By MIKE CAPUTO
Resident Fred Usherson has filed a petition, and will join incumbents Howard Weinick and Teena Ditchek-Korman on the ballot for the district's school board elections on May 20. The District 14 elections are at-large, and the top two vote-getters will win seats on the board.
Usherson, who has lived in the district since 1999, is running in a school board election for the first time. With a background in education, the challenger said he hopes to utilize his experience and skills to bring change to the district. "I think we have great schools," Usherson said. "I'm running because I know I can make it better."
Weinick, District 14's current school board president, is vying for a sixth term, while Ditchek-Korman seeks re-election to a third term. She was first elected in 2002 after a hotly contested race that featured five candidates competing for two open seats. Both Ditchek-Korman and Weinick won convincingly, with Ditchek-Korman garnering the most votes, with 3,130.
Both ran unopposed when they were last re-elected in 2005.
Weinick has served on the Hewlett-Woodmere school board since 1993, and has been its president since 2004. "The Board of Education is comprised of seven different individuals working as a team," he said. "I am very proud to help guide that team. I am running for another term so we can continue to support the four A's of a Hewlett-Woodmere education: academics, the arts, activities and athletics."
Weinick, a retired technology teacher, has stayed active as a part-time librarian in the Bronx. He lives in Woodmere.
Ditchek-Korman, a longtime advocate for the Hewlett-Woodmere schools, is also the publicity chairwoman of the Woodmere Middle School Parent-Teacher Association and a board member of the Hewlett-Woodmere Alumni Association. "I serve our students and community with commitment, diligence and passion that comes from having been born in this district more than 50 years ago," she said. "As an active resident, alumna of Hewlett-Woodmere, parent of a child in our schools and another who graduated, I attended almost every meeting of the Board of Education for several years and participated on committees even before becoming a board member."
Ditchek-Korman lives in the District 14 portion of Valley Stream.
