By STUART KLATZ and KEITH GRANT
A Candidates Forum will be held on Thursday night, May 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Beach Senior Community Center on Magnolia Boulevard.
Frank Alvarado
Long Beach school board candidate Frank Alvarado has three major goals he would like to accomplish if elected. The first is ensuring diverse educational opportunities. Alvarado believes that the achievements of Long Beach students will guarantee the continued growth and enhancement of the region.
Specifically, he would promote the expansion of technology, business training, analytical thinking and research initiatives in middle school and high school electives. Alvarado also wants to expand new and alternative learning method tracks, promote an increased emphasis and expansion of enrichment and vocational programs, and continue the district's good record of aligning the curricula with state educational standards.
The candidate's second goal is to create responsible stewardship of policy and budget. He intends to help make the district less dependent on state aid by finding alternative ways to finance educational goals. These would include promoting more communication of budget matters to the community through a Web site or newsletters, promoting audits of all capital projects, working to achieve a tighter review of all contracting services, and promoting increased refinancing and savings opportunities.
He points to his own achievements in the business field as evidence of how he would be able to make this happen during difficult economic times. Alvarado, a 1988 graduate of Long Beach High School, has a master's degree in business administration and is currently responsible for a billion-dollar real estate budget for the architectural firm of Quartararo & Associates Inc.
Alvarado's third goal is to reinforce morale and civic responsibility. He intends to promote professional development programs for teachers in the area of civic issues and appropriate community services, promote board member attendance in neighborhood and parent group meetings, and create greater student volunteer opportunities within the community.
Norman Alpren
In search of his fifth consecutive term as a trustee, Norman Alpren is one of the most experienced elected officials in the district. He is proud of the record of achievement the board has accumulated during his tenure, and believes experience in educational issues and finances is likely to become more important than ever.
If re-elected, Alpren, president of the Rockville Centre-based MBI Associates Inc., hopes to continue to improve on the district's technology programs. Long Beach, he says, has come further than a lot of districts and now has the opportunity to make the district one of the best in the state. He believes it already is one of the most technologically advanced. He wants to continue to make sure staff development remains one of the top priorities, using the district's own teacher center as one of the main facilities to ensure that the staff stays up to date in all areas, such as special education and technology.
In regard to the economic realities facing New York taxpayers, school officials, he believes, must capitalize on the actions taken by the Legislature that returned a good portion of state aid to districts -- and shook up the whole state budget process. The priority in Albany should now be to fix the way the public pays for education. One of the highest priorities is to keep taxes to the barest minimum increases, he says, without eliminating the programs local officials fought so hard to keep. The school district, he feels, has continuously succeeded at doing that despite the rising demands from the state and decreases in aid being provided by Albany.
Alpren also hopes to continue with the improvements that have recently been made to many of the district's athletic fields. He believes that sports are a vital part of education and open doors for many of the district's children.
Jannine Laskas-Gillespie
Jannine Laskas-Gillespie returns to the ballot three years after a controversial defeat that was determined by absentee ballots. Though this is her first attempt since then to win a seat, she has remained an active participant in the school district.
One issue she is passionate about is the district's dealings with children with disabilities. Laskas-Gillespie believes the district has some excellent special-education teachers on its staff, but with the continuing move toward the "inclusion" of special ed students in the general student population, she believes all of the district's teachers should be trained to work with disabled children. This, she feels, will only enhance the teachers' dealings with all students.
Laskas-Gillespie, a mother of three children in the district, also would like to see the district do a better job of coordinating curricula and textbooks in all of its elementary schools. Not all of the schools, she feels, work at the same level. She also believes there needs to be an improvement in discipline at the middle school and high school.
The candidate hopes to help deal with the district's spending during the difficult economic times taxpayers are facing. She fears that the current proposed budget is more than local residents can afford and may be voted down. She is concerned with the district's inability to put a dollar figure on the possible tax increase to the homeowner, at the same time as asking them to vote on a bond issue for the purchase of 20 new buses.
Her business background with the longtime family-run Laskas flower shop, she believes, gives her the experience to help control district spending, streamline future budgets, and keep tax increases within the limits that residents can afford while maintaining the programs.
Roy Lester
Former board member Roy Lester believes in setting concrete goals for the school district so that both successes and setbacks can be clearly seen, measured and then dealt with.
Lester would like to re-emphasize basic skills so that every child can graduate from high school with the ability to read and write properly. In addition, he endorses the use of computers for more than just games. With more than $5 million spent in the district on purchasing some of the best technology available, Lester wants the schools to make a commitment to using these products in a manner that is relevant to each child's future.
The candidate intends to focus on a re-examination of educational goals. He wants to see some emphasis placed on respect, civics, community service, vocational training and life skills. Budgeting, typing and even basic, but always needed, skills like hammering a nail should become part of the educational curriculum. Schools, he feels, have lost sight of their role in preparing students to succeed in the real world. He believes that there are ways to improve education besides simply raising taxes.
Finally, Lester would like to force the politicians in Albany to reset their priorities. He is concerned about the increasing disparity between the commercial tax rate and the homeowner's rate, and would examine why so many commercial properties in Long Beach pay very low assessments. He believes in resolving this situation to keep taxes from spiraling out of control. Lester also wants the public to keep in mind that it costs more than twice the amount to incarcerate a person as it does to educate one. Education, he said, should take priority.
