North Shore School Voters Guide 2010

VOTING

7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday at the North Shore High School gymnasium.

THE BUDGET

The district is proposing a budget of $86,455,773 for the 2010-11 school year, an increase of 3.31 percent over the current budget of $83,682,596. The local tax levy would rise from $75,546,995 to $78,547,918, a 3.97 percent increase.

The average house assessed at $1,844 would pay school taxes of $7,930, an increase of 3.89 percent over the current figure.

The proposed budget includes a half-year salary freeze for all school district administrators, including the superintendent, and a 3.5 percent increase for all teachers. Twelve teachers, one custodian and one clerical position would be eliminated. Professional development would also be cut by $80,353, more than half.

District website:

northshoreschools.org

THE CANDIDATES

Paul J. Echausse and incumbents Carolyn Mazzu Genovesi, George Pombar and Anna Sharkey are running for three at-large seats for three-year terms.

Paul J. Echausse

BACKGROUND:A resident of Glen Head, Echausse, 49, an investment manager, has lived in the district 16 years. He graduated from Fordham University. He has an MBA from New York University and a law degree from Fordham Law School. He and his wife, Beth, have four children, two of whom are in college, one of whom will be going to college next year and a fourth who attends a parochial high school. He believes his skills in budgeting and fiscal discipline would be an asset to the board.

ISSUES: Echausse said the most important issue facing the district is the "need for a sustainable budget." The board can't spend more money in good economic times, only to curtail it in difficult times, thus threatening layoffs and educational programs. Slowing growth in spending will "allow our seniors to remain in our community and our children to return here," he said. The proposed 3.3 percent increase in this year's budget "is responsible," he said. "However, if we can spend 3.3 percent this year, we ought to be able to spend at that level for the foreseeable future."

Carolyn Mazzu Genovesi

BACKGROUND: Genovesi, 46, has served six years on the school board and is currently its vice president. A resident of Glen Head, she has lived in the district where she grew up for 35 years, moving back because of the schools. She is an attorney and got both her undergraduate and law degrees from St. John's University. She and her husband, Anthony, have three children in district schools.

ISSUES: "We cannot continue to attract businesses to Long Island if education doesn't stay at a high level," Genovesi said. But doing that in hard economic times, given government mandates and taxes, is becoming harder and harder, she said. "This is the most critical time for quality public education as we know it because of combined pressures from Albany and the federal government," she said. The current board put together the proposed budget "with a scalpel," cutting some teaching positions while maintaining quality education, she said.

George Pombar

BACKGROUND: Pombar, 61, has served nine years on the school board. A bank executive, he got an accounting degree from Queensborough Community College, a bachelor's degree in business from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and has 40 credits toward an MBA from Post. He and his wife, Rosemary, have four children. Two of them graduated from North Shore schools; two others graduated from schools in Europe while the family was living there. A Glen Head resident, he has lived in the district 33 years.

ISSUES: Maintaining "superior educational standards" in the current economic downturn is the board's biggest challenge, he said. To deal with continually rising costs from taxes, retirement costs and "unfunded mandates" - such as having to buy special calculators for students in high school - board members must work closely with teachers, administrators and legislators, he said. He said the district has been shrewd in spending money, building a transportation facility and using its own fleet of buses, instead of outsourcing to bus companies that were charging high rates.

Anna Sharkey

BACKGROUND: Sharkey, 47, has lived in the district for 19 years. A pharmacist, she has served one term on the school board. She got both her undergraduate degree and her master's degree in pharmacy from St. John's University. She and her husband, Charles, have three children. Two attend North Shore High School and the third is in elementary school.

ISSUES: "As a trustee, I try to balance not losing programs while trying to contain taxes by looking for innovative ways to increase funding," Sharkey said. Two years ago the board established a capital reserve fund that has allowed the district to spend money on a new roof for the middle school and a new boiler for the high school without any cost to residents, she said. Sharkey said the board plans to hire a grant writer so it can apply for grants that could offset costs. She said the trustees are also working with legislators to revise "outdated" laws such as one that requires a bus seat for every student regardless of whether he or she uses it or not.