East Hampton School Voters Guide 2010

VOTING

2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at East Hampton High School on Long Lane.

THE BUDGET

School officials are proposing a $64,778,975 budget for 2010-11, which is a 3.81 percent increase over the current budget of $62,402,556. The local tax levy would decrease by 2.08 percent, from the current $44,958,084 to $44,021,880.

School taxes on a house assessed at $6,000 would be an estimated $2,829, about $31 less than the current figure.

The proposed budget includes a salary increase for teachers of 1.5 percent.

The proposed budget calls for replacing only five of 11 retired teachers, and support staff would be reduced by three through attrition.

District website: ehufsd.org

THE CANDIDATES

Incumbents Sandra E. Vorpahl and Wendy J. Hall and challengers Alison Anderson, Lauren Dempsey and George Aman are running for three seats with three-year terms. Michael Tracey, who had been on the ballot, withdrew from the race.

George Aman

BACKGROUND: Aman, who has lived in the district 15 years, is a retired educator with a doctorate in math education from Syracuse University. He has taught at Dowling College and was assistant superintendent in the Riverhead and Longwood districts and superintendent in Amagansett. He and his wife, Dahlia, have seven children, one of whom goes to East Hampton High. The others are adults who attended public schools elsewhere. Aman declined to give his age, saying only that he was "over 50." He ran once before, unsuccessfully, for the school board four years ago.

ISSUES: Aman said he would be the only board member with an administrator's perspective. He said the district needs to improve communications, both with parents and with people in other districts. He said the growing dissatisfaction in other local districts without high schools that send students to East Hampton should be dealt with through better communications. He also said the board showed it was out of touch with residents when it proposed a referendum to spend $3.5 million to buy a garage for its school buses, even as a new $70-million high school is still under construction.

Alison Anderson

BACKGROUND: Anderson, 46, studied business administration at SUNY Cobleskill and Suffolk County Community College. She and her husband, Brian, have three children, two who graduated from the school district and a third who is in the high school. She is president of the East Hampton High School PTSA and has never held elective office.

ISSUES: Anderson said the district has two major issues to resolve: low student test scores and the battle with neighboring districts over the tuition it charges them to send their students to East Hampton High.

Lauren Dempsey

BACKGROUND: Dempsey, 46, has lived in the district for eight years. She is a registered nurse and works as an administrator at a private medical practice. She and her husband, Dr. George Dempsey, have two children. One is in the district high school and the other graduated from the district and is now in college.

ISSUES: Dempsey said she feels the school board makes too many decisions behind closed doors. Important issues are rarely discussed at length in open school board meetings, she said. She also feels that the budget presented for a vote each year is presented in a way that is difficult to understand, because things like the salaries of individual administrators are not given, only lumped together as a single budget item.

Wendy J. Hall

Hall could not be reached for comment.

Sandra E. Vorpahl

BACKGROUND: Vorpahl, 62, is a semiretired administrative assistant. An East Hampton High graduate, she has served on the school board for five years. A widow, she has two children who graduated from the district.

ISSUES: She says the current school board has managed to improve education standards by working as a team, and is keeping a close watch on school spending.