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Three incumbents will run again
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March 18, 2009 | 04:10 PM
Two first-term trustees and one six-term veteran of the Harborfields school board, whose terms are expiring, will seek re-election Tuesday, May 19. To date, no new candidates have picked up petitions, said District Clerk Barbara Muller, whose office is accepting nominating petitions no later than 5 pm on Monday, April 20.
Each petition must contain 56 resident signatures, or 2 percent of the number of residents who voted in last year's budget vote.
Jim Brennan
The board's current president and 18-year veteran, Jim Brennan, noted the professional diversification of the board members as a factor in its success.
"I think one of the things that's led Harborfields to be such a dynamic district is that we have a diversified view of everything and we've been always able to work together."
He said that the board's high expectations have been met in spite of budget limitations, including consistently high test scores throughout the schools.
"We're in the bottom 10 percent [on Long Island] in the cost we expend per pupil [$18,300] and yet we're in the top 10 percent of any measurement you want to use, whether it be academics, whether it be athletics. …" he said. "We've tried to keep Harborfields a well-rounded community and we've tried to put money in all our programs. This year, when we're having trouble with economics, like everybody else is, we're spreading everything around," to distribute cuts equitably.
Brennan's main goal for Harborfields is to maintain its high-quality education.
"It's not business as usual," he said. "There are so many problems economically that the federal government and state government don't [seem to] be able to surmount. The key is to be able to make do with what you have now and make sure our programs stay in the same top notch shape that they are in now."
Referring to cuts in state aid, Brennan bemoaned the inequitable burden the region faces in supporting public education through their property taxes.
"Long Island really gets a bad rap," he said. "We educate more kids, we get less money and have to pay for more of these cuts."
Brennan was assistant principal at Glen Cove High School when he retired in 2003 and, before that, held posts as a college football coach and a high school law and accounting teacher.
Donald Mastroianni
Before becoming a trustee three years ago, Vice President Donald Mastroianni liaised between the PTA and school board for five years, attending every meeting. Yet to be sure he could fully commit to the elected position, Mastroianni consulted with board members to learn what the office entailed.
And though he admitted some first-term setbacks, namely the board's divisive and litigious relationship with the district's last superintendent, Mastroianni said the board has accomplished much.
"Our administrators and staff members have worked very well in achieving a lot of successes that we are now being recognized with, such as the silver medal we now received nationally." The district was recently named one of the top one hundred schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
One of the board's continuing challenges is to balance educational excellence with financial constraints, he said.
A lifelong resident of the district, Mastroianni, of Centerport, said he has both a vested interest in the education of his three school-age children and in being mindful of residents whose children have outgrown the schools. "I'm trying to keep people who are living on a fixed income from having to leave."
Fiscal responsibility is a top priority for Mastroianni. "My background is in finance, so it's not new to me," he said.
For his second term, Mastroianni would aim to preserve what the district has already accomplished.
"We've achieved greatness. And for us to take any step back would be completely unacceptable. I'm going to look to preserve and maintain our current level of excellence as we go through these very tough times."
Still, Mastroianni admits that he was not able to make good on some campaign promises in his first term. "I want to identify high-rising costs and find alternatives," he said.
He would like to tackle the district's health care benefits, which he believes should go out for competitive bids; reform mandates, such as extensive testing that puts a great financial burden on school districts; and attain collective bargaining concessions — with teachers, for instance, whose contract expires in 2009-10.
"Those concessions, I believe, are something that's necessary for us to preserve and maintain the excellence we have in our district while presenting a budget that is going to be approved in our community."
Mastroianni, a chief financial and operating officer at the Hauppauge-based Safeguard Credit Counseling, commuted to the city for many years but after the 9/11 attacks decided to stay closer to home and spend more time with his children, which included coaching his 8-year-old son Donny's baseball team. He and his wife, Jiesu, also have two daughters: Sabrina, 12, and Ally, 10.
Maggie Boba
Another lifelong resident running for a second term, Maggie Boba, said her whole family still lives here and she has always loved everything about the district.
"I think that Frank Carasiti is a wonderful person to learn from and work with," she said. "I think that it would be easy to get out in tough times but I'm ready to do the work and do what we're going to need in this economic crisis."
She has been proud of the board in her first term, she said. "They're some of the greatest guys I've ever met in my life and I really value and appreciate their work and their friendship that they've given me over the past few years."
Two accomplishments that stand out for Boba: working with the OUTREACH program to provide boxes of food monthly to about 60 families in need throughout Huntington, and founding the Harborfields Alumni and Community Educational Foundation, which has provided thousands of dollars in scholarships to students and grants to staff for the classroom since its inception in 2003.
The biggest problem the board faces, she said, is dealing with the economic crisis and keeping Harborfields great. "My interest now is to try to preserve as much as we have going on."
A lifelong resident of Centerport, Boba has two sons: Justin, 16, and Jared, 13. A past director of United Cerebral Palsy, she works on a project basis as a human services consultant to various organizations.
"I'm interested in every kid at Harborfields," she said. "I think I'm particularly a strong voice for kids who don't necessarily have an advocate."
Sometimes being in the thick of things affects her sensitive nature, Boba confessed.
"When we talk about cuts and cutting people, it's a hard thing for me to sit through and listen. Because in essence we're talking about somebody within our Harborfields family."
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