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Overcast A Q&A with Malverne’s school board candidates
Josephine Bottitta
Q: What is your background?
A: I’ve been a school board member for nearly four years and its president for the past year. I’ve been involved in the school district for 12 years and prior to that, was a part of the superintendent’s advisory committee for almost two years. I’m an active member of the PTA for Davison, Malverne High School and the Music PTA. I’m a co-founder of Project Enroll Now, have coached Little League for the past seven years and have a masters degree in social work from Adelphi University and a law degree from St. John’s University. I’ve lived in Malverne for 25 years.
Q: Why are you running?
A: Over the past 4 years, I’ve learned the position of being a school board trustee better than ever. I’m also dedicated and devoted to my school district, my community and my children.
Additionally, my work experience really lends itself to being a board member. I’ve done budget reviews, labor relations, positive organizational change and team building. Those are some of the skills, which together with my experience are advantageous to have as a board member.
Q: What are the most important issues facing the district right now?
A: The biggest challenge right now is continuing quality education when we have less funding. We have more, unfunded political and governmental mandates, and we’re trying to balance that with the taxpayers’ burden while taking property values into consideration.
In addition, there are three very distinct communities with socioeconomic differences in our district, and we need to unify people and continue to unify despite those differences. Diversity is something we should embrace. It makes us unique. Prior to my last term, and one of the initial reasons I ran was because I thought my background, my work experience and education could lend itself to further unification. I don’t’ think that is something you could ever stop working on. There’s always room for improvement.
Q: What do you bring to the board that will make it more effective?
