Schools

Two Options Remain For West Hempstead School Board Vacancy

The school board now must choose whether to appoint someone or leave the seat empty.

There will not be a special election to fill the vacancy on the West Hempstead school board.

At Tuesday's business meeting, the Board of Education announced that the deadline to hold a special election for the seat left vacant when Trustee Anthony Brita in June has passed. Now the board has only two options - appoint someone to this position or leave the seat empty.

"It's a shame we let the time pass for a special election," said Board Trustee Cynthia DiMiceli.

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The board had only 45 days from the date of Brita's resignation, June 29, to take advantage of the ability to hold a special election, which could have cost the district anywhere from $3,285 to nearly $10,000, according to Deputy Superintendent Richard Cunningham.

Trustee Pamela Lotito disagreed with DiMiceli, saying the board had examined the different options with their legal counsel.

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"The majority of the board elected to take this option," she said.

At the , the members moved into a closed-door executive session, where they spent an hour discussing how to address the vacancy. When they returned, they passed a resolution with a vote of 4-2 to instruct the administration to reach out to selected individuals to gauge their interest in serving on the board. (Board President Walter Ejnes, Vice President James Mariano and Trustees Lotito and Carol Rilling voted 'Yes', while Trustees DiMiceli and Rudolf Schindler voted 'No.") However, the board did not officially decide that they would take the route of appointing someone.

"I don't feel we gave each individual option the attention it deserved," DiMiceli said, adding that she sent emails to fellow board members in recent weeks asking when they would get together to discuss how to address the vacancy, reminding them "the timeline is upon us," but received no response.

Mariano told her "there was no time," explaining that trustees had already booked summer vacations and business trips before this became an issue.

DiMiceli ultimately came to the conclusion that despite her displeasure with the handling of the process so far, the board needed to "move forward."

Mariano explained that the next step is to set up a meeting for the entire board to review the potential candidates, including one community member who recently submitted a resume for the position. They will then decide whether to appoint one of these invididuals or leave the seat vacant and operate as a six-person board. Mariano said the final decision may be announced at the September business meeting.

He also said a formal statement from the board would soon be posted on the district's Web site to keep the community informed but what they won't be able to reveal - despite requests from some residents - are the names of potential candidates being considered due to confidentiality issues.

Chris Fennes, a resident and mother of a West Hempstead student, said she was happy the board decided not to hold a special election.

"I speak to a lot of people and not one person thought it was a viable option when we are all strapped for cash," she said. "We could trust the board to make the decision for us."


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