Stanley Stern, former president of the Roslyn Board of Education, has died at age 86.
Stern’s death was announced in an email to the district’s community by current Board of Education President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy, who was first elected to the board when he served as president. A date of death was not given.
“It is with sadness that I write on behalf of the Roslyn Board of Education to inform you of the passing this past weekend of former Roslyn Board of Education President Stanley Stern,” Ben-Levy wrote. “Stanley served on the Roslyn Board of Education, as some of you may recall, during a particularly turbulent time in our community. As a lifelong educator himself, Stanley was passionate about ensuring that each and every student in the Roslyn School District had access to a quality education.”
The “turbulent time” referred to in the email was an embezzlement scandal that occurred under then-Roslyn Superintendent Frank Tassone, who headed the school district at a time when approximately $11.7 million was embezzled, $7 million of it by Tassone and Assistant Superintendent Pamela Gluckin.
Tassone, who pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree grand larceny, was sentenced in 2006 to 4 to 12 years in prison, and was given an early release in 2010. Gluckin, the first district official to be caught, obtained a plea deal for a 3-to-9-year sentence in 2006, and was paroled in 2011.
Immediately after board President William Costigan stepped down from the post, Stern was one of four new faces on the board in 2005, and upon being named president worked quickly to get back the district’s money, filing lawsuits not only against Tassone and Gluckin but also against members of the previous board and the district’s former auditors.
“It was our responsibility to take this action, to try to recover as much money as we can,” Stern told The New York Times in 2005. “I assure you that the board will pursue every avenue of recovery available to us.”
His efforts brought the board over $7.7 million in restitution, and he was elected to four terms before he left the board in July 2012 for personal reasons.
Adam Haber joined the board in 2009, the year that Stern was succeeded as president by Ben-Levy while remaining a trustee, and described Stern as a pleasure to work with.
“Stanley joined the board at a tumultuous time in our community’s history, and brought something horrific to terrific through his expertise and his advocacy,” Haber said in a phone interview.
