11 vie for 7 open BOE seats across Valley Stream

Clockwise from left: Lawrence Trogel, Ingrid Wyllie Dacon, Tom Chen, Alexandra Browne-Martin, John Maier, Kim Wheeler, Anthony Iadevaio, Toni Pomerantz, Milagros Vicente and Kenneth Cummings. Hendrick Colbert is not pictured.

Seven Board of Education seats and four school district budgets will be up for a vote on Tuesday, May 17 in Valley Stream.

In District 13 and District 30, challengers must declare what seat they are running to fill, while in District 24, the three candidates with the most votes are elected. Board roles, such as president and secretary, as well as representatives who will serve on the Valley Stream Central High School District Board of Education, are designated in July.

Toni Pomerantz and Joseph DiSibio have seats that are expiring next month in District 13. DiSibio, after nine years on the board, will not seek a second term. In addition to Pomerantz, who is running unopposed, Milagros Vicente is running uncontested for DiSibio’s vacated seat.

Lawrence Trogel, Anthony Iadevaio and John Maier are incumbents in District 24 who are being challenged by Kim Wheeler, Alexandra Browne-Martin and Tom Chen. District 24 faces the most imminent challenge of growing enrollment, having gone as far as retrofitting hallway vestibules into functioning classrooms. Administrators are preparing to address the capacity concerns at each building as they look to the years ahead, with questions about increasing enrollment looming and a bond under consideration. The district is proposing a budget that preserves all programs and staff and remains below the tax levy cap.

In District 30, incumbents Kenneth Cummings and Ingrid Wyllie Dacon are seeking re-election. Wyllie Dacon, the former PTA president of the Forest Road School and past president of the Valley Stream Council of PTAs, was appointed to replace Elise Antonelli, who moved out of the district last year. This is the first time Wyllie Dacon will run for office, and she is running unopposed. Hendrick Colbert is running for Cummings’s seat.

A District 24 candidates’ forum will be held on Monday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Robert W. Carbonaro School. Polls will be open on May 17 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at all regular polling locations in Valley Stream. Voters who are unsure of their registration status or polling place may call either the Nassau County Board of Elections at (516) 571-VOTE or search the state database at: voterlookup.elections.state.ny.us/votersearch.aspx