by Mike Schnitzel
Outgoing board President Dr. Frank Chiachiere said that Iadevaio brings a breadth of experience to the office. ³I view [Iadevaio and fellow board member Bill Stris] as the archivists of the history of our school board,² Chiachiere said. ³Tony has a razor-sharp mind and has a good, strong, powerful command of school board issues. He¹s very focused and organized, and I look forward to his leadership.²
One of the major goals Iadevaio has set for this year is to improve scoring on newly implemented state tests throughout the district. ³Now that we have an [administrative] team in place, I¹d like to see the educational goals the board has set move forward,² he said. ³I¹d like to see Memorial [Junior High School] improve its scores to get back to the level it was at a few years ago, when it won an award as a school of excellence.²
According to Superintendent Dr. Marc Bernstein, the district¹s administration has turned its focus toward improving classroom instruction in order to achieve that goal. ³Over the past three years we have accomplished much in the areas of efficiency, good budgets and operating procedures,² Bernstein said. ³We have now turned our attention to classroom instruction. That has been, nationally, one of the most difficult things to turn around.²
Iadevaio said that with the staff that has been hired over the past several years and the administrative abilities of the district¹s principals, he believes that the district can achieve higher test scores. He also hopes to put in place a system that will track the progress of the district¹s graduates during their college years. ³We would like to have some data on whether or not the students finish four years of college, go on to higher degrees, that type of data,² he said.
As board president, Iadevaio explained, his main role is to be the board¹s spokesman. ³I¹m one of only nine votes,² he said. ³I want to make sure that everyone on the board is heard and that they have enough information in advance to make a decision on upcoming issues. Every member of the board is like a president, and their ideas will be heard.²
Martha Carney, the district¹s public information officer, said Iadevaio began his school board service by winning election to the District 24 board in 1980, where, over the past 26 years, he has been elected to three terms as president ‹ in 1987-88, 1994-95 and 2000-01. He has also taken an active role on the Joint Boards Negotiating Committees for teacher, secretarial and custodial contracts. A long-time member of the board¹s business committee, he devoted countless hours to planning and overseeing the projects included in the high school district¹s $37 million bond issue, which passed in October 1998.
Iadevaio was honored for his service to the schools with the SCOPE Award for excellence in school board service at a ceremony in March 2000.
A 42-year resident of Valley Stream, he has been active in community affairs, serving as the village¹s park commissioner from 1976 to 1982 and developing numerous youth and senior citizen programs. He was a member of the village¹s 50th Anniversary Committee and has sat on the Architectural Review Board and the Traffic Advisory Board. He is an officer in the New York Elks Lodge No. 1, said Carney.
According to Bernstein, it is this community involvement that makes Iadevaio a good choice for board president. ³He has impressed me very much with his knowledge of the Valley Stream community,² Bernstein said. ³He knows the people, the neighborhoods and the culture of the community.²
Iadevaio has volunteered with many youth organizations, serving for 15 years in the 1980s and 1990s as coach and manager of the Veterans of Foreign Wars youth baseball team and co-president of the youth activities program for VFW Post 1790. For four year he headed the Valley Stream Mail Baseball League, an umbrella organization of community baseball teams for children ages 5 to 15. In 2003, he was honored with the Mail League¹s Man of the Year Award for his ³untiring efforts on behalf of the children in the league.²
Despite his many years of service, Iadevaio has no plans to retire from the school board. Among the things he would like to see accomplished before he leaves the board is the air conditioning of the Keller Auditorium at Central High School.
³I still have the drive,² he said. ³I haven¹t gotten to the point where it¹s become a hassle, and when that happens I¹ll pack it in. Until then I think we have a darn good program, and we¹re putting things in place.²
According to Carney, Iadevaio enjoyed a long career as northeast accounts manager for a major pharmaceutical company. He has a degree in biology from St. John¹s University and earned credits toward a teaching certification in secondary school science from Hunter College. He and his wife, Ann, a past president of the Central/Memorial PTSA, have three grown daughters and a son, all graduates of Central High.
The nine-member high school district board is composed of three members from each of the three elementary district boards ‹ 13, 24 and 30 ‹ all of whom are volunteers. Walter A. Nesbeth III, from District 30, was elected vice president. Other members for 2006-07 include Chiachiere, Paul DePace, Jeanne Greco Jacobs, Stris, Lawrence Trogel and Andrew J. Walters. New to the board this year is Kenneth Cummings, who assumes the seat vacated by Dr. Maria Fletcher.
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
