By KIMBERLY ACEVEDO
School board trustee Roy Lester lost his bid for a second term, ending up third in the six-person field.
Three hours after the polls closed, Long Beach school officials announced the unofficial results for school district and library elections to the candidates and supporters gathered at the district administrative offices in Lido.
In the school board election, the top contender was Gallagher, who won with 1,923 votes. Nearly two-thirds of all voters-who could cast votes for two of the six candidates-pulled a tab for Gallagher.
Kaleko earned a three-peat performance, hanging onto the second seat with 1,456 votes. Lester finished behind Kaleko with 1,219 votes, not enough to retain his seat on the board. Challenger Lynn Gergen finished with 685 votes, Michael Robinson got 667 votes and Joe Sinnona received 486 votes.
Snyder, who ran uncontested for his seat on the Library Board, received 2,164 votes.
The school budget passed with 1,720 to 970 votes. The new budget is four percent greater than the current one, creating an expected 6.87 percent increase in the tax levy. The library budget, with a 3.6 percent increase, passed 1,802 to 908.
School officials said the tallies for the trustees did not include 118 absentee votes. The absentee ballots will be tallied, but their outcome will not change the standings in the results. But the absentee ballots were counted in the school and library budget results, and the supervised nursing home ballots were also included, district clerk Eileen Lilly said as she read the results.
After learning the results, Kaleko said, "While I'm on this board, I want to do what's best for every student in Long Beach." She said it's necessary to give all students the services that they need and wants to make every school in Long Beach the best in Nassau County.
"I worked very hard to win," she said. "It wasn't easy because there were so many candidates." But she said that she is very happy to be back.
As for Gallagher, he was happy with his unofficial results.
"We were organized, focused and we had a real specific agenda," he said. "The message we tried to send district-wide was an educational plan that worked for everybody with different partnerships involved."
He felt that's what the people wanted. But he said his immediate plans call for a meeting with the Board of Education and the superintendent in an attempt to implement a positive school climate plan in the high school. Gallagher said he wants to have accelerated special education included within the secondary schools.
"That's what I ran on," he said. "I am going to fight, but in harmony with the board. I am here to see what's going on and learn, but we have to move our schools to a higher level."
Lester offered the board and Gallagher some friendly advice. He feels the board should keep going in the same direction it's been in-putting the kids first.
"Just work as a team," he said. "Working together is tough but it's really important."
Lester said he holds no animosity towards Gallagher, but said that he is really going to miss serving. "My time on the board was a lot of fun and productive," he said. "We didn't always agree. The bartering was always friendly and the arguments never got personal."
Superintendent Ron Friedman welcomed the new trustee to the board and said, "I am confident that the board will continue to be child centered, responsible, and dignified in its leadership."
