Bob Transom has been a board member for past three years and a resident of Oceanside for 12. He is the owner of a consulting firm that currently is managing the construction of a General Motors car dealership. He is the father of three young boys and the husband of Betsy, who organizes the ecology programs for the School 9M PTA.
Before serving on the board, he headed up the buildings and grounds committee, a group of community volunteers who inspect the district's facilities. There he found the role he could play in the managing of the district. He realized that his experience in construction could save the district money.
"There's not a district with as much cost-containment," Transom said in a recent interview. He wants the district to be a "smooth-running machine," without debt. By having in-house maintenance crews do much of the repair work, Transom believes the district is better off. He recommends that repairs and capital improvements be included as line items on the yearly budget. "If you bite the bullet upfront, money is saved down the road."
Maryanne Lehrer has been a member of the board since 1977. As a resident since 1968, all three of her now-grown children have been educated in the district. She is looking to continue her role as legislative adviser to the board.
Lehrer has been involved with public education since the early 1960s. She received her bachelor's degree in education from the University of Michigan, a master's in education from Brooklyn College and taught in public schools in Michigan and Massachusetts.
Now, she is an active representative for a number of educational organizations. She continually lobbies local, state and national governmental bodies for appropriate funding for educational programs that will "serve students at all levels of achievement" and "prepare students to meet and exceed the new Regents standards."
Her belief that children of all levels can achieve in public schools if they are provided with the appropriate facilities and resources is a source of motivation for this woman once characterized as the "board hippie." Her dedication to a mission she embarked on over 40 years ago -- to provide all children with an education -- has garnered a number of awards and accolades from peers. Her ideas weren't always popular, but she endured long enough to be a trustee longer than all other current members combined.
H: Two vie for board seat in Island Park
Ann Goldman, a 20-year incumbent, is being challenged by former PTA President Donna Stykes in Island Park's Board of Education election.
Ann Goldman, the long-time incumbent, began as a teacher of Special Education in Island Park's middle and elementary schools 35 years ago. She left that position after two years to raise her three children.
As the mother of a child with Down syndrome, she was asked to act as a parent representative on a committee designed to evaluate the education of disabled children in the district. Later, she was appointed to fill the six-month vacancy left by a school-board member in the second half of 1980. In 1981, she ran to keep her spot on the board and since has run in four consecutive, uncontested elections.
At first, her experience in the classroom and the vested interest she had in the success of a school district that was responsible for the education of at least two of her children (her disabled son had to be educated at a school that specifically addressed his greater needs) were the reasons she wanted to be a part of the school board.
Now, Goldman says, she wants to continue to be part of a board making decisions of significance. For instance, the board's stance on reducing class size is dear to Goldman. By keeping classes small, students, teachers and schools overall will be better able to reach high standards of academic, she said. Raising the bar of achievement for the entire school community is another important item on Goldman's list. This should not be limited to academics, she said, but the new standards for graduation don't provide many alternatives. Comprehensive training also needs to be provided to give students skills to survive, she added, and she doesn't believe it is currently available. "After 13 years of education, I think children should come out with some kind of asset to earn a living."
She is unsure about the effectiveness of the new standards and likens them to requirements rather than measurements of achievement. Although, they are a step in the right direction, she said.
Her experience and her ability to contribute more time than ever before because her children are grown now, is the reason why, she said, Island Park residents should vote for her May 15.
Donna Stykes is looking to replace Goldman because she believes "it's time for parents with school-age children to come forward and be involved in the school board."
As the mother of children ages 11 and 13, who works as legal counsel in Family Court, Stykes sees herself as better qualified to represent the needs of children in the district. "I believe that parents who have children closer to school age are more intimately familiar with the daily educational and social pressures and concerns of our children," she said.
She believes higher standards need to be engendered within the community in order to provide all students with a chance to succeed. "I would encourage people of the community to have high standards of what we can achieve together. Through high standards, we produce good citizens," she said. But she would also like to see the manner in which those standards are met conducted in a different way. Looking at other types of curriculum which will meet the new state-mandated standards, but doesn't teach to the test, is something she is interested in pursuing if elected to the board.
During her 12 years in Island Park, Stykes has served as the vice president for one year and president for two years of the Island Park PTA, from 1999-2000. She was also a member of the site-management team at Francis X. Hegarty Elementary School, part of the committee that raised money for the new playgrounds and involved in getting out the vote that passed a bond to build a new library in 1999.
"I have a sensitivity to children's issues that goes beyond my own family due to my law practice," she said. "I do a lot of work with children. I see a lot of things that affect children, and that experience makes me aware of how to understand other children." That is why, she believes, people should vote for her May 15.
