51.0°,
Overcast Open election for board seats
Four candidates vie for three Hewlett-Woodmere trustee positions
Voters in the May 15 Hewlett-Woodmere Board of Education election will choose among one incumbent and three challengers for three trustee seats in the at-large contest.
Two incumbent trustees are not running for re-election. Jill Stern and Marcy Goldberg are stepping down at the end of the school year. Another incumbent, Steven Witt, is running for another term. He is part of a slate of candidates that includes Jonathan Altus and Melissa Gates. Fred Usherson is running independently. The three candidates with the highest vote totals will win the seats, all of which have three-year terms.
Besides the board vote, district residents will also decide on the $105.8 million proposed budget. Balloting will take place from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Woodmere Education Center, 1 Johnson Place in Woodmere.
Fred Usherson
Age: 50
Lives: Hewlett, 12 years
Children: Daughter, 10, fourth grade; son, 8, third grade, both at Hewlett Elementary
Profession: Technology teacher, New York City Department of Education
Usherson, a 12-year district resident, says he believes the Hewlett-Woodmere District is ignoring the children in the lower grades at Franklin Early Childhood Center, the elementary schools and Woodmere Middle School by not providing them with enough computers in the classroom. “I recommend that the student-computer ratio for general education classes [be] at least 3-to-1, and a 2-to-1 ratio for Special Education classes,” he said. “In a district with a budget nearing $106 million, I don’t know why we can’t offer at least an iPad2 to each child from grades 2 through 12.”
The district needs to improve its fiscal responsibility, Usherson said, adding that offering a 40 percent retirement incentive to administrative staff is a waste of money. “These people already have huge pensions and a huge salary,” he said. “As a voter and a taxpayer, this wasteful spending is unconscionable, and I think we should offer our school board members an early retirement incentive — stop re-electing them and vote them all out of office!”
