By Andrew Coen
With less than a month before the local school board elections are decided, one thing became clear after Monday's filing deadline which is the Lawrence school board will have two new faces and a new leadership. Incumbent district 15 trustees Frank Parise, the school board's president and Kathy Raquet, vice president, have decided not to seek new terms ending a run of six years for both.
Four candidates filed petitions before the Monday April 17 5 p.m. deadline to fill the spots being vacated by Raquet and Parise. Fighting to replace Parise's seat will be Inwood resident Tom Rizzo and Uri Kaufman of Lawrence, with Raquet's spot being battled out by Michael Brooks and Michael Hatten, both of Cedarhurst.
In neighboring Hewlett-Woodmere, the three incumbent trustees up for re-election Marcy Goldberg, Jill Stern and Steve Witt all filed for re-election and will be challenged by Hewlett resident Dr. Cliff Breyer on the May 16 election, where the top three vote-getters receive spots on the board.
Parise, who served as school board president from 2002 to 2004 and again from July 2005 to the present, said he will not seek a new three-year term since in a year he will move up the ranks in the Inwood Fire Department from assistant chief to chief and handling both jobs would be too difficult. Despite being a trustee under difficult circumstances, which has included three straight budget defeats, Parise said he has no regrets for volunteering his time to the district. "A lot of people tell you it's a thankless job but I never felt that way," said Parise. "It was an honor for me to serve."
Hatten, a councilmember with the New York State Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision, has children that attend Yeshiva Toras Chaim of South Shore in Hewlett and the Torah Academy for Girls in Far Rockaway. Rizzo, a village inspector in Lawrence, has a son who graduated from the Lawrence Public Schools and a daughter who attends Lawrence High School.
Brooks, a developer and builder, has a son and daughter who graduated Lawrence High School and a son who is a freshman. Kaufman, a real-estate developer, has young children that attend the local Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns.
Unlike Lawrence, which will feature two contested races, in Hewlett-Woodmere all four candidates will be in one pool with the top three vote-getters gaining spots on the board. Witt, Goldberg and Stern all swept onto the school board three years ago defeating the incumbent trustees at the time Robert Jay, Elyse Coleman and Stephanie Gallo.
Witt, who has served as Vice President of Citibank and first vice president of JP Morgan, was also a Hewlett-Woodmere trustee from 1984 to 1996. The incumbent trustee, who is also a member of the Nassau County Board of Cooperative Education Services School Board and New York State School Board re-election Association, volunteers as a coach with the Hewlett High School football, boys basketball and lacrosse teams. Before winning seats on the district 14 board in 2003, Stern and Goldberg served together as co-PTA presidents with the Hewlett-Woodmere Central Council PTA.
Dr. Breyer has taken active role in following the Hewlett-Woodmere schools by attending nearly every school board meeting and volunteering as a chaperon on some district sponsored field trips. Breyer also helped establish the Katrina Family Support Fund last September, which helped bring two families affected by last year's devastating hurricane that ravaged the gulf coast into the Hewlett-Woodmere school district.
Meet the Candidate Nights is scheduled in Hewlett-Woodmere on May 8 at the Woodmere Education Center and for district 15 on May 1 at the Lawrence Middle School Cafeteria.
Comments about this story? acoen@liherald.com or 516-569-4000 ext. 210.
