Friday, June 20, 2025
The 2025 annual school budget vote and election of Elmont Board of Education and Elmont Memorial Library trustees will take place on May 20. In order to participate, residents must be registered to vote.
Those who have not registered yet can do so at their designated school on any school day, during school hours, until May 12. Evening voter registration will also be available on May 12, from 4 to 8 p.m., at Elmont Road School, at 135 Elmont Road.
On May 20, polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in all schools. Residents can vote for the Elmont and Sewanhaka school district budgets, the library budget, and school board and library trustees.
Go to ElmontSchools.org or SewanhakaSchools.org for more information about voter registration qualifications and poll place locators.
The next Elmont Library Board of Trustees meeting is May 22 at the Elmont Memorial Library, 700 Hempstead Tpke, from 7 to 8 p.m. For more information, visit ElmontLibrary.org or call the library at (516) 354-5280.
The following candidates are running for the Elmont Library Board this year:
Candidates for Livingstone YoungТs seat
Livingstone Young, incumbent
Young has served on the Elmont Library Board since 2014 and was appointed to president in 2016. Young said he has made strides during his time serving as a trustee. Among his accomplishments, Young said he represented the library in 2017 in a successful effort to prevent a liquor warehouse from opening near the library. After a former library employee, Sheila Seward, stole more than $260,000 from the library in 2016, Young said he was instrumental in handling the aftermath, and he worked alongside state agencies to ensure funding for the library and employee payroll was restored.
In an effort to better staff the library with talented employees, Young said he is working to eliminate the requirement that librarians must live in Nassau County to be eligible for employment at the library. And, he said, he is leading the library board on a new solar project to improve energy efficiency and lower costs to taxpayers in the Elmont community.
Elizabeth Forbes
Forbes has been an Elmont resident for 12 years and has been deeply involved in community efforts for the past 10 years. In 2018, she began her nonprofit organization, the Gift of Giving Foundation, to provide support to the children of Elmont. Her nonprofit gifts awards to Elmont students, supports students’ professional development through the Elmont Student Ambassadors Program, and provides meals to local families in need. She considers her best success to be her work guiding students to a brighter future and teaching them what it means to give back to the community. She said the library board plays an important role in the lives of Elmont students and feels serving on the board will put her in a better position to make a greater impact on residents.
Her goal is to bring back teen programs, create new cultural programs to better serve the diverse community, and make the library a safe place for residents to gather and connect with each other.
Incumbent Suzanne Schatz is running unopposed for her seat
Suzanne Schatz
Schatz has been a library trustee for six years and is an active patron of the library with her two young children. During her time on the board, she said, her consistent communication with the librarians has given her a valuable perspective on daily operations at the library. She has been a teacher for 20 years, which informs her overall vision for the library as a learning space for children. Schatz helped implement a leveling system, which organizes books based on reading levels. The program has been popular among patrons with young children, she said.
She is looking forward to continuing her service during her next term, and she remains committed to her role on the library board. She plans on stretching the budget to maximize its impact while keeping costs low for taxpayers. One initiative she will be suggesting to the board to help get more patrons through the door, Schatz said, is inviting authors to the library to read books to children.
