By STUART KLATZ
Two seats will be up for grabs. With current school board President Gina Guma slated for an appointment to the Long Beach City Council, there will be at least one new face elected to serve the school district.
Norman Alpren
Current school board trustee Norman B. Alpren is seeking his fifth term serving the district. A Long Beach resident for 31 years, Alpren served in the Navy for four years and then attended Nassau Community College. He is president of MBI Associates Inc. in Rockville Centre. He has four children, all of whom are Long Beach High School graduates.
Alpren has served on the Long Beach Board of Education for the past 12 years. He previously served as commanding officer of the Long Beach Auxiliary Police Department for 23 years. He is an active member of the Victor Murtha Post of the American Legion, and is vice president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Alpren was recently elected zone chairman for District 20K2 of the Nassau County Lions Club Association. He has received a lifetime membership award from the Long Beach PTA for his work in Long Beach schools, and has also been honored by the Long Beach Catholic School, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Sons of Italy.
Franklin Alvarado
Architect Franklin R. Alvarado has been a resident of Long Beach for 23 years. He is a graduate of Long Beach High School and was a three-sport varsity athlete. Alvarado is currently a project director for a real estate management firm and has been active in the New York City real estate and construction industry for the past 10 years.
Alvarado has two children in the Long Beach school district. An active member of the Latino Civic Association, he enjoys visiting museums in his spare time. He earned a degree in architecture from Syracuse University and an MBA from Baruch College.
Roy Lester
Attorney Roy Lester is a lifelong resident of Long Beach who served on the school board for three years, from 1999 to 2002, and is looking to return to the board. He is a graduate of Long Beach High School, where he was a member of the swim team. Lester has been a lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park for 36 years. He is currently the union leader for New York State lifeguards and is active in the masters swimming program at the Eisenhower Park Aquatics Center.
Lester has three children in the Long Beach school district. As an attorney, he specializes in bankruptcy law. A member of the American Bar Association, the Nassau County Bar Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute, he received a political science degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a law degree from the University of San Diego. Lester is eligible to practice law in both New York and California.
Jannine Laskas-Gillespie
Jannine Laskas-Gillespie is a lifelong resident of the Long Beach/Point Lookout area. She works at Laskas flower shop, a family-run business that has been a part of the city for 55 years.
Laskas-Gillespie is a graduate of both the Long Beach Catholic Regional School and Long Beach High School. She has been active in the school district for several years, losing a close race for a school board seat in 2000 that was decided by absentee ballots and went to Alpren. An avid athlete, Laskas-Gillespie has three children in the Long Beach school district and is active in restoring old homes.
Budget blues?
Also on the ballot will be budget proposals for the school district and the Long Beach Public Library. The libraryÕs $2.5 million budget plan represents an increase of nearly $200,000, or 8.6 percent, over the current one. The school districtÕs proposed $86.8 million budget is nearly $5 million more than the current budget, an increase of 5.9 percent.
School-district officials have been reluctant to speculate on how much local taxes will increase, as that will depend on the state budget, which has not yet been adopted. Whatever the state budget, the aid directed to the Long Beach district will be less than the current year, necessitating a larger-than-usual tax increase for local residents.
A budget hearing will take place on Tuesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. in the Long Beach Middle School cafeteria.
