Fire Island School Voters Guide 2010

VOTING

3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Woodhull School.

THE BUDGET

The district is proposing a budget of $5,311,220, a decrease of 0.72 percent from the previous year's total of $5,349,817.

The local tax levy would be $4,721,817, identical to the previous year.

A zero percent tax increase means an average home in the Town of Brookhaven would pay $21.48 per $100 of assessed valuation. For an average home in Islip, the rate would be $1.60 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The proposed budget eliminates one job, a senior account clerk, one full-time teacher's position through attrition and freezes the superintendent's salary. It also reduces a school library media position from a three-day workweek to two.

District website: fi.k12.ny.us

THE CANDIDATESIncumbents Jay Lippert and Daphne Sigelakis are running against Ali Bequaj for two open seats, each with a three-year term.

Ali Bequaj

Bequaj did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

Jay Lippert

BACKGROUND: Jay Lippert, 56, has been a park ranger at the Fire Island National Seashore since 1988 and was first elected to the school board in 1998. He is completing his second term as board president. He has two children who attended the district school. Lippert received an associate degree in wildlife science at Unity College in Maine.

ISSUES: Lippert said key issues include fiscal responsibility, declining enrollment, and improving the line of communication between the district and its constituents. "Like every other school district on Long Island, the business of education has changed drastically," Lippert said. "I think we're all more accountable, and that's a good thing." Recent declining enrollment is based on a few factors, he said. Over the years, the district had a fair share of students from the Coast Guard station at Fire Island, but Coast Guard personnel are having fewer children, he said. Also, the island population is growing older and the expense of living on Fire Island prevents families from moving in. "We're wrestling with ways to fix it," he said.

Daphne Sigelakis

Sigelakis did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.