Glen Cove School Board Election 2024: Voters to choose between Leone, Huggins, and Miller and vote on $118.1M budget"

Glen Cove voters will head to the polls on May 20 to decide the fate of a proposed $118.1 million school budget and to elect two trustees to the Board of Education. The race has three candidates: incumbent Lia Leone, former Trustee David Huggins and first-time candidate Brett Miller. Trustee Audre Lynn Hustron is not seeking re-election, leaving one seat open
The district’s proposed 2025-26 budget of $118.1 Million is an increase of $4.7 million over the current spending plan. The tax levy would rise to approximately $79.6 million, an increase of 2.981 percent, which falls below the district’s tax cap. According to enrollment data compiled by the state in October, Glen Cove has 3,154 students, which means the district would spend roughly $37,451 per student if enrollment remains stable.
Voting will take place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Glen Cove High School and Connolly School.
Here are the school board candidates.

Lia Leone

Leone, 48, is running for a third term. A Glen Cove High School alumna, she was elected to the board in 2019, and has served as its president and vice president. She is a member of the district’s Policy Committee, and was active on the Bond Committee before she joined the board.
Leone holds an associate’s degree from Nassau Community College, and a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in reading from LIU Post. She is a reading specialist in the Hicksville school district.
“I think my experience as a board member will really give me a little heads-up on the other candidates,” Leone said. “This particular board that we’ve been working with for the past three years has been

really productive and wonderful and collegial to work with. I’m looking forward to completing these big projects that we’ve started.”
Leone has two children in the district: Joseph, a sixth-grader at Finley middle school, and Julia, a sophomore at Glen Cove High.

Brett Miller
Miller, 48, is running for office for the first time, though he is no stranger to the school district or the board. His late wife, Monica Alexandris-Miller, who died in 2013 from breast cancer, was elected to the board twice before stepping down because of her illness.
“Ever since then, in our family, we were big on giving back to the community and volunteerism,” Miller said. “Now I’m in a place where I can hopefully be a positive, communicative and supportive member of the board.”
An electrician and the father of three daughters in Glen Cove schools — twins Anna and Casey, juniors at the high school, and Maya, an eighth-grader at the middle school— Miller said he feels ready to step into public service after years of community involvement through coaching and PTA events.
“I’ve been exposed to the board and the time commitment,” he said. “I know some of these people, and I feel it’s a pretty good board right now … I think I can work positively and collaboratively with them.”
Miller is a member of both IBEW Local 25 and IUOE Local 30. He believes his professional background would bring a unique perspective to the board.
“I think it can help bring some perspective that doesn’t exist, or some understanding or just some insight,” he said. He also expressed an interest in expanding students’ awareness of BOCES programs and reducing the stigma associated with trade education. “There’s a need for electricians and plumbers and carpenters and HVAC people,” Miller said, “but there’s a lot of other things BOCES offers as well.”

David Huggins
Huggins, 65, is seeking to return to the board after two previous stints, from 2009 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2019. He said he was motivated to run again because he believes the district needs to strengthen its academic programs — particularly literacy offerings like the Wilson reading program — and better serve its increasingly diverse student population.
“I have not seen a lot of progress since I left the board in other areas,” Huggins said. “I think that they need my institutional knowledge of the district to come back and help.”
Huggins, a restaurant owner, has four sons — two who graduated from Glen Cove High in 2005 and 2009, and two currently enrolled in the district. Ryan is in seventh grade, and Declan is in fourth. Huggins has long been active in city athletics and civic life. He is a founder of Glen Cove Junior Lacrosse, and has served on the boards of various local youth sports organizations for more than 30 years. In 2024, he received the city’s Lifetime Achievement Award for recreation and sports.
“I’ve always thought I was the best candidate for the job,” Huggins said. “We need to go in different directions. We have children who don’t speak any English coming into school … and we need to have better programs.”