Three Village school district

VOTING

6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Arrowhead, Minnesauke, Nassakeag, Setauket and W.S. Mount elementary schools.

THE BUDGET

The district proposes a $189,589,217 budget for 2015-16, a 0.81 percent increase from the current $188,060,556. The local tax levy would rise 2.79 percent, from $139,633,941 to $143,527,194.

This increase equals the state's tax-cap limit of 2.79 percent, so a simple majority vote will be required to approve the budget. Taxes on the average single-family home would increase 2.79 percent, from $10,328 to $10,616.

Teachers are due a 1.5 percent contractual increase and 3.4 percent step increases. The district plans to add six teachers, decrease class sizes, restore electives and add American Sign Language classes.

The district expects to have smaller elementary classes and add art and music programs.

District website:

threevillagecsd.org

THE CANDIDATES

Incumbents Deanna Bavlnka and William F. Connors Jr. and challenger Jeffrey Mischler are competing for two at-large seats. Terms are three years.

Deanna Bavlnka

BACKGROUND: Bavlnka, 50, is director of human resources at PW Grosser, an environmental engineering firm in Bohemia, and has lived in the district for 19 years. She received a professional human resources certification from Stony Brook University in 2007. Bavlnka has two children attending Three Village schools. Bavlnka, who joined the school board in 2011 to complete an unexpired term, is seeking her second full three-year term and is running with Connors.

ISSUES: Bavlnka said she has spearheaded projects such as monthly email blasts to residents and a Facebook group to improve communications between the district and residents. She said the district expects to save more than $1 million annually by making facilities more energy efficient. The district also restructured school schedules and bus routes to improve transportation, she said. The district has begun an academy aimed at at-risk high school students and plans to open a tuition-based pre-K program in September. "I'm running to continue the momentum of what we accomplished," she said.

William F. Connors Jr.

BACKGROUND: Connors, 70, is a retired associate vice president for academic affairs at Suffolk County Community College. He has lived in the district for 42 years. He received a bachelor's in history from St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1966; a master's in counseling psychology from Springfield (Massachusetts) College in 1967 and a master's in public administration from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, now LIU Post, in 1980. Connors' four children graduated from Three Village schools. Connors served on the school board from 1994 to 2006 and returned in 2012. He is the board president and is running with Bavlnka.

ISSUES: Connors said he is pleased that the district's budget calls for increasing spending by less than 1 percent. He attributed that to an improving economy, increased state aid and health insurance savings. Connors said he favors Common Core, but he believes the state's rollout was "absolutely awful." "Common Core I think is absolutely essential to enhance the educational program, not only in New York state but throughout the country," he said. "We have to make Common Core work."

Jeffrey Mischler

BACKGROUND: Mischler, 44, is a high school teacher in the Center Moriches school district and has lived in the Three Village district for eight years. He received an associate degree in business administration from Suffolk County Community College in 1996, a bachelor's degree in marketing from Dowling College in 1998 and a master's degree in management from Dowling in 1999. He has two children in district schools and another in prekindergarten. He has been a Three Village baseball and basketball coach and also has coached soccer and lacrosse in the Center Moriches school district. This is his first run for school board.

ISSUES: Mischler said he was motivated to run by the controversy over Common Core. He said that as a teacher, he feels he can "be an accurate voice of what's going on." New state programs are "riddled with errors," and the rollout of Common Core was poor, he said. He said Three Village officials are "doing a really good job" by creating a district curriculum rather than adopting a state program. "I'd just like to be part of that decision-making," Mischler said, adding that he advocates the use of STEM technology starting in elementary school.