One contested race for a seat on the Board of Education and a $241 million budget are on the ballot for residents of the Great Neck school district in Tuesday’s election.
Trustees Rebecca Sassouni and Jeffrey Shi were elected to the board for the first time in 2017. Shi, a technology consultant, is running unopposed, while Sassouni is challenged by John Jahng.
Shi defeated Nikolas Kron in the May 2017 election after candidates Grant Toch and Michael Golden dropped out. Sassouni won unopposed after her opponent, Ilya Aronovich, dropped out of the race.
In her second time around and in the midst of an unconventional campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sassouni, a mother of four and a lawyer, said she has lived in Great Neck for 26 years.
Sassouni touted her experience serving the community before being elected to the school board. She has served as parent co-chair for the Shared Decision Making Committee at Great Neck North High School and John F. Kennedy School, a past officer for the United Parent Teacher Council and chair of its legislative committee, and is the current president of the Sephardic Heritage Alliance Inc.
“I have been involved with the community in some very gratifying, meaningful and important ways,” Sassouni said. “I have a very procedural mindset when it comes to the Board of Education, and I’m a strong believer that procedures have helped us more efficiently as a board the past three years.”
Shi agreed with Sassouni’s sentiments and thanked the community and the board for the past three years.
“[The board] works with a great team of administration, teachers, parents and residents throughout the district,” Shi said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to be running unopposed and to continue serving the entire school district.”
Jahng, a Great Neck resident for the past 12 years and a financial investment adviser, cited his experience attending Brooklyn Technical High School followed by New York University and said he would not be the man he is today without either.
In the early 1990s, Brooklyn Technical High School was one of three specialized high schools in New York City, Jahng said. Jahng spoke on the unique programming Tech offered to him and his classmates and said he wants to incorporate more innovative and mainstream technology into the Great Neck school district if elected.
“I still remember my peers in mechanical engineering building a hovercraft to transport a person as a class project,” Jahng said. “At the time, that was a revolutionary technology. I am certainly in favor of providing our students with the same resources if I am elected.”
Sassouni said that many of the issues and concerns she has heard from the public were centered around the coronavirus pandemic causing Nassau County to close schools for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
More specifically, she said, distance learning and planning alternatives for the coming school year have been of high importance in the school district.
“Nobody knows what schools will look like come September, and with the unknown comes frustration,” Sassouni said. “Though there have been a few glitches with the technological side of distance learning, people must keep in mind that this was all very new to us, and schools had to be closed at the drop of a hat’s notice.”
As in years past, the district’s adopted budget, $241 million for the 2020-21 school year, has also been a prominent topic of discussion among taxpayers and constituent groups, Sassouni said.
“There is an extensive amount of planning that goes into developing and ultimately adopting a budget each year,” Sassouni said. “We always try to take everything into account including feedback from parents, stakeholders, educators and assistant superintendents from the affected schools.”
Sassouni and Jahng participated in a virtual candidate meet-and-greet with more than 50 people in attendance on Monday. The forum was hosted by the Northshore Asian Civic Association, a nonprofit organization whose mission includes promoting the civic and civil rights and interests of the Asian-American community in Great Neck.
The board unanimously adopted a $241 million budget for the 2020-21 school year on May 13, an increase of almost $7 million.
The budget, adopted by the board virtually via Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic, is $241,395,571 compared with the current year’s budget of $234,418,944, a rise of 2.98 percent.
John Powell, assistant superintendent of business and finance, said the proposed budget remained within the state-mandated tax cap.
“The 2 percent tax cap that everyone assumes to mean the real property tax levy cannot increase higher than 2 percent is not absolute,” he said. “Though a 2 percent cap is possible, each public school district’s tax limit will be different as a result of that district’s individual calculation.”
According to the budget, other tax cap calculation components permit the district to raise taxes by 4.16 percent for 2020-21.
The budget calls for a 2.57 percent, or $5,339,183, increase in real property tax. Powell said the district had the fifth-lowest tax rate per $100 of assessed value in Nassau County for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz said that though no decisions about a potential reduction of state aid have been made, the district’s diligence with its appropriated reserves and fund balance will mitigate any potential adverse effects.
“I’ve referred to the [appropriated reserves and fund balance] as a rainy-day fund sometimes,” Berkowitz said. “It allows us comfort with any unanticipated events like a tree falling through the roof of a school, or major leaks within a school. Things that we cannot anticipate to happen.”
Residents will also be voting on the $9.74 million budget for the Great Neck Library.
The proposed budget calls for a decrease in spending of $65,500, or 0.61%, from the current operating budget of about $9.8 million. The property tax levy has been flat since fiscal year 2018, calling for just over $9.49 million in revenue, with the rest of the budget supported by payments in lieu of taxes and other resources.
Voting is taking place by absentee ballots, which were to be sent to everyone who resides in the district and is registered to vote, according to Berkowitz. She said ballots must be received by the district no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
