School Board Candidates Answer to Constituents

Finances, curriculum and communications. 

Three of four candidates vying for a single seat on the Long Beach Board of Education participated in a candidates forum Monday, when these issues emerged as top priorities they vow to address, if elected in the at-large election May 21. 

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Board President Roy Lester and first-time candidates Matthew Adler and Elizabeth Treston stated their positions on various issue in answer to written questions submitted by constituents at the forum, hosted by the Long Beach Central Council PTA, as well as during opening and closing statements. 

Lester, an attorney seeking a fourth term on the board, made it known that he’s running on what he believes are the district’s achievements, including its fiscal management. A math teacher at Seaford High School, Adler emphasized throughout the forum the importance of a strong curriculum. Treston, a project director for 10 years at TRAID, a state grant program that offers technology for people with disabilities, reiterated the need for better communications between the district and parents to improve schools. A fourth candidate, newcomer Jes Bellsey, a trade show and special projects coordinator, was away on a business trip and unable to attend the forum at Long Beach Library. 
 
During opening statements, Lester noted that the district was still able to produce a $123 million budget for 2013-14 that represents just a 1.3 percent tax increase above the current spending plan, despite a $4.5 million budgetary increase health care and pension costs and the heavy damages it sustained in Hurricane Sandy.

“To my knowledge, the lowest on Long Island," said Lester of the tax rate, "and all while not cutting programs for students."

Adler opened with a statement about the need for teachers to receive better training for new curriculum shifts and state mandates. When Sarah Henris, the forum’s moderator from Nassau Region PTA, asked the candidates how they think the district should address state mandated common core standards for teachers and students, Adler said: “Teachers shouldn’t be teaching to the exam, they should be teaching to the curriculum. If they teach to the curriculum, the kids will do fine on the exams.” 

When Treston introduced herself and her platform, she said there is a disconnect between the board and the community, and that the community needs to ask questions and have them answered. 

“Why is our pupil population been decreasing over the years,” Treson asked, suggesting the board has left this question unanswered and that she, if elected, will help answer. “Why does a high school kid not feel safe in our cafeteria during lunch?”

When the candidates were asked what they would do to improve Long Beach Schools, Treston said that improvements would come with better communication. “Better communication from the bottom up and better communication from the top down,” said Treston, who later asserted that the community needs her on the board in order to fight for open, honest and sometimes brutal discussions. 

During his reply to the question, Adler returned to his theme of focusing on curriculum and teaching. “That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “I would reinvest in teacher training, making sure our teachers are trained properly for the new curriculums, for the new shifts. How to teach effectively and efficiently to the new learners coming up to the new topics, to the new technology. That would be a big step forward.”

Lester said that he would like to see the school board “continue on the course that we’re on. A fiscally conservative course where we are trying to get our school district one of the best in the nation.” Lester noted that the Washington Post recently rated Long Beach one of the top school districts in the state on their advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses. “We have to keep trying to improve our schools while at the same time being very aware of the costs of the improvements,” he added. 

In addition to these broader questions, audience members asked about the fate of East School, post-Hurricane Sandy environmental concerns at the high school sports fields, parents opting their children out of taking standardized tests, and program cuts in case of a budget shortfall. 

When asked about the biggest issue facing Long Beach schools, though, the candidates agreed on the importance of financial and tax issues. 

Lester express concern about the direction the City of Long Beach is headed after Hurricane Sandy. “I’m not that optimistic about the tax base in Long Beach right now,” he said. Lester said he is “pretty affraid” that if the city doesn’t receive 100 percent reimbursement for rebuilding the boardwalk at $44 million, that could amount to an $11 million bill “which would raise the taxes considerably in the city. You cannot divorce the city taxes from the school taxes because it is often the same people that are paying them."

Treston agreed with Lester. “Finances are definitely the biggest concern after Sandy,” she said. “ … If taxes increase, that’s a major fear.”

But while Adler agreed that taxes and finances “are an issue,” he still believes the new curriculum and training teachers are the biggest issue facing the district. “Are we going to be able to go forward to educate our students for the future ahead? … The jobs that are coming down the road, are we going to be able to handle them and educate them [students] for those jobs?” 

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