One New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Board of Education trustee announced he would not seek re-election and it was revealed that a second trustee had resigned at the school board’s Tuesday night meeting.
Board President Ernest Gentile announced that Dr. Alan Cooper had resigned from the board, citing work obligations.
Cooper, who had served for five years, was not in attendance at the meeting in Hillside Grade School.
In a telephone interview after the meeting, Cooper, a research psychologist said he recently started his own business in health care consulting for hospitals.
“The decision came down to a constraint on my time. I’ve enjoyed my time on the board,” Cooper said.
Two-term board Trustee Joseph Bongiorno said he would not be seeking re-election in the school district’s May balloting, also citing work obligations.
“I’ve taken a lot of additional responsibility and I do a lot of trial work,” he said.
Bongiorno said his law firm, Joseph R. Bongiorno & Associates, is expanding. Bongiorno currently maintains offices in Mineola and New Jersey for his practice, which concentrates on medical malpractice and product defect litigation.
“I’m not going to run for re-election. It’s been a great six years,” Bongiorno said.
He said he appreciated all of the people he’s worked with in the school district during his two terms on the board.
“I pretty much love everyone I’ve been working with the last six years,” Bongiorno said.
Gentile praised Cooper‘s service on the board.
“I appreciate his input this last number of years,” Gentile said.
Bongiorno apparently moved up the timing of his announcement in response to complaints about the board’s handling of school business by Frank Cienski, a member of the Hillside Grade School PTA.
Bongiorno became visibly perturbed as Cienski assailed the board during a period in which residents were invited to give board members input on next year’s budget.
“This structure is the same from year to year. We don’t think outside the box,” Cienski said.
Cienski said the $8 million capital improvement fund the board created last year hadn’t been handled properly.
“You’re stating a lot of things that are inaccurate,” Bongiorno said to him.
“I’m tired of listening to you lecture the community,” Bongiorno added, calling on Cienski to address the board.
Cienski continued his criticism, saying the district’s administrative costs are “grossly overpriced.”
Bongiorno responded by revealing that he wasn’t running for re-election and suggesting that Cienski run for a seat on the board if he thought he could do better.
After the meeting, Gentile said the board had not yet decided whether to appoint a new board member to replace Cooper before the May election. Anyone wanting to fill the seat beyond May would have to run for election to the remainder of Cooper’s term,
“We’re very appreciative of their years of service,” said New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Superintendent of Schools Robert Katulak said of Bongiorno and Cooper.
In other developments:
• Katulak said the school board needed to cut approximately $100,000 from the 2013-14 budget to bring it within the state-mandated tax cap. He said the school board is awaiting word on the state aid it can expect to receive in the next fiscal year.
• Lisa Ugolini, president of the Manor Oaks School PTA, revealed results of a recent survey she had taken among parents of students in the school. She said 62 percent indicated they wanted classes maintained “at a reasonable size, 46 percent were concerned about improving security, 35 percent want music instruction to remain intact. 19 percent want art courses maintained. 12 percent want additional reading and math support for their children and 8 percent want to see the Odyssey program for gifted students maintained.
• Katulak reported he will be presenting an evaluation of the school district security at the board’s February work session. He said district administrators had recently met with representative of BOCES, the Nassau County Police Department, Homeland Security and private security company working with a number of Long Island schools.
Meanwhile, he said passage in and out of district schools is “being tightened.”
