By JOSEPH KELLARD
Calling her first five-year term "just training," Levitt is running again to maintain or improve on the achievements she said the district has made since she joined the board, particularly in special education. If elected, Speight, a PTA member in Island Park, vows to shed more light on events involving parents and school staff, particularly through the district's Web site.
"I think the Web site is vastly underutilized and should be much more improved," Speight said. She added that announcements for school events should be updated more regularly, information such as the district's finances and the various programs it offers should be more readily accessible to the community, and that the e-mail addresses of teachers and administrators should also be posted.
Spearheading an effort to start a PTA newsletter, Speight believes that improving communications via the Web site would save the district money - for example, by allowing residents to opt to get postal mailings via e-mail instead. If funds are unavailable to hire a person to maintain and update the Web site, Speight said she would look into possibly getting volunteers, either from local businesses or students from the district's computer club.
Speight also believes the district's public relations department could and should be better. "The community needs to feel that their tax dollars are at work," she said of these issues.
Levitt boasted that since she was elected - before which she was on the district's committee on special education - programs for students with special needs "have become 100 percent better." She singled out the Wilson-based reading program the district has implemented for special-ed. students. Levitt said that improvements in this area are difficult for a district like Island Park, in which state mandates for special ed. can be particularly burdensome.
Financially, while Levitt believes the proposed $26.3 million 2005-06 budget, a 6.5 percent increase over the current budget, is "sound and fiscal" and is "where it should be" in striking the proper balance between keeping taxes low and providing good educational programs, Speight said she believes the district could budget better. "For the money we're spending, I think we could get more," she said, adding that the district should direct money toward creating academic competitive teams in science, math and speech. Speight also believes money could be saved if Island Park did a more intensive comparison of its programs and finances and those of other smaller schools districts, such as East Rockaway.
A physics teacher a Hewlett High School, Speight predicts that schools throughout the county would once again have difficulty passing their budgets because of all the "outrageous practices" reported on at the Roslyn school district. "It's a lack of confidence," she said.
Both Levitt and Speight regard reading as the most important educational program. But while Levitt believes the district has stressed reading and done an "excellent" job at it, Speight believes more of an emphasis should be put on the subject.
Levitt points to the fact that students are now learning to read in kindergarten. "They didn't have that when I went to school," she said. The incumbent also stressed the emphasis the district puts on its Academic Intervention Services, a weekend reading program designed to assist "at-risk" students.
Her challenger said that in addition to updating book lists, there need to be more individualized reading programs for every student, that the schools should be giving more reading guidelines or check lists for parents to follow at home, and that these shouldn't be suggested, but expected. "We should let parents know that they should be reading with their children for 20 minutes a day," she said.
Speight has three young children who have either just entered or are about to enter the Island Park public schools, and Levitt has a son who is a sophomore at West Hempstead High School. Last year, the issue of possibly building a high school in Island Park was a hot topic that has since petered out, and rightfully so, according to both candidates.
"In West Hempstead, anything we've asked them to improve, they've improved on," Levitt said. "So at this point, I don't think a high school in Island Park would have been feasible."
Speight concurred, believing the issue died mainly because of financing. "Right now, we're getting a very good price from West Hempstead," she said. "And for us to duplicate the resources, the programs, the facilities at that price would not be possible."
Island Park will hold its board elections and budget vote on May 17.
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