Hewlett-Woodmere

BUDGET

SPENDING $123,318,721, a 2.95 percent increase from the current $119,785,062.

TAX LEVY 2.95 percent increase, from $100,328,421 to $103,288,099. This is within the district’s 3.31 percent tax-cap limit, so a simple majority vote is required for approval.

TEACHER PAY / PROGRAMS Includes a 1.25 percent contractual raise and a 1.47 percent step increase. The proposed budget adds two security aide positions at George W. Hewlett High School for coverage of student/visitor entrances and more security at other schools. In accordance with state Education Department regulations, it extends the guidance department and counseling to the elementary level. The spending plan also supports expansion of after-school supervision of special education and general education students and adds a variety of new clubs at the high school, including a Chess Club, Pre-Med Club and a Web Design and Marketing Club. It cuts the full-time equivalent of two teacher positions because of change in enrollment.

PROPOSITIONS

Proposition 2 authorizes the district to spend $3 million from the long-range capital reserve fund to replace windows at Hewlett High School.

WHEN | WHERE

7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Woodmere Education Center, 1 Johnson Place, Woodmere. www.hewlett-woodmere.net

CANDIDATES

Paul Critti, Asaf Fligelman and incumbents Mitchell A. Greebel and Daniella R. Simon are running for three seats, elected at-large. The top two vote-getters will serve three-year terms, and the third highest vote-getter will serve a one-year term that resulted from the resignation of Scott McInnes.

Paul Critti

BACKGROUND Critti, 58, has lived in the district for 30 years and works as a private security consultant. He was a New York City police officer for two decades before retiring from the force in 2002. Critti grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School. He is a graduate of the New York City Transit Police Academy. Critti is president of the district’s Special Education Parent Teacher Association. He chaired the district’s SEPTA after-school program from 2011 to 2013. For the last five years, he has served on the district curriculum committee, which reviews district educational programs. Critti has one child attending a district public school. This is his first run for the school board.

KEY ISSUE “As a current and former president, I helped bring SEPTA into the mainstream, where it is now a respected and influential PTA unit. We also built a bridge to administration that helps us work together for the good of all the students.”

Asaf Fligelman

BACKGROUND Fligelman, 34, is a partner in Selz Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund and moved to the district from the city nearly four years ago. He was reared in Brooklyn, the eldest of five children of parents who immigrated from Israel. Fligelman graduated in 2002 from Yeshiva Flatbush, a parochial high school in Brooklyn. He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Yeshiva University in Manhattan, where he was president of the business school student council. He is a licensed CPA and worked for nearly two years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Manhattan. Fligelman has two children, one of whom attends a parochial school and one who is not yet school-age. He coaches Hewlett-Woodmere Little League T-ball. This is his first run for the school board.

KEY ISSUE “I am 100 percent committed to quality public school education. I am 100 percent committed to dedicating my unique financial skill set, both as a CPA and as a financial analyst, to work constructively with the board and the community. I want to make sure we figure out ways as a community to do more with our budget, to spend more efficiently so we can increase the dollars that are being spent on our children.”

Mitchell A. Greebel

BACKGROUND Greebel, 59, is a matrimonial and family law attorney with the Greebel & Greebel law firm in Mineola. He has lived in the district for 26 years. Greebel earned a bachelor's degree in English from University at Albany and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He has served on the board of trustees for Congregation Sons of Israel synagogue in Woodmere for more than 21 years and was president of the Five Towns Jewish Council from 2004 to 2006. Greebel was president of the Hewlett-Woodmere Special Education PTA from 2009 to 2010 and president of the PTA central council from 2011 to 2013. For the last six years, he has been a volunteer coach for Hewlett High School varsity wrestling. Greebel has four children, three of whom are district graduates and one who graduated from an out-of-district private school. He first was elected to the school board in 2013 and is seeking his third term. He is running as a team with Daniella R. Simon.

KEY ISSUE “Meeting the demands and the needs of a school district and keeping the promises you’ve made to the community in terms of who we are as a school and what we offer to our students. At the same time dealing with the tax cap, unfunded mandates and rising costs.”

Daniella R. Simon

BACKGROUND Simon, 42, who was reared in the district, works as an independent social media marketer. She is an attorney who worked for Sidley Austin law firm in Manhattan but currently does not practice law. Simon attended the Brandeis School, a private school in Lawrence, from kindergarten to the seventh grade. She transferred into the Hewlett-Woodmere school district in the seventh grade and graduated from Hewlett High School in 1994. Simon earned a bachelor's degree in politics from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and received a law degree from New York University School of Law, where she wrote for the environmental law journal. Simon has been active in district PTA for the last eight years, having served as co-president of the Franklin Early Childhood Center PTA and president of the Central Council, which among other things is a liaison between PTAs and the district superintendent. Simon’s four children attend district public schools. She was elected to the school board in 2016. Simon is running as a team with Mitchell A. Greebel.

KEY ISSUE “The most important thing, and the thing I’m most proud of while I have been on the school board, is maintaining the academic excellence of our public schools while keeping an eye on the financial bottom line. I want to ensure that our kids have the best public schools while still being able to afford to live here.”