The Eagle banner at Hauppauge High School. Photo by Rita J. Egan
By Chris Cumella
The Hauppauge school district board of education election and budget vote is set to take place on Tuesday, May 18. It will feature four candidates vying for two places hoping to represent the best of the hamlet and its educational values. The three-year term starts July 1 and ends June 30, 2024.
With BOE trustee Stacey Weisberg deciding not to run for reelection, the candidates are as follows:
Megan Asseng
Megan Asseng
Megan Asseng works as an assistant vice president for Northwell Health. She moved to Hauppauge with her husband a decade ago and happily settled into the small-town atmosphere.
“It was a very tight-knit community and thought it would be the best place for our children’s education,” Asseng said. “I have a vested interest in assuring that Hauppauge’s school district succeeds because my children will be there too.”
COVID-19 had forced many traditionally in-person meeting formats to be on remote collaborations, and schools have been no exception. Asseng believes that because of COVID, there will be a rocky transition back into even more full classrooms from online ones. Her platform revolves around creating effective plans for children to adapt once again to face-to-face learning environments.
By working collaboratively with the school administration, teachers, parents and students alike, Asseng is hoping to incorporate diverse ideas from her community and rehabilitate a sense of communication that she says the school district needs.
“I am a firm believer that education is the key to our children’s success,” she said. “The board of education is where those decisions will start to set our children up for that success.”
Colleen Capece
With her husband and four sons, Colleen Capece has lived in Hauppauge for over 15 years. She’s special projects coordinator with Suffolk County and has worked for a Wall Street law firm.
Envisioning success in the youth of Hauppauge is a pedestal of Capece’s campaign as she upholds a need to strengthen the means of communication between the board and the school administrations.
“There’s a little bit of a frustration from people because they feel as though their voices are not being heard,” Capece said. “We want to have a community where you can be able to voice your concerns and always find answers.”
Additionally, she has proposed a partnership with local organizations and corporations, allowing leniency for internships or mentorships with rising high school seniors as an incentive to “provide an avenue for graduation.” She emphasized the importance of a student heading out into the workforce today and how their real-world experiences will demonstrate their abilities and growth.
Shifting her experience from that of a parent to an advocate of all children is a specialty that Capece says she can utilize if elected. Doing so would allow her to give back to the community that she says has provided so much for all children in the district.
“I listen, I empathize, I want to listen to problems and work through them with others,” she said. “We must give all of our children the opportunities that they need to be successful.”
Gemma Salvia
For Gemma Salvia, being the principal of Seneca Middle School in Sachem school district has been a rewarding and enriching experience that she loves to do every day.
“This is part of who I am,” she said. “It’s what I know, and it is what I love.”
Spending some 25 years in Hauppauge with her husband and two children has allowed Salvia to identify the educational system in the district and pinpoint what seems in need of improvement.
In her platform, Salvia explains that being a community member allows her to see issues through multiple lenses, as a parent and an educator. She attributes both perspectives being in the best interests of the district’s students. Having spoken to many students in her time, she recognizes that it is difficult to see students’ struggles accurately unless there is an open and friendly dialogue between staff and students.
Salvia credits being transparent and accountable as assets when it comes to potentially becoming a board member. Bringing multiple views to new developments is an active step toward a more progressive and successful outcome for those attending or working in the school district.
Michael Buscarino
Six-year BOE incumbent Michael Buscarino could not be reached for comment before press time. He has lived with his wife in the area since 2005 and they have five children. After a brief career with NYPD, he joined Suffolk police and is now a sergeant with the county police academy.
Residents of the school district can cast their votes on May 18 at Whiporwil School at 495 Hoffman Lane in Hauppauge between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Leg. Kara Hahn during a press conference at the Arthur Kunz County Park in Smithtown on May 11.
Photo by Kimberly Brown
By Kimberly Brown
Suffolk County deputy presiding officer, Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), officially launched Tuesday the Park Stewardship Program, where community volunteers are selected to oversee local parks that do not have staff.
County nature trails are in need of assistance as illegal dumping and vandalism are often discovered on the paths where local residents take their daily walks.
“The responsibilities of the stewards would be to pick up trash and to notify the parks department if there is vandalism or dumping,” Hahn said. “We’ve had very high profile dumping issues, so it’s good to have eyes and ears on the ground.”
The stewards are also encouraged to help with signage to assist local residents with navigating through the trails.
Hahn said it is important to create more signage to help residents such as mothers with children to ensure they know how far the trail is to reach a particular scenic spot.
Photo by Kimberly Brown
County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) expressed his gratitude for Hahn’s program, as his involvement in preserving Long Island parks dates back to 2006 when he won support for the transfer of the 365-acre former Kings Park State Hospital property to New York State parks department.
“This is very near and dear to my heart, I walk through here regularly,” he said. “This is the kind of thing that starts off small but may develop into a group where we can raise money so we can make improvements to the park.”
The falling of trees throughout Long Island trails since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 has been continuing many years later. The president of Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference, David Reisfield, has taken it upon the Greenbelt organization to remove hazardous trees on trails that caused concern for residents. “This, to me, is the best thing,” he said. “We go out every Tuesday and cover three to four miles of trail, but the more volunteers the better. I could not be happier.”
According to Hahn, stewards are not expected to cut down trees but are welcomed to use clippers for branches that may cause blockages on the trails.
“It’s important that people get to go out and experience this, and sometimes a candy wrapper or a water bottle can mar that experience,” she said. “So, having stewards that are there to help pick those up is a good thing.”
If community members are interested in becoming a part of the Park Stewardship Program they can visit the county’s parks website at suffolkcountyny.gov/departments/parks and sign up online.
The Commack school district is in the midst of adopting a new budget for the 2021-22 school year. The revised budget reduces the planned tax increase from 1.99% last year to 0.99% and establishes funding allocation for the district with a 2.69% budget-to-budget increase. There will be a budget hearing this Thursday, May 6, with a final vote on Tuesday, May 18.
Along with the new budget vote, incumbent Jarrett Behar will face off against longtime Commack resident Gustave Hueber for a spot on the Commack school district board of education.
Jarrett Behar
Jarrett Behar
A board member for six years, Behar has put an emphasis on keeping tax rates low while also focusing on ensuring a smooth transition back to in-person instruction.
“We will continue to run the board in a fiscally conservative manner to ensure that students can achieve the futures that they want while keeping tax rates low,” he said in a phone interview.
While currently serving as the vice president of the board, Behar has resided in the Commack school district for 15 years. In an email, he touted his lengthy experience, as well as his extensive community involvement.
“That wealth of community involvement allows me to understand the concerns from all corners of Commack,” he said. “I am able to listen to ideas and concerns from a variety of different sources and advocate to the district administration on behalf of our community.”
In his personal life, Behar is a practicing attorney. A partner at a Hauppauge-based law firm, Certilman Balin, he graduated from New York University School of Law in 2000 and served as the competitions editor on the NYU Moot Court Board student academic journal.
He has children attending Commack schools, a major reason for his candidacy.
“I have two children in Commack schools and more than anything, I want them and all children in my hometown to receive a top-quality education,” Behar said. “I truly care for this community and its residents, working hard to serve our people in one capacity or another for almost a decade.”
Gustave Hueber
Gustave Hueber
The challenger, Gustave Hueber, is also an active community member.
After graduating from Binghamton University and Queens College, Hueber began his 34-year career in education that includes being a school psychologist, assistant principal and, currently, principal of The Three Village Academy — an alternative high school in the Three Village school district.
Hueber has a long history in Commack. Having resided in the district for 22 years, he has had three kids go through the Commack school district, with his youngest graduating high school in 2020.
“All three received an excellent education at Commack and were well prepared for their college experience,” he said in an email.
Throughout his time in the district, he has been a coach for Commack Little League, PAL football and basketball at Christ the King CYO in Commack. Hueber attributes this experience to his children being active in sports.
Like his opponent, he has put an emphasis on reopening schools. However, he is critical of how Behar and other board members have handled their reopening plans.
“The reopening plan, which was proposed and implemented during 2020-21 by the current BOE members and the superintendent, was a disappointment to many,” he said. “After closing school last spring for almost four months, their reopening plan continued to leave students sitting home every other day since September, with no plan to have them return.”
He said that neighboring school districts dealing with a similar situation to Commack were able to return to five-day-a-week instruction while others returned to full instruction for the spring semester.
Another plan he hopes to implement is an alternative school program, which is similar to the one that he currently spearheads at The Three Village Academy. The program is aimed at kids who deal with a variety of issues such as depression, anxiety and bullying.
“The kids in my experience get along great with one another,” he said in a phone interview. “They all have stories to tell, and it’s just a great environment.”
He believes that his insight will provide an invaluable perspective on a school board where educators are sparse.
“The people on the board are lawyers, engineers and that’s great, but my 34 years as an educator means I know the questions to ask,” he said. “The way I see it is if I wouldn’t support something as a parent, why would I advocate for it as a board member? A lot of the time there’s a lot of emphasis on how something can be done without thinking about the consequences.”
The budget and board of education votes will take place May 18 at Commack middle and high schools from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Kings Park board of education race has four candidates vying for two seats at large. Incumbents Diane Nally and Kevin Johnston will be on the ballot May 18 along with newcomers Clayton Cobb and Cynthia Grimley.
Both Cobb and Grimley were inspired to run after they and other parents were discontented with the reopening process in September as Kings Park secondary school students returned to the classrooms five days a week in person later than younger children. While the school year began with a hybrid model, with students attending school two days a week and taking classes remotely the others, the return to buildings the entire week for middle and high school students didn’t occur until a few weeks ago.
All candidates agree that an upcoming summer program in the district will be beneficial to ensure that students have an opportunity to fill in any learning gaps or deal with any emotional or social problems caused by the pandemic.
Clayton Cobb
Clayton Cobb
Cobb has lived in the district for more than eight years. He and his wife have three children who were homeschooled temporarily during the pandemic but will be returning to the classrooms in September. The vice president of an information technology consulting firm said that before the schools were shut down in March of 2020, he wasn’t familiar with BOE dealings, and then he started paying attention.
He said he believes that his IT experience can help in providing new solutions, and his business experience would also be an asset to a board position.
He said the district’s response during the shutdowns and the return to the classrooms wasn’t handled properly. It wasn’t until parents pushed back after a survey was sent out and parents rallied that the BOE took them seriously. Cobb said the board members weren’t tenacious enough with getting all students back to school full time in person. He added he felt they should have studied and researched the data more.
“You have to be forward thinking, proactive,” Cobb said. “You have to do research. You have to look at other counties, look at other states, look at the districts in other counties. You assemble, gather and assimilate information and come up with a solution and keep fighting for it.”
Cobb added that it’s important in cases such as this to bring up any legal aspects and harmfulness to the students even to state and county officials.
He said he felt at times the board was too quick to dismiss new ideas, and with his business background he said he understands how taxpayers are the same to the district as a customer is to a business.
“The whole point of this board and the school district is us,” he said.
Cynthia Grimley
Cynthia Grimley
A Kings Park resident since 1988, Grimley graduated from Kings Park High School and is raising her two daughters in the district.
Grimley holds a degree in psychology and education. She started her career as a special education teacher for six years and then moved on to higher education in 2003 where she worked at Suffolk County Community College. She is currently employed at Stony Brook University where she is a testing coordinator for the Student Accessibility Support Center.
While Grimley said she thought about running for the board of education before, she never felt a need to do so until now.
“I just feel that this year was difficult for everybody,” Grimley said.
She added that because she works at SBU she saw how another educational institution proceeded after the pandemic forced shutdowns. According to Grimley early on in March 2020, SBU leadership found a way to connect with students, even though she said higher education systems are different, she said she felt there should have been more connection with the students in Kings Park by teachers.
Her older daughter went a long time after the shutdown before hearing from teachers, and Grimley said she addressed her concerns about both daughters’ education to the BOE members, even though she said she was understanding that the district wasn’t prepared to teach via Zoom
“I kept going to board meetings and I said, ‘Why is this OK with anybody?’” Grimley said.“Why is this OK with the principals, with the administration, with the board, that there are children who haven’t had any connection with their teachers for weeks?”
Over the summer she became part of the reopening committee. She said she was vocal about there being a return to five full days and also a remote option. She said she felt not much changed in the new school year with sixth- through 12th-graders still following a hybrid model, and it was frustrating to see other schools returning full time early on. She added many on the board don’t currently have children in school.
“I just think that the board members didn’t have kids in the schools and didn’t realize,” she said. “We saw the kids suffering — the parents who have children — and saw the kids. The second my kids went back to school full time, it was like two new kids. It was like a light switch, both of them.”
Working in higher education in disability services, Grimley said she knows it’s hard to compare the two, but she feels her work experience, especially working with special-needs students, can be an asset to the board.
“I have a lot of background about accessibility, making education accessible for all and universal design and that sort of thing, so I feel like I bring a unique perspective to the board,” she said.
Kevin Johnston
Kevin Johnston
A resident of the hamlet for nearly 35 years, Johnston’s two children graduated from Kings Park High School in 2007 and 2010. The student-teacher supervisor with SUNY Oneonta has a background in education including being a former teacher, coach and adviser in the Kings Park school district from 1981-2015.
Johnston is completing his second term on the board. With issues due to the pandemic, he said it was important to run again due to financial constraints with the district possibly not getting state funding this year.
Johnston said one thing that will help financially is that the district just received money from winning a lawsuit from a case which was going on for nearly 10 years.
“We feel we have a lot to do, especially concerning loss of learning and the mental, social, emotional needs,” Johnston said.
He added in addition to a program implemented for this summer to deal with loss of learning, next year it’s important to look at more staffing for academic intervention and for standard social, emotional needs.
He said the district has to make every penny count as they don’t have chair people, and don’t have a level of checks and balances that other school districts with bigger budgets have.
“So, we do scrutinize the entire budget process, very carefully,” he said. “Make sure that there is no fluff.”
He said recently an opponent asked what are the wants versus the needs of the district.
“We’re just trying to meet the needs of the students,” he said. “We don’t have an agenda. We don’t have a special list of wants or wish list.”
Diane Nally
Diane Nally
The current board president has lived in Kings Park for more than 60 years. In addition to her three children being graduates of the high school, she has a grandchild starting kindergarten soon.
In 2016, Nally retired as assistant director of religion education at St. Joseph’s. If reelected, this will be Nally’s fourth term on the board, and she said she would like “to continue to improve the school district and maintain the progress we have achieved over the last nine years.”
Regarding the full return to school, she said the board acted accordingly saying the timing was “spot on” due to the decreasing number of COVID cases. She said a plan has been introduced to address learning loss and social emotional learning. The program will begin this summer.
“Our current school board acted responsibly by ensuring that the health and safety of all our students and staff were our number one priority,” she said. “We continually sought updated guidance for bringing all students back to school five days a week, which we did last month.”
Nally said her more-than-25 years with St. Joseph’s provide her with valuable experience working with parents and children to resolve issues. Her nine years on the board she said has enabled her to form relationships “with members of other school boards and with members of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.”
Nally said she is an advocate for small class sizes. She said this made it possible to bring grades K-5 back to school five days a week in the beginning of the school year. In September 2019, a one-to-one device program was introduced in the district. It was originally expected to take a few years before middle and high school students had devices.
“In response to the COVID pandemic, the board, superintendent, administrators, teachers and staff worked collaboratively to accomplish this goal by September 2020, which made it possible to run our hybrid and remote learning platforms,” she said. “With the increased state aid we received, we were able to set a tax levy of 1.99%, the lowest in years, while maintaining all current curriculum, programs and activities. As a responsible school board member, I am always mindful of the impact of tax increases on our community.”
Budget and voting information
Kings Park School District residents will vote on a 1.60% budget increase and 1.99% tax levy increase for the 2021-22 school year.
The budget vote and trustee election will be held Tuesday, May 18, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kings Park High School back gymnasium, 200 Route 25A, Kings Park.2021-
Katherine Liang of Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School with the bridge that earned her first place in BNL’s annual Bridge Building Contest
Sometimes the term building bridges takes on a more literal meaning.
David Liang of Ward Melville High School placed second in the bridge building contest.
The Office of Educational Programs (OEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory announced local students who earned the top spots in both the2021 Bridge Building Contest and 2021 Maglev Competition during an online awards ceremony on April 16.
Each competition, held virtually this year, offers students a hands-on opportunity to apply math, science, and technology principles as they design and build bridges and magnetic levitation cars.
“Conceiving, designing, and building the one-of-a-kind facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory takes extraordinary vision on the part of our scientists and our engineers to advance our science mission,” said OEP Manager Kenneth White.
“These two competitions test the design and analytical skill of contestants to create bridges and vehicles to exacting specifications and performance expectations much like our facilities demand of our staff. We hope some of these contestants will be our staff one day to take on another engineering challenge supporting extraordinary discoveries.”
Bridge Building Competition
Victor Prchlik of Ward Melville High School took third place in the bridge building contest.
In the annual Bridge Building Contest, high school students became engineers competing to construct the most efficient model bridge out of lightweight wood. Efficiency is calculated from the bridge’s weight and the weight the bridge can hold before breaking or bending more than one inch. The higher the efficiency, the better the design and construction.
Dedicated Brookhaven Lab staff engineers and technicians tested 40 qualifying structures during a live online event on April 8.
Katherine Liang, a 9th grade student of Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School earned first place with a bridge that weighed 18.7 grams, supported 38.6 pounds. The bridge earned an efficiency of 936.29.
For some students, a trial-and-error process was key to solidifying a design. Liang said she built and tested five bridges by weighing them down with a bucket of sand before submitting her final winning structure.
Second place went to David Liang of Ward Melville High School, whose bridge weighed 19 grams, held 36.4 pounds had an efficiency of 868.98.
Victor Prchlik, also from Ward Melville High School, placed third with a bridge that weighed 23.7 and supported 44.5 pounds with an efficiency of 851.87
Jonathan Chung of Smithtown East High School won this year’s Aesthetic Award.
“The whole process was fun from start to finish,” Chung said. “One of the most challenging parts was getting the glue to stick the wood together. I ended up solving that problem by using a hairdryer to dry it.”
This year’s Bridge Building Contest Aesthetic Award went to Jonathan Chung of Smithtown East High School, pictured with physics teacher Dr. Gillian Winters.
Brookhaven Lab staff tested magnetic levitation cars built by students from Island Trees Middle School and Bay Shore Middle School to see who came up with the fastest design.
MAGLEV Contest
This year’s Maglev Contest for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students included two main categories for speed and appearance. Brookhaven Lab staff tested 21 maglev cars for speed on a fixed gravity track–13 of which reached the finish line.
Brady Leichtman of Bay Shore Middle School won first place in the speed category.
Second place went to Isabella Rouleau of Bay Shore Middle School. Jesse Bonura of Island Trees Middle School placed third and also won the top spot in the competition’s appearance category with a futuristic blue car. Bay Shore Middle School students Amber Marquez and Andrea Romero, placed second and third in the appearance category, respectively.
Brookhaven Lab staff tested magnetic levitation cars to see who came up with the fastest design. Bonura found that part of the fun was testing and reengineering the maglev’s design. “We’d make it quicker and test it over and over again to make it perfect,” Bonura said.
The maglev contest is based on research by two Brookhaven engineers, the late Gordon Danby and James Powell, who invented and patented maglev technology—the suspension, guidance, and propulsion of vehicles by magnetic forces.
Magnetic properties give the maglev trains their extraordinary capabilities for speed and stability. These same principles—using magnetic forces to move matter — are used in world-class research facilities at Brookhaven Lab, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) — which are both DOE Office of Science user facilities. Magnetic properties allow the machines to move particles at nearly the speed of light for research purposes.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
After setting the American record for the longest consecutive streak of 340 days away from Earth aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Scott Kelly returned and flopped into a pool.
While we all haven’t been away from Earth for any length of time, we have been living in a modified version of the normal we knew.
Like Kelly, we have spoken with our close friends and family through electronic devices that beam them onto a screen in front of us.
We have watched some of their drained faces, as they isolated themselves for a month or more, battling through the cough, fever and discomfort of COVID-19.
We have also seen our relatives at much greater than arm’s length as we celebrated landmark birthdays, the birth of new family members, and socially-distanced graduations and limited-attendance weddings.
In two weeks, I am anticipating the familiar feeling of diving into a familial swimming pool. That’s when I will see family members I haven’t seen in over a year.
We worked around our busy schedules not only to get vaccinated before we saw each other in real life, but also to do so long enough in advance of that meeting that our immune systems would have time to arm themselves against viral spike proteins.
This is the longest period my wife and I have ever been separated from our parents. We know how fortunate we are that our parents didn’t get sick.
We took nothing for granted, staying away from our parents and extended family. We might as well have been on the International Space Station, which was probably among the safest places people have ever lived, given the limited social contact in a controlled environment 254 miles from the nearest pool, family member or pizza restaurant.
We feel so much closer to a more familiar life than we have in over a year, as we anticipate seeing our parents and family members who can attend our son’s graduation. The planned visit has become a dominant and daily topic of conversation in our house. We are wondering what food and drink to serve, how to move everyone from nearby hotels to socially-distanced seating at graduation and what games to prepare in our backyard for our grown children to play with their cousins.
These questions and decisions might have seemed like a responsibility prior to the pandemic, as hosting anyone requires attention to detail and consideration for our guests. That responsibility has transformed into the kind of privilege we might have taken for granted in other years, before the pandemic disrupted family gatherings and turned the calendar into a reminder of delayed gratification of family gatherings.
While we will likely engage in the Texas two-step, trying to gauge how close we can get physically to each other, it’s easy to imagine that hugs, kisses and appreciative smiles will bubble up from the excitement of a backyard that has hosted more routine gatherings of birds, squirrels and chipmunks than of the people who stare at flickering screens in our home.
As we prepare to dive into our own family pools of support, affection and love, we are incredibly grateful to everyone who made such a return to normal possible, from those who explored the basic science that led to the vaccine, to those who developed and tested the vaccine, to those who treated family and friends, to those who stocked the shelves with the food and drinks we needed to take us from the uncertainty of the pandemic to the anticipation of a celebration. Absence made our hearts grow fonder for family and increased our appreciation for everyone who allowed us to reunite with the most important pieces of ourselves. In just a few weeks, we look forward to diving into a more familiar world.
This is the time of year when our five senses go into overdrive. Let me enumerate. In no particular order of delight, I’ll start with sound.
The birdsong is sometimes loud enough to provide dance music at a wedding. There are all kinds of musical bars put forth: crooning, warbling, shrieking, hooting, gurgling. There is an incredible range of notes, from high soprano and countertenor to tenor and baritone, even bass. Sometimes the birds seem to be singing in a chorus, other times at counterpoint. If your bedroom window is open, they can wake you up at first light. There can be many birds in the trees or there may just be one mockingbird pretending to be an entire flock.
The sight of the birds is as much a treat as the sounds, if you can spot them among the leaves. They can range from a nondescript small brown chick, who nonetheless utters the most melodious songs, to crimson or orange-breasted or blue-tailed or grandly multi-colored varieties of different sizes and shapes that perch briefly on the porch railing or snack on the front lawn. They can seem the model of purpose as they deliver food to the open beaks of their newly hatched offspring or of patience as they sit quietly atop the eggs and wait for the next generation to appear.
Speaking of sight, we go from the early purple of crocuses and joyful yellow of forsythia and daffodils to the lush pink of dogwood and cherry blossoms to the deep red of tulips and azaleas. All of that artwork is provided against a bright green backdrop of new leaves on the bushes and luxuriant attire for the tree limbs. Branches on either side of the road unite in the air overhead, creating sun-dappled tunnels as we drive the back-way routes.
The waves at the beaches are calm now, climbing the sand with rhythmic whispers, and the seagulls fly low, looking for a fish dinner in the clear blue water. Too soon, there will be motor boats and jet skis on the harbors and lawn mowers and leaf blowers keeping the landscape orderly — but not yet. The magic and peace of early spring are still, however briefly, with us to be treasured.
The smells at the beach of salt in the air and blossom-scent on the breezes are intoxicating harbingers of the season. Lilacs, that always know when it is Mother’s Day, perfume the neighborhood. And among us humans, there are always those early-bird few who fire up the grill and begin to barbeque on a sunny weekend afternoon. If we play our cards right, we might be invited to share in this primitive treat. The taste is so much better than anything cooked indoors.
Taste is tantalized by early fresh fruit, like locally grown strawberries, and by vegetables like baby asparagus and snow peas. Several different kinds of dark green lettuces are also ready for dining early in the spring.
As for touch, there is the sweetness of a gentle breeze, reduced on a rare spring day from a stern wind to a caress against the cheek. It carries with it the promise of a summer day and the seduction of a summer night.
Add to all of that, the temperature in spring can reach a universally perfect range. Now I know some people like it hot, really hot, even up in the 90s when they can happily sweat. And some people like it cold, even freezing, during which time they can feel energized and stimulated to ski and ice skate. But all humans feel comfortable moving about in a temperature of 75 degrees. Knowing that could be found most months in San Diego almost prompted my husband and me to move there some 50 years ago. Of course, there were other things to consider, and we ultimately moved to Long Island.
Not for a moment do I have any regrets. My five senses are glad we live here.
Families rallied in August asking the Smithtown Central School District to consider five days of in-person schooling for all of the district’s students. Photo by Lina Weingarten
Stacy Murphy
The 2020-21 school year began with a tumultuous start for the Smithtown Central School District when local parents rallied in front of the administration building before various board of education meetings demanding schools to be opened five days a week for in-person learning during the pandemic. The charge was led by the Facebook group Smithtown Parents Watchdog Group, which was founded by Stacy Murphy, a guidance counselor in the Amityville school district.
Now Murphy along with educator Karen Ricciardi and real estate agent John Savoretti will go head-to-head with BOE incumbents Jeremy Thode, Mandi Kowalik and Charles Rollins. Voters on May 18 will have the opportunity to vote for Murphy or Kowalik, Savoretti or Rollins and Ricciardi or Thode.
The challengers
Savoretti, Murphy and Ricciardi did not return requests to schedule interviews but created a Facebook page where they share their common goals via posts and a video.
Karen Ricciardi
Murphy said in the video she enjoys helping others.
“I love helping kids, and I love being a voice for their families and helping them navigate a very confusing educational system if you don’t have any role in it,” she said. “And, I want that for this community.”
According to the candidates, they want to raise the bar of the education received in the district and “to ensure that the education our K-12 kids are receiving is void of any one group’s agenda, affiliation, belief system or persuasion; and to encourage and provide every student with the tools to be bold enough to exhibit qualities of compassion, kindness and good citizenship to all.”
In the video, Ricciardi said looking out for students was important.
“What’s that old expression?” she said. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Well, this is what’s going on in Smithtown. They’re wasting these amazing resources with these kids.”
The candidates also have stated on their page that being fiscally responsible is a priority and that the needs of the students are part of every budget decision.
“Ensuring the community that every vote in favor of a budget item is an investment in our children by building a trust with the community that we will be board members who do not put our own agendas, beliefs and needs — or the agendas, needs or beliefs of any other organization — above that of the needs of the Smithtown student body.”
John Savoretti
The three newcomers are also looking for more dialogue between the board and the community.
“Our goal is that we will have a school board of seven members who have absolutely no obligation or indebtedness to any group(s) that could jeopardize their ability to unequivocally put the needs of the students at the utmost forefront of each and every decision,” the candidates wrote.
In the video, Savoretti explained why the three decided to run together.
“Having one person change is a start, but when you have all three of us change, that’s a running start,” he said. “And what you’re doing is you’re sending a serious message to the other candidates who are in there, who are going to be coming up for election next year and the years after, that if you don’t wake up and start doing right by the kids and what’s right for the community, you’re not going to be there again.”
The incumbents:
Mandi Kowalik
Mandi Kowalik
Kowalik is seeking her second term. A mother of three, she is a former elementary school teacher, author and community volunteer. In an email, she said she enjoys the challenging work of being a BOE trustee.
“I am extremely passionate, dedicated, professional and hardworking,” she said. “There was a definite learning curve during my first term, and I now feel even more equipped to address the needs of the Smithtown community. I would like to assess the needs of the community and the wants of the students regarding the time that was lost during the pandemic, and then work to ensure that we make up for what children and families feel like they missed out on.”
She said she felt the board made the right decision by not opening up all schools in the district right away for five days of in-person learning, saying they followed state guidance for the safety and health of “our students, their families, our staff and the community.”
Kowalik added that the Smithtown school district was one of a few that were back to full-time, in-person learning.
Jeremy Thode
Jeremy Thode
Thode, an associate high school principal, director of health, physical education, business, fine and applied arts and athletics in Center Moriches, is completing his second term as trustee. He agreed that the board did the right thing regarding opening schools in phases. He said the board has more work to do, especially with getting back to normal after the shutdowns. He added having experience with working through the pandemic is a benefit.
He said there were a myriad of reasons regarding school reopenings, and he agreed the board did the right thing following a hybrid model considering state guidelines and also followed the research that was available about the coronavirus.
“We chose to stay on the conservative side, and ensure that our kids were safe,” he said. “The number one priority was keeping the students safe, and the community as safe as possible.”
Among other concerns in the district, Thode said once school returns to normal it would be beneficial to look at the empty buildings in the district, which he said could potentially be utilized by local businesses or nonprofits and lead to students getting internships.
“It would be nice to use them as a hub for resources for the community that our kids might be able to get intertwined with,” he said.
Charles Rollins
Rollins, was appointed by the board and replaced Frank James, who stepped down in January. Rollins’ three children graduated from Smithtown schools, and he is a retired senior executive. He or Savoretti will complete the last two years of James’ term.
Charles Rollins
Involved in the community, he has served as president of the Smithtown Booster Club in the past and is currently its treasurer. He most recently served as senior vice president of operations for First Industrial Realty Trust until his retirement a few years ago.
With a background in business, he feels he has something to offer the board, and he has been working on a capital improvement plan with administration, which is considering taking out a bond in the next few months. Rollins said now is a good time with low interest rates.
“We will be communicating with our constituency to let them know what the plans are,” he said.
Rollins added that the $120 million capital improvement plan will include infrastructure as well as cosmetic improvements, which will include ventilation system work to respond to COVID concerns.
While he wasn’t part of the original plan to reopen schools, he believes the board and administration did the right thing by opening schools up slowly and said he has high praise for his colleagues, adding they made decisions based on “the science and the numbers, and the direction and guidance from health providers.”
Rollins said he is the president of the homeowners association where he has a house in Florida for vacations. He said he had to make similar decisions to help keep residents safe. The candidate said while some of those decisions weren’t popular, he had to put everyone’s health first. When he heard the Smithtown board was being criticized, he knew what they were going through.
“In my heart, I knew they were doing the right thing,” he said.
Recently the district received criticism for its inclusion, diversity and equity education. In a district letter to parents, the administration said such work has been deemed a priority for many educational organizations.
Rollins said the goal of making sure every student feels welcomed and comfortable is an important one. He added he has heard many passionate speeches from community members at board meetings, and he feels the goal can be achieved with conversations between parents and the board and administration.
Budget and vote
According to the district’s website, the 2021-22 budget of $262,319,665 is an increase of 2.79% over last year’s budget, which is a 1.75% tax levy increase.
Budget voting and board of ed trustees elections will be held Tuesday, May 18, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information on voting locations for the four election districts, visit the SCSD website at www.smithtown.k12.ny.us.
Nicole Hoefler, director for cardiac cath services at Mather Hospital in the new cardiac catheterization lab.
Photo by Julianne Mosher
It’s finally here.
Mather Hospital announced this week its new cardiac catheterization lab is completed and is ready to serve patients — as soon as it receives its final Department of Health inspection and approval in the upcoming weeks.
According to Nursing Director for Cardiac Cath Services Nicole Hoefler, Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson is joining the few places on Long Island in hosting a cardiac catheterization lab to provide less invasive heart-related services to patients who need it.
“We’re here to basically help prevent serious heart attacks,” Hoefler said. “And prevent heart attacks that might be evolving.”
The labs specialize in using X-ray guided catheters to help open blockages in coronary arteries or repair the heart in minimally invasive procedures. These range from stenting to angioplasty and bypass surgery — that are less traumatic to the body and speed recovery.
Photo by Julianne Mosher
“Sometimes, if a patient had a positive stress test, they’ll come in here so we can see what’s causing that pain they might have been having,” she noted. “Sometimes they need to have it for surgery clearance, like if they saw something on their EKG.”
The two new state-of-the-art rooms were approved by Northwell Health last year, alongside three other Northwell facilities. Construction began on the new spaces in August 2020, completing and turning over to the clinical staff on April 19.
By adding the two labs into Mather, Hoefler said they can help save a life.
“Every minute that passes when you’re having a heart attack slows your heart muscle,” she said. “So not having to transfer the patient out, and just bring them in from upstairs will be life changing.”
Both rooms will be able to accommodate approximately 20 patients per day with the 12 hours the labs are open.
The addition of the more than 3,000 square foot space is just another space that Mather can now provide patients better.
“I think the community just loves Mather,” Hoefler said. “Having this service
is just another reason to come here.”
Aidan Malinowski and Jordan Suarez before their fundraising cross-country trip. Photo by Julianne Mosher
They’re using CrossFit to go cross-country.
Jordan Suarez and his friend Aidan Malinowski, both SUNY Cortland students who are avid CrossFit participants, are planning to visit a gym in each state starting May 17.
The reasoning isn’t a vacation by any means — they’re hosting a fundraiser that will help raise money to go towards the Wounded Warrior Project.
“We both have veterans in our family,” Malinowski said. “And we both are into CrossFit — it’s been a huge part of our lives, especially this past year with the pandemic and quarantine.”
The plan is starting this week, the duo will be going to one CrossFit affiliate gym in every state in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). By doing workouts at each place, they will ask fellow CrossFit members for donations and plan on spreading awareness about the nonprofit that has helped saved thousands of lives.
In just two months leading up to their travels, they have already raised almost $6,000.
“We really just want to spread the awareness,” Malinowski said. “One big thing that stood out to me is that a $20 donation to Wounded Warriors gets them a one-hour session of PTSD treatment, which I think is amazing.”
Suarez said they will kick off their trip at the Port Jefferson Station location and then take the ferry up to Connecticut. The goal is to be back home by June 14.
“Wounded Warriors helps out any veterans that have been hurt, whether it’s physically or mentally during their time in the military,” he said. “It’s just a great organization that gets them the necessary resources to help them recover.”
The two Port Jefferson locals teamed up with the foundation about three months ago. That’s when they were introduced to Jeremiah Pauley, currently in California, who is a spokesperson for WWP.
Jeremiah Pauley
Pauley deployed to Iraq in 2006 as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army. Four months into the deployment, his team had cleared a house in the city of Tal Afar, and just as they left the house to go back outside enemy forces detonated an improvised explosive device. Shrapnel shredded through Pauley’s right arm, and if it weren’t for the immediate treatment he received from his team’s medic, he may not have survived.
Later on, he found out that one of his soldiers died in the attack. Pauley was overcome with survivors’ guilt and PTSD.
For years, he struggled with depression and he almost took his own life as a result. He received a call from WWP who invited him to a multi-day cycling event, Soldier Ride.
Utilizing the services from WWP, his recovery progressed, and he eventually took a job working with the nonprofit.
Pauley said he, too, is an avid CrossFit enthusiast, so when he got a call from two young men on the East coast looking to fundraise using the gyms, he was completely on board.
“They submitted a request to do a fundraiser with the organization so that the money can be tracked,” he said. “And they had this crazy idea that they wanted to go to all the 48 lower states and visit a CrossFit box in each state.”
Pauley said he thought it was the “perfect trifecta of ideas” combining working out, friends and family and a good cause.
The money that Suarez and Malinowski will raise will help go to services to help veterans like Pauley.
“All of our programs and services that we offer to warriors and their family members are absolutely free,” he said. “We never ask a warrior for a penny — ever — and we have a variety of programs and services that we offer.”
Pauley said he is excited to meet the guys from Port Jefferson when they hit the gym by him in a few weeks.
Colleen Capece
Gemma Salvia
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