By Doug Miller
School board President Patrick Gallagher and Trustee Ruth Kaleko were both re-elected in a three-way race for their two board seats. Gallagher received 2,673 votes and Kaleko 2,231, while challenger Mary Lou Monahan was a close third with 2,106. All numbers are unofficial.
Kathleen Dwyer, a Hofstra University administrator, received 165 write-in votes to capture the vacant seat on the Library Board of Trustees. She topped Susan Stark, a former trustee, who received 92 votes, and Susan Odery, who received 55.
Long Beach's winning streak of approved budgets flies in the face of the regional trend, as for the second year in a row nearly a third of Long Island's school budgets were defeated. In the last two years, budgets in Lawrence, Hewlett-Woodmere, Valley Stream's District 13, Franklin Square, West Hempstead, Oceanside and East Rockaway have been defeated, while Long Beach has seemingly held on to its community support.
"There is no way you can't be thankful for the community we have here," Trustee Roy Lester said after the vote totals were announced Tuesday night. "It's nice that the community had faith, and that they realize we're doing what we can to save money in these difficult times."
Of the seven polling places in the district, the school budget received its widest support in central Long Beach and in Lido Beach. It won 475-298 at the East Elementary School, 385-248 at Temple Emanu-El and 313-149 at Lido Elementary. It lost 289-213 at West Elementary School and 190-93 in Point Lookout. The budget carried the Lindell School machines by 18 votes, and West Park by eight.
Gallagher finished first at the West School, Lindell, Temple Emanu-El and Point Lookout. Kaleko won at East School and Lido, and Monahan won West Park. Monahan carried the absentee ballots by a three-vote margin over Kaleko.
A last-minute push for the budget's defeat was mounted by a group of residents calling itself the Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Education Solutions, which lobbied the media and voters in the days leading up to the election. An uncomfortable incident at the district's official budget hearing two weeks ago capped the fight, with members of the group and members of the board exchanging charges of number inflating. One of the group's principals, attorney Francis X. McQuade, issued a one-paragraph statement Wednesday morning vowing to continue the fight.
"I am neither persuaded by the marginal plurality of this small sampling, nor dissuaded from continuing work to rein-in the education mafia and their Archie-Jughead-Betty and Veronica cheerleaders," McQuade wrote. "Their sacred cow is going to be quartered at the pyre of taxpayer revolt."
Gallagher said he was willing to put the fight behind him. "If they have good ideas, we'll listen to them," he said. "This district and this board listened to the public, and recognized the need to be as frugal as possible."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
