Mininsky bests incumbents for Long Beach school board

By a count of 1,841 votes to 936, residents approved the Long Beach School District’s $122.1 million 2012-2013 budget on Tuesday. In the contest for Board of Education trustee, newcomer Stewart Mininsky, an employee of the district’s maintenance department, attracted the most votes, 1,691.

The school’s spending plan totals $3.5 million, 2.9 percent more than the current budget. The tax levy — the total amount the district needs to raise through property taxes — is $98 million.

The 3.74 percent tax levy increase will help reduce the principal the district must pay on a $98 million bond to fund the school-preservation plan that was approved by voters in 2009. The operational portion of the budget has not increased, and all students programs will be maintained.

On Tuesday night, school officials said that the race for both school board seats being contested was too close to call, but according to the final vote count, released Wednesday, incumbents Gina Guma and Darlene Tangney — who campaigned as a team — finished behind Mininsky with 1,618 votes each, a tie. After three recounts, however, school officials said that Tangney was contesting an absentee ballot. With one vote in question, the district was consulting with its attorneys on how to resolve the tie at a special meeting — which could include a special election between the two incumbents — as the Herald went to press on Wednesday.

“It’s a very humbling experience,” Mininsky, who has volunteered for the school’s peewee baseball program and founded the Booster Club, said of his win. “I’m satisfied that the people put their confidence and faith in me, and I plan to live up to everything that they feel that I can do for them.”

Mininsky will retire from his current job in June, and will begin serving a three-year term on the board on July 1.

“I’m surprised, truly surprised,” Guma said on Tuesday. “Between Mrs. Tangney and I, we have dedicated 46 years of our lives to advocate for the children and we are quite — a little shocked. I’m not taking the win away from Mr. Mininsky, but … the seat on the Board of Education is the most important seat in society because you hold the lives of children in your hands, and that’s a big job, and you must be sure when you’re running for this kind of seat that you’re running for all the right reasons and nothing else.”