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Smithtown BOE

The Smithtown School District received nearly four times as many votes for this year's school budget compared to last years. File photo

By William Stieglitz

With three Smithtown Central School District Board of Education seats up for election on May 20 — two needing to be filled by new people due to term limits and the third due to a resignation — two trios of candidates are running to fill the spots. TBR News Media spoke with both slates of candidates about their experience and vision for the district. 

One group includes Bernadette Ackermann, who works as vice president of marketing for a software firm and previously served as the Tackan Elementary Parent Teacher Association president; Theresa Donohue, a 23-year educator with experience as a teacher, assistant principal and curriculum coordinator and currently as a central office administrator; and Brandon Solomon, a real estate project manager, PTA Council delegate and the husband of a Smithtown elementary educator. All three are endorsed by the teachers’ union.

The other group includes Karen Wontrobski-Ricciardi, who served as board vice president from 2021 to 2024 and beforehand worked within the PTA; Al Carfora, who works in insurance and is experienced negotiating bids with contractors; and Mike Simonelli, a retired Suffolk County police officer and author of “Justified Deadly Force and the Myth of Systemic Racism: The Facts Everyone Must Know.” All three have expressed that they don’t want the board fully controlled by those the teachers’ union backs. 

Budgeting

Ackerman, Donohue, Solomon: Solomon and Ackerman both emphasized their professional experience managing multimillion-dollar budgets, with Solomon saying how, if elected to the board, they should be “stretching every dollar we have.” Ackerman said it was also important to avoid unnecessary expenses, like “lawsuits between board members,” which she said happened five times in the period from 2021 to 2024, “all because there were certain people on the board who couldn’t get along.” 

Wontrobski-Ricciardi, Carfora, Simonelli: Simonelli, citing his time as a financial analyst officer in the military, argued the district should aim to reduce spending in a manner akin to the federal government. “We saw just recently with DOGE, they found fraud, waste and abuse in every agency they went to. So I believe we need a similar look.” He also stated that there could be funding issues if Smithtown and New York State “fight President Trump’s executive orders declaring all of that [DEI] should be coming out of the Department of Education.”

Bullying and mental health of students

Ackerman, Donohue, Solomon: Addressing bullying, according to Donohue, starts with upholding and building upon “The Smithtown Promise,” which promotes dignity, belonging, respect and ambition for students. She cited social media as a major factor and said limiting its use in schools helps reduce bullying proactively.

Solomon said another helpful factor is the district partnership with Northwell Health, which provides students with priority services for mental health. “It’s very important that that continues,” he said, “because bullying is an issue. Like Theresa said, it doesn’t go away when you go home, and people need help. And when they need help, they need it right away.”

Wontrobski-Ricciardi, Carfora, Simonelli: Simonelli stated he has seen depression and suicide rates go up despite there being “more mental health training and consideration being given in schools” than he’s ever seen and suggested “there’s a cultural thing going on that needs to be addressed by the families.” Wontrobski-Ricciardi made a similar statement, saying, “there is just a ton of support in place for our students’ mental well-being. And I think it’s great. It should be. But there are some fear mongers that will let you believe that there isn’t enough in place.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Ackerman, Donohue, Solomon: “For me,” said Ackerman, “it’s paramount that every student, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, is welcome and supported and made to feel safe in Smithtown schools.” She said that while the politicization of DEI has made it harder to achieve these goals, for her, “it’s basically making all students feel welcome and supported in every way — in terms of emotional [and] educational whether or not they learn differently.”

Solomon also spoke on accessibility, saying, “if a student needs extra time on a test, if a student needs to take a test on a Chromebook instead of using pen and paper, I think everybody needs every opportunity they need, and I think we owe it to them.” He emphasized too that, regardless of personal opinions on DEI, it is important that the board follow state law to avoid costly litigation for taxpayers.

Wontrobski-Ricciardi, Carfora, Simonelli: All three said the district is “pushing political ideology” on students regarding topics of race, gender and sexuality and that it is coming at the expense of academics, though the district says such claims are false and misrepresent their actual focus on safety, respect and support for learning. Among the trio’s arguments that DEI and anti-police material are being pushed was the claim that the district equity team was teaching about the Black Lives Matter movement counterproductively. “This was during the height of George Floyd,” Simonelli said. “The conversations among the group were sharing anti-police stuff, talking about deadly police incidents… This is the Philando Castile shooting, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, all these incidents that have been proven to have been justified deadly force incidents.”

Wontrobski-Ricciardi and Simonelli also expressed concerns over Smithtown Library’s inclusions of children’s books featuring LGBT characters, describing it as a matter of topics of sexuality, questioning gender and pronouns being present. 

Communication and transparency

Ackerman, Donohue, Solomon: Donohue and Ackerman emphasized communication with parents as a top priority, particularly in regards to spending and the budget structure. “The district does many presentations when it comes to the budget planning,” Donohue said. “But at the same time, there’s a lot in there that’s just confusing that the normal person maybe doesn’t understand.” For Ackerman, reviewing previously discussed information is also important. “They’ll communicate something when it happens, but then it’s never discussed again,” she said, citing information on armed guards as an example.

Wontrobski-Ricciardi, Carfora, Simonelli: All three also expressed a desire to see more communication from the district. A particular concern for Carfora was in relation to the topic of potential mold in schools. “They have no answer other than trust us… we’re telling you there’s no mold,” he said, emphasizing what he called a lack of full testing. The district stated they did more testing than the third-party engineering firm they brought in suggested and that there was confusion due to circulation of outdated photos.

For more information visit the school website: www.smithtown.k12.ny.us.

The April 22 Smithtown Board of Education meeting. Photo by William Stieglitz

By William Stieglitz

At the April 22 meeting, the board of education for Smithtown Central School District voted unanimously to adopt the proposed 2025-2026 budget. Set at $294,998,455, it would be a 1.74% increase from last year’s approximate $290 million. According to Superintendent of Schools Mark Secaur, the budget will allow the continuation of existing programs, including summer learning, while also keeping class sizes within district policy parameters.

The proposed property tax levy is set at $225,253,356, a 2.66% increase from last year’s levy of approximately $219 million. This is the maximum allowable levy for the budget to require a simple majority to pass, as opposed to the over 60% that would be required were the cap exceeded. The tax limit is calculated primarily based on the rate of inflation but also includes factors such as the tax base growth for the area, the Payment in Lieu of Taxes receivable and the capital levy exclusion.

The budget’s other revenues are primarily from state aid and the school district’s reserves. Since the New York State budget has not yet been passed, missing the April 1 deadline for the fourth year in a row, it is unknown how much state aid the district will receive. The board, instead, based its calculations on Governor Kathy Hochul’s (D) executive state budget as proposed in January, predicting about $51 million in aid. Should the state budget exceed what was expected, the board’s plan will be not to change the expenditure budget, but rather to reduce the dependence on around $7.5 million dollars in reserves. 

These reserves include $3.65 million from the Employees’ Retirement System, $2.725 million from the Teacher’s Retirement System, $770,000 from Employee Benefit Accrued Liability and $400,000 from Workers’ Compensation Insurance. The use of this last reserve is a significant change from last years’ budget, which did not pull from it at all. The smallest reserve change, by contrast, is for EBAL, which sees the same amount used from it as last year. Employee benefits see decreases in Social Security and Medicaid but also increases in health insurance, with an overall $4.13 million rise in benefits.

There will be a budget hearing May 13 for community members to learn more about the budget. Then the vote for both the budget and board members will be May 20, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and locations including Nesconset Elementary, Accompsett Elementary and Smithtown Elementary schools. Smithtown residents must be registered with the Suffolk County Board of Election by May 13 in order to vote. 

If the proposed budget doesn’t pass, the board may resubmit either the same budget or a revised version for a second vote. If this fails too, the board would have to adopt a budget with no increase to the tax levy, resulting in an approximate revenue loss of $5.85 million. In this situation, the district would have to either include more reductions or withdraw more from its reserves.

For more information visit the school website: www.Smithtown.k12.ny.us.

By Peter Sloniewsky

The Smithtown Central School District Board of Education convened Nov. 12 to discuss a range of financial and legal matters, approve community donations and review correspondence submitted by residents.

During the meeting, the board approved financial reports totaling more than $110 million, which included treasurer’s reports, classroom expenses and other districtwide allocations.

The board also accepted a variety of donations aimed at enhancing school resources and community engagement. These included a $1,000 monetary gift from the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal, a commemorative bench valued at $2,300 from Smithtown East High School’s Class of 2024 and a $2,700 inflatable tunnel donated by Smithtown High School East’s gridiron club. Additionally, the board approved facility-use requests for several organizations, including FIRST Long Island, the Rotary Club of Smithtown and Backyard Pigskins, a youth flag football program.

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Jeremy Thode is sworn in at a previous board of education meeting in Smithtown. File photo

Jeremy Thode said he is just starting to learn the ropes as the newest trustee on the Smithtown board of education.

“So far it’s been wonderful,” Thode said. “The current board of ed members have been very welcoming and helpful.” Thode said that the administration has also been very helpful getting him acclimated with the history of the district.

Since being elected, Thode has been spending as much time as he can researching and reviewing the information from past administrations and understanding the ongoing issues being brought before the board.

Thode, a Nesconset resident, had been thinking about running for the school board for years, due to his education background and working with different school administrations.

He previously worked in the Commack School District as a physical education teacher and then athletic director. He assumed the same position at Center Moriches school district when he moved there and eventually gained many other titles before becoming assistant principal at Center Moriches High School.

Thode currently has four daughters enrolled in the Smithtown school district, spanning from the primary school to the high school.

“I am excited to continue learning the concerns and issues that are present in the district,” Thode said. Personally, I am most concerned with the social and emotional components of education for our students.

Programs like Athletes Helping Athletes, or AHA, Thode thinks have great value to the students, because he thinks a student with more connections to the school fosters a better relationship with the school.

“I really want to work with the administration to get students involved in as many activities and make as many connections as possible in the school district.”

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Superintendent James Grossane file photo

The Dignity for All Students Act coordinators for the 2015-16 school year were renewed on Tuesday at Smithtown’s Board of Education meeting.

The Dignity Act is a New York State law that was put into effect in July 2012. It amended section 801-a of state education law regarding instruction in civility, citizenship and character education by expanding the concepts of tolerance, respect for others and dignity.

It is mostly focused on elementary and secondary school students and creates an anti-bully zone at school, school buses and all school functions.

This act is meant to raise awareness and sensitivity in human relations including different weights, race, national origins, religion, ethnic groups, mental and physical abilities, and gender and sexual identification.

This act requires all New York State boards of education to include language addressing the Dignity Act in their codes of conduct. Schools are also responsible for collecting and reporting data regarding material incidents of harassment and discrimination.

“It’s basically an anti-bullying law,” Superintendent James Grossane said after the meeting. “It’s to help with students who are feeling harassed or excluded.”

Coordinators for this act are usually the principals of every school building, according to Grossane.