet here.

[Chris_Wendt]

"Opting-out" fizzled. I guess cooler heads prevailed, once people realized there was no "option" to not sit for the assessments, and, what if it was YOUR kid who ultimately would need services that would become the responsibility of the school district to provide, you know, based upon his/her score on the assessments?

On the candidate front, any candidate, every candidate, all candidates are certainly free to boost their candidacy by posting whatever they want, here. But then, they would have to use their own names when doing so, which would really be a refreshing change!

When I read the list of candidates to Goldilocks, she inquired for whom I would be voting. I told her, and she wanted to know more about the second one. She agreed with my choices, although admittedly, like me, she did not even know who four of the candidates are. But, no longer living here, she had no need or even much curiosity about the unknowns.

Of course, Sue and I still live here and pay taxes here, and thus have a vested interest in this race. But we already know enough about the candidates who are and have been active in our school district. And while a little curious about one or two of the others, we have enough background, history, and record to have formed our voting choices of whom we would trust, absolutely, with the education of Wantagh's children, and with our precious tax dollars, without agonizing over unknown challengers.

Here's my email if anyone wants to discuss this further.

[e-mail]

Good luck to Wantagh in this race!

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Started lurking here again last night bc of those issues mentioned (add on a few critical upcoming hires to the list of issues). Reading old posts was delving into the past few years of recent history with regards to budgets and BOE trustees. The importance of history is so mistakes are not repeated. Of the BOE candidates, there are quite a few I've never heard of.

The testing thing got a lot of noise but it seemed to be only the same vocal few. Haven't heard reports of any mass exodus of opt-out students on test days in Wantagh. Also, haven't heard of any kids incredibly stressed here in Wantagh, at least of the Wantagh parents I know. I have heard from educators in other districts that the tests were very tough with middle schoolers stressed and teary-eyed bc they didn't have enough time to finish.

[bnjasper]

Say NO to Spagnola again

I see that one of the seven running for the trustee positions is Mr. Ralph Spagnola.

The last time Ralph ran for the school board I wrote a letter to the editor asking readers not to vote for him. Hopefully, my letter had a small impact as the community defeated his re-election bid.

I based my decision at that time on the record increases in school budgets and taxes during his tenure. I also opposed his bully-like style of management when anyone questioned or opposed his position. There were many public outbursts that were not conducive to good community involvement in the budget process.

I have added another reason since that letter. In 2010, Mr. Spagnola wrote a letter to the editor for the Citizen. The subject was dealing with the proposal to privatize Cedar Creek. In that letter his first point was that the county does not need turf fields in its parks because they “…are inefficient, cost money to maintain and do not last long.”
This is the SAME person who spearheaded an all out drive to pass a bond issue to bring a turf field to the Wantagh School District.
I hear there will be a candidate debate this year. If this is true perhaps Mr. Spagnola can explain his position.
Let’s not go back.