East Meadow voters pass school budget, Proposition Two

Three elected to Board of Education

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Residents approved the East Meadow School District and library budgets after a May 21 vote tallied 1,654 in favor and 516 against. The Board of Education will be getting two new additions, Jodi Luce and Allyson Benowitz, and Matthew Melnick was re-elected to the board. And voters came out in favor of the budget’s Proposition Two, with 1,796 voting in favor and 375 voting against. This will allow the district to use nearly $1.8 left over from its 2018-19 budget in a capital reserve fund, of which voters approved the creation last year.

Melnick, 41, received 1,558 votes. He was first elected to the board in 2016, was its vice president in 2017 and became its president last year. He and his wife have three children in East Meadow schools and have lived in the community for 11 years.

Melnick is looking forward to increasing educational opportunities in and out of the classroom, while “making sure that the board, as fiduciaries, is acting in the best interest of our taxpaying community,” he said.

Dr. Jodi Luce, 45, received 1,521 votes. She has lived in East Meadow for 16 years with her husband. Her son, Joshua, 14, is a student at Woodland Middle School and her daughter, Sophie, 9, is a student at Barnum Woods Elementary.

Luce is a member of her local synagogue, and both of her children have played in East Meadow’s Police Activity League lacrosse and are active participants in community events. She is a member of East Meadow’s PTA and is a strong supporter of the standardized test opt-out movement.

“I want to continue to make an impact on my community,” Luce said. “I believe strongly in transparency, and working with the community to provide the best for our students while keeping the needs of the taxpayers in mind.

Receiving 1,521 votes was Allyson Benowitz, 53, who is a 17-year resident of Salisbury. She and her husband, Scott, have a son, Tyler, 15, who is a freshman at W.T. Clarke High School, and twin 10-year-old sons, William and Matthew, who are fifth-graders at Meadowbrook Elementary.

Increasing mental health education and awareness is a priority of hers, along with continuing to introduce advanced technology and improving district athletic fields. “I’m running for the Board of Education because I want to continue the work that the board has started in the past few years,” she said. “I love the East Meadow School District. I moved here for the school district.”