Voting for trustees, school and library budgets, May 21

The Hewlett-Woodmere school district and Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library will see some new and returning faces as voting on budgets and trustees is on May 21.

Incumbent Board of Education Trustees Francois Tenenbaum and Judy Menahse are running for re-election, and Meredith King is a first-time trustee candidate. Michele Chalkin is running for the library board.

All are unopposed. The school board is a three-year term. The library board is a five-year term.

Tenenbaum has two sons in the district, one at Hewlett Elementary School and one at Woodmere Middle School. If elected, this would be Tenenbaum’s second full term.

He currently serves on the communications, curriculum assessment and technology and legislative board committees, the New York State School Boards Association, Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association and Public/Private Schools Council committee and as an alternate on the audit committee for Debra Sheinin, an alternate on the policy committee for Sheinin and Cheryl May and the HW 2025 committee, which he will most likely continue with all of he said.

“How do we keep a top-performing district at the top while keeping the budget in check in a fast-changing community?” Tenenbaum wrote in an email. “We are blessed to have a very supportive community; however we should not take any of it for granted.”

Menashe is completing her sixth year as a trustee. She began in 2018. Her sons graduated from the district in 2016 and 2022. She currently serves on the communications, curriculum assessment and technology, extra-curricular activities, co-curricular activities, policy, special education, PTA Central Council and endowment fund committees and as an alternate on the interscholastic athletics committee.

As a former president of Special Education PTA, Menashe is keeping special education a priority.

“I just always want to make sure that our special education population always gets everything that they need,” she said.

Menashe said she would prioritize challenging all students in the district, pushing them to be their best and advocate for the needed resources..

King, a mother to children at Hewlett High School, Hewlett Elementary School and the Franklin Early Childhood Center aims to focus on extra-curricular and co-curricular activities along with interscholastic athletics. King is director of the Hewlett Police Athletic League and has served on the PTA Curriculum Committee.

“My educational background is in communications and my professional experience was running operations at a variety of large companies at the senior executive level,” King wrote in an email. “My goal would be to offer the community whatever expertise I have in these areas.”

Chalkin has been using the HWPL since 1997 with her two children.

“We lived at the library, we’re a family of readers,” she said.

Chalkin said she’d like to continue making the library accessible to local families.

“I thought it was just great opportunity to do something for the community,” Chalkin added.

The proposed budget is over $138 million for the 2024-2025 school year, a roughly 3 percent increase to be voted on. Transportation costs will increase over 15 percent, and administrative and district wide services over five percent.

The HWPL proposed budget is roughly $6.9 million increasing nearly $233,000 from the current budget. General operations and personnel expenditures will increase over $115,000.

The library’s programming for the remainder of 2024 includes a summer reading program, with the first Summer Reading Club for adults starting this year, monthly programming for neurodiverse individuals, fall programming for seniors. More is planned for 2025.

Voting is May 21 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Woodmere Education Center, 1 Johnson Place in Woodmere.

The Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library proposed budget is  roughly $6.9 million, increasing nearly $233,000 from the current budget. A story in our May 9 edition of the Nassau Herald provided an incorrect number.