Riverhead School Voters Guide 2010

VOTING

6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Riverhead High School gym.

THE BUDGET

School officials are proposing a $108,064,046 school budget for 2010-11, which is 1.99 percent higher than the current $105,953,599. The local tax levy would rise by 2.57 percent, from the current $80,644,797 to $82,717,368.

The school tax paid on the average home assessed at $49,720 in Riverhead would be $4,617, an increase of 2.6 percent over the current $4,500. The school tax paid on the average home assessed at $400,000 in Southampton would be $4,182, an increase of 3.5 percent over the current $4,041. The school tax paid on the average home assessed at $3,000 in Brookhaven would be $4,492, an increase of 3 percent over the current $4,361.

The district plans to replace only 15 of 20 teachers who are retiring and would also cut four nonteaching positions.

Voters are also being asked to approve a separate proposition to spend $1,340,000 from the existing capital reserve fund - all of the money left in that fund - to repair the roof, install an elevator and make other handicapped-access improvements at the Roanoke Avenue Elementary School. It would have no direct impact on the tax rate.

District website:

riverhead.net

THE CANDIDATES

Incumbents Mary Ellen Harkin and Christine Prete are running against challengers Jeffrey J. Falisi, Amelia Lantz and Mary E. Meyer for two seats with three-year terms.

Jeffrey J. Falisi

BACKGROUND: Falisi, 42, a retired New York City police officer, is making his first run for elected office. He and his wife, Lori, have lived in Baiting Hollow for 10 years and have four children in district schools.

ISSUES: Falisi wants to bring back the honors program to Riverhead High School, so students who are not challenged by the general Regents program but find advanced placement courses too difficult would have another alternative. He says that several school buildings are in need of repair, but that, because of economic conditions, the district should concentrate on first doing only the most essential work. He said he would provide "a fresh set of eyes" on the board.

Mary Ellen Harkin

BACKGROUND: Harkin, 48, a high school teacher in another district, is also an attorney and worked as law clerk for State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Loughlin until she switched careers six years ago. Harkin graduated from Villanova University School of Law. She and her husband, George, live in Calverton, and have two children going to school in the district.

ISSUES: Harkin said the school district is going in the right direction and getting better each year. She says test scores for students are going up, and that spending increases have been held to a reasonable level.

Amelia Lantz

BACKGROUND: Lantz, 45, ran unsuccessfully for school board last year. A Riverhead High School graduate, she chairs a school holiday giving chain that donates each year to the Council of Churches food pantry. She and her husband, David, have two children who attend school in the district.

ISSUES: Lantz said the current school board does not listen to the community or understand its needs, something she says was demonstrated by last year's proposed $123-million school renovation bond issue that was soundly defeated. Lantz said many in Riverhead supported much of the project, but the board never justified why one existing school was being converted into an administration building. "I personally have been dismissed at the podium [at school board meetings]," Lantz said. "Part of my platform is to bring civility back to this board. They don't have to be nasty and full of arrogance to get the job done."

Mary E. Meyer

BACKGROUND: Meyer, 44, is a teacher in another school district. She earned her master's degree at Stony Brook University and holds state certificates to qualify her as a principal and school superintendent. She co-organized the Suffolk County 9-12 project, the county tea party group and has served on her homeowner's association in Calverton. She is also a member of the town Republican committee. Meyer and her husband, Robert, have lived in the district for 13 years, and two of their five children still attend school in the district.

ISSUES: Meyer said she wants to reinstate jobs of teachers and staff who were cut last year and reduce administrative costs instead. She said the current board made a mistake in proposing its failed $123-million bond issue last year, but should quickly put together a priority list of what expansion is needed to meet the growing school population and which renovations are necessary to fix leaky roofs and other immediate problems.

Christine Prete

BACKGROUND: Prete, 54, owns a landscaping business and is past president of the Bayview Pines Civic Association in Flanders. She and her husband, George, have two children in the district, and a third who graduated and is in college.

ISSUES: Prete said she wants to continue the work she has been doing on the board, and says increases in test scores by students and the board's efforts to hold down the tax rate show that it has done a good job. Prete says that, while a $123-million school renovation bond was defeated last year, she wants to continue the job of meeting the district's most immediate expansion and renovation needs.