Thursday, October 1, 2026
Prior to Monday’s candidate’s forum, The Herald sat down with school board President Dr. Dennis Ryan and Vice President Patrick Gallagher, as well as newcomer Ari Pine. The two incumbents and the challenger spoke about what they consider to be the most important issues and challenges facing the district. The race comes on the heels of the proposed $118.6 million 2011-12 school budget, which is being touted by the incumbents as a fiscally conservative spending plan that maintains programs and includes no tax levy increase, although Pine said more could have been done to rein in spending. The candidates spoke about the fate of East School, their stand on heterogeneous grouping and pending litigation over a planned football field at the high school.
Do you support the repurposing of East School?
Patrick Gallagher
There’s no decision on East School right now. You can’t move anybody out of the building because the Lido Complex is not completed, Lindell is not completed and West School is not completed. Until these facilities are completed, which is two and a half years from now, you can’t make a decision.
I would think we would have to form a community group—before we make this decision—that would study this in depth.
My suggestion will be that about a year from now, we should form a community committee that includes East School people but also the greater community [to do a report].
Dr. Dennis Ryan
I spoke at the West End Neighbors Civic Association meeting [on April 27] and this was an issue that came up. While the East parents and East community in the Canals want the building kept open, other constituents want to save money. So the West End neighbors said “why are you keeping East School open?” You have to be thoughtful, you have to be deliberate and you have to engage. And ultimately, you have to make a decision. There would have to be a district-wide committee, not just East School parents, but Lido, Lindell and West parents, basically looking at the issues — looking at enrollment, looking at the building, the capability of the building. Looking at class size, looking at cost, looking at the economy, and making a recommendation.
Ari Pine
It’s a moot point. For the next two or three years, they’re doing construction at Lido and the middle school, so they do not have the capacity to take on what would be East School’s population and distribute them across.
I would want to see what the alternatives are, and what the actual savings are. My view of how you find a good answer is to engage the people. My initial feeling is that we need to be fiscally responsible. Why don’t we see what the real enrollment is going to be? Right now, it’s not clear to me that we can afford not to have those classrooms.
What steps are being taken to address the threat of litigation by the Lido Homes Civic Association over a planned football field at the high school, and are school officials working to reach an agreement? What is your position?
Patrick Gallagher
Because they had threatened, our bond counsel said, “time out, stop” and we had to hold up the sale of about $62 million in bonds. What we did is we changed bond counsel. The new bond counsel, which [the board] approved, said that we could go ahead and sell [the bonds] because they wrote a letter that said that this was not a threat to bond responsibility.
But with that said … we’re not at the closure of this issue right now. Did they threaten a lawsuit? Yes. Did that affect the bond rating? Yes. Did we do something to address that? Yes. Is that still pending? Yes.
Dr. Dennis Ryan
The bond passed, the community voted for it overwhelmingly. I have to say that central administration –and the board too — we’ve tried to be patient in making concessions. But we want to listen to the community, but ultimately, we want the kids to have a facility that is beneficial for them and useful.
It’s been very quiet. I asked [central administration last week] what’s up with Lido Civic Association? I haven’t received anything from them. I’m leaving that in the hands of the business office, and hopefully it’ll resolve itself.
Ari Pine
The administration and the board made a very reasonable argument that they publicized it. On the other hand, the people of Lido are trying to do what they think is right. I don’t have a strong position on whether or not this is the right plan. I don’t live in the area. I understand what the concern is. They both have good points.
Some parents recently told the board the heterogeneous sixth-grade model at the middle school does not challenge all students. Do you or do you not support heterogeneous grouping?
Patrick Gallagher
My position with what [Ari Pine] is saying is yes, we have to be very careful. Maybe going to the seventh grade next year is too quick. Maybe we should slow it down. I’m being very cautious about it. I want to hear what’s happening and make a responsible decision. We have not rushed on any of the issues. The decision on the sixth grade took three years to make.
Dr. Dennis Ryan
I do think, in any classroom regardless of whether it calls itself heterogeneous or homogeneous, you’re going to have a grade range of ability of four to five years there in terms of talent.
For example, in a fifth-grade class, you’re going to have a range of maybe from third to eighth grade levels of ability in that one class. You’re going to have some kids reading or doing math on the third and have others doing eighth. You’re going to have the same variation in an honors math class.
You’re going to have a kid who can be Einstein, and a kid who is going to have to struggle, but gets it. I think every class, regardless of what it calls itself, is a heterogeneous setting. I do support heterogeneous. [At Monday’s Candidate’s Forum, Ryan said that the issue needs further discussion].
Ari Pine
We want a rigorous classroom. The administration has said that we need to demand more from students. This doesn’t sound like it’s demanding more from students. I feel that the bar has been lowered.
We don’t have the results for how the kids are doing [for the sixth grade]. We want to see the results. What the administration is doing is pushing through this seventh-grade heterogeneous classroom.
I’m in favor of self-select [in which students have the option to choose courses] with commitment. It’s not enough to self-select —you have to get it done. So how about providing infrastructure so that we’re not setting up kids for failure? I don’t see it in place.
What do you think are the most important issues in the district at the moment?
Patrick Gallagher
The biggest issue that is ongoing is the financial issue. When you lose $3 million in state aid, that’s a big chunk of money. So how do you fiscally manage a school district going forward, when you’re losing millions of dollars in state aid and maintain the same programs you’ve been maintaining?
I think the answer on the short term is that we’ve been able to manage it rather well. The answer on the long term is that there’s going to be some tough decisions to be made.
We recognized early on that the other key to the whole issue besides being intelligent about how we spent the money was also where are we getting the money from? Between Island Park and the Autistic Spectrum Program, we’re bringing in quite a bit of money. [Of the proposed budget] We were fiscally conservative, we went ahead and brought in alternative sources of revenue, and we produced programs that are providing revenue for the school district.
Dr. Dennis Ryan
In a nutshell, it’s instruction, it’s the bond [a $92.7 million school preservation plan funded by a bond was approved by voters in 2009], it’s East School, it’s the superintendent search. Finance is big. We’ve been trying to take a long-term perspective in terms of budget, finance and we seem to be in good shape. That’s an issue that hopefully will get better and not worse. I still believe that our primary mission should be instruction because that’s why people send their kids to schools.
Ari Pine
I have a lot of issues with the budget. For the 2008-09 school year, it cost $19,000 to educate a child in Long Beach. It’s $29,000 now. Why has that moved so aggressively? The other issue is healthcare benefits. Why are we paying one-third more for our healthcare costs than Oceanside, which is twice
as big?
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