By JOSEPH KELLARD
But the demands of the board have consumed much of Graham’s free time, and now she wants to turn her attention and energies elsewhere, toward her family and other organizations.
“I had no problems with the board, and think the present board is just great,” Graham said after announcing her retirement at the board’s Jan. 28 meeting. “But I think it’s time for the board to get someone else who brings in a different perspective, and the time is right for me to go. I need a change. I’d like to take the time to pursue other interests.”
Graham listed SIBS Place (Survivorship in Brothers & Sisters), a program for siblings and parents of children with cancer and other illnesses at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, and Oceanside Community Service, an organization that helps poor families in the community, as likely focuses of her future volunteer work. She said she also wants to devote more time to her husband, Don.
Graham’s road to volunteering for the school board began in 1986, with her involvement in the Oceanside PTA, where she served in capacities ranging from legislation chairperson to president. Two years later she joined the Nassau District PTA and became its treasurer and first associate. From 1994 to 1996 she was a member the state PTA Board of Managers and sat on various committees, including Public Relations and Legislation Budget.
She was first elected to the Oceanside school board in 1996. While working full-time as a legal secretary at the Nassau County district attorney’s office, Graham became chairwoman of the school board’s policy committee and overhauled the district’s policy book.
The board is charged with establishing hundreds of pages of policy in areas as diverse as how many credits students need to graduate from high school, disciplinary matters, and rules governing outside organizations that want to use the district’s schools for their functions.
“That’s a very important part of the board, and Sue has really been an expert in that area,” said Dr. Herb Brown, who was hired as the district’s superintendent by Graham and other board members 11 years ago.
Graham also initiated the district’s Internet Network Policy, which offers safety and acceptable-use guidelines, and she played a major role in Project Save, which established, among other things, a code of conduct for students and fingerprinting of new teachers. “I’ve always paid close attention to new policies that we’ve put in place and made sure that they’ve been implemented,” said Graham, who served as board president in 2004 and 2005.
She has also volunteered as president of the Civil Service Employees Association for the district attorney, which she said fostered her ability to compromise on the board.
Board President Al Lyson said he does not know how the district will establish policy without Graham. “She doesn’t let a thing go by with whatever new court ruling there is,” Lyson said. “And you can be destroyed if you don’t make sure you go by the letter of the law.”
Graham has also served on the board’s Safety, Attendance and Technology committees, and some of the issues she has championed over her 12-year tenure included a three-year technology plan, school tax exemptions for senior citizens and full-day kindergarten. She mentioned the establishment of the kindergarten center at School 6 as one of her and the board’s most noteworthy accomplishments in recent years. “I think one of the best things that came from that is that, by putting all the kindergartners in one school, it freed up a lot of space in all of our elementary schools,” said Graham, who has lived in Oceanside her entire life, raising two sons, Brian, 31, and Terry, 26, who attended Oceanside schools.
School officials said that what stands out most about Graham as a trustee is her willingness to listen to people and to fairly weigh all sides of an issue. “Sue is very objective, always ready to listen and always has an open door,” said Brigette Misitano, a former PTA Council president, who noted that Graham was instrumental in getting School 4 reopened more than a decade ago.
“Sue is good at taking information from all sides of an issue and coming to a fair decision about them,” Brown said.
Lyson, who said he would likely be the next board member to retire next year, explained that Graham has always been his sounding board. “I have always run things by her,” Lyson said, “because she is so level-headed. She’s been a great board member.”
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
