By Laura Lane
The PTAs of the Merrick School District will host a budget and candidates' forum on Thursday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. at Levy-Lakeside Elementary School. Dr. Ranier Melucci, the Merrick superintendent, will host the budget session, and the League of Women Voters will moderate the candidates' forum. The public is invited.
Five candidates have stepped forward to run for the Merrick Board of Education after current trustees Lou Kruh and Benay Shear recently announced they would retire from the board as of June 30. Three of this year's crop of candidates are current or former PTA officers, and two are Little League coaches. One is a pharmaceutical technician, one a nutritionist, one an attorney, one a former banker and one a restaurateur.
All said they would like to reduce costs while maintaining, even improving, student programming. Here are their profiles:
Nina Adelberg
Nina Adelberg is now co-president of the Birch Elementary School PTA, has been on the executive committee for the past four years and is a member of the Special Education PTA.
A full-time pharmaceutical technician, Adelberg, 39, has lived in Merrick for 15 years. She is the mother of Samantha, 11, and Benjamin, 9, both students at Birch Elementary School.
"I believe I'm qualified for the job because I've been a volunteer to the PTA for the past five years," she said. "Everything we do is for the children. I'm not looking for a popularity vote; I'm looking to help the children of the district."
Adelberg believes the district should offer before- and after-school extra help. She believes the current district policy of pulling students out of the classroom for extra help isn't productive. "This takes away from their everyday learning," she said. "Kids require more than just being over-prepared for the state tests."
She is also involved in the community. Adelberg is a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of Empire Hose No. 3 and volunteers at the Temple Beth Am religious school. She is a troop leader of Girl Scout Troop No. 2074 and a lifetime member of Hadassah's Dayan Lilah chapter.
"I'm very passionate about the well-being of children, especially since I've been involved between the PTA and Girl Scouts," she said. "I feel I can be an asset."
Michele Chernet
Michele Chernet has lived in Merrick for 16 years and has long been active in the community. Chernet, 42, is immediate past president and a former treasurer of the Levy-Lakeside Elementary School PTA, and has attended nearly every Merrick Board of Education meeting for four years.
Two years ago, she was instrumental in instrumental in instituting a change in the district's voting system. "I wrote and got the signatures to get a proposition to change how school board members are elected," Chernet said. "Before, people ran against a specific seat. Now it's a general election. This way every candidate has to campaign."
In an at-large, or general, election, all candidates run against one another for any available seats.
Chernet believes that trustees need to be held accountable for their decisions. And recognizing that each child has different needs, she believes it is the district's responsibility to manage time, funds and personnel resources appropriately to benefit all children equally.
Chernet frequently voices her opinion at board meetings and said she is unafraid to challenge the status quo. "I voice my opinions frankly," she said. "I'm honest, have integrity and know what's important to the community. We need to be fiscally responsible and keep an eye on costs, not only in the schools but also at the central administrative level."
She is the mother of Melissa, 14, who attends Merrick Avenue Middle School, and Rachel, 11, who goes to Levy-Lakeside. Chernet has been a registered dietitian for the past 20 years. She is currently in private practice and works at the Personal Training Institute in Bellmore as a dietitian and personal trainer.
"I'd like to see health and nutrition policies in the schools to avoid childhood obesity," she said. "And I'd like to see the district expand the fine arts and music program."
And she believes that in order to be effective, a school board member must "have a clear vision of the district." She said, "Vision and goals need to be set, and the success of the district and superintendent needs to be measured against these goals; a trustee must be able to communicate all the board's actions to the community."
Jonathan Fisher
Jonathan Fisher, 43, is a Manhattan attorney in a solo practice specializing primarily in contract litigation and real estate. He hopes to bring his business knowledge to the Merrick community.
"I've helped small companies start their business and worked with the budgetary process," said Fisher. "I thought my work experience is a little different than other people's, and I could contribute for a productive school district."
Fisher has lived in Merrick for the past 11 years and has three children in the district's schools - Joshua, 13, at Merrick Avenue Middle School, Gabby, 10, and Blake, 9, both at Levy-Lakeside Elementary School.
He said he has thought about running for the board for a while and was encouraged when others suggested that he do so. "Merrick is a very caring community, the teachers work very hard, and I felt, compared to other school districts in our area, it didn't seem that our efforts are achieving us a maximum return," he said. "It's not for lack of tax dollars, and parents really put a lot of time into the school and the activities."
Fisher said he'd like to see tax dollars maximized and more consistency brought to programming. "It seems like new learning programs are implemented too frequently," he said. "When one doesn't work out, they try another. I'd like for us to find programs that will work for years."
Fisher has been a Merrick Police Activity League girls' and boys' baseball coach for many years. Fisher said that even though he works in Manhattan, he's committed to giving back to the community and will find the time to do so.
Sheri Iskenderian
Sheri Iskenderian, 47, believes she can benefit the Merrick School District for several reasons, including her background in business. While working at Citibank for five years, the Tufts College graduate managed multi-million-dollar budgets for systems and technology group budgeting and was a project manager there, too.
"I'd like to have a fiscally responsible budget, not to say that this one isn't," she said, adding that she attended most of the meetings during the recent budget process. "As the state withdraws more and more funding and there are more unfunded mandates, it becomes more difficult. Every year the money is getting tighter, and there's going to be challenges," she said.
Iskenderian, the mother of Meryl, 17, and Kara, 14, both at Calhoun High School, and twins Alex and Jason, 11, who attend Levy-Lakeside, has lived in Merrick for 11 years. She was widowed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
She said she's concerned about the recent atmosphere at school board sessions and would like to help change the tenor of the meetings. "I feel that the environment between the community and school board and some of the staff has become very contentious," she said. "My feeling is if you don't have an open forum where people can discuss issues openly, it's very difficult to come up with creative solutions to problems. And we need to come up with some creative solutions."
Iskenderian believes that an example of an issue that needs a creative solution is preparing children for the state tests. She worries that creativity is diminishing in the classrooms. "Art and music need to be brought back into the classroom and not kept in the art room or as a project back home," she explained.
Committed to an open environment where people can speak without worrying that they will be criticized, she would like to encourage people to take a step back and allow for a free exchange of ideas. "The all-or-nothing mentality seems to be around, and life isn't black and white like that," she said.
Butch Yamali
Butch Yamali, Merrick Little League's president for the past five years, has decided to run for Merrick School Board.
Yamali, 45, has owned three businesses for the past 20 years - Dover Caterers, a catering and vending company, Quick Snack, a vending machine company, and Carnival Ice Cream. He believes his business experience and community involvement make him a viable choice for district trustee.
"I'm a businessman, and I'd work hard to keep taxes low and push education up high," he said. "I have 160 full-time employees this time of year, and 300 over the summer, and I run businesses myself. My customers include Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead, and the state and federal governments. I understand how hard it is to work with government, and I've been successful and I can help the school district."
Yamali said he has meetings with the district regularly regarding Little League. "I always try to be fair to everybody," Yamali said.
He'd like to find different ways to reduce district costs without cutting programming. And he'd like to get the community more involved in this effort.
"The community should know everything that's going on, and I don't think they do now," he said. "I don't know when the school board meetings are. Maybe there should be a public notice."
Yamali said people are made aware of Little League meetings through e-mails and notices. He believes a similar approach may help people know the dates of Board of Education meetings.
"And having someone with business experience would be a big asset to the district," he added.
Yamali is the father of Danielle, 19, who attends the University of Delaware, Celeste, 15, who is at Kennedy High School, and Abe, 12, a student at Levy-Lakeside Elementary School.
Comments about this story? Llane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
