The nod goes to Ureña in District 30

Posted

Of the three candidates running to fill Carolyn Torres’s seat in District 30, we believe Kelly Ureña is the best choice to meet the needs of the diverse district.
If elected, she said, she would work to enhance the district’s social-emotional and civics curricula, and would like to strengthen its engagement with Valley Stream’s diverse families by surveying and providing them with multilingual correspondence. Additionally, she said she would like to increase the use of technology in district facilities.
Her opponents, Audra Hamlett and Hendrick Colbert, also offered good ideas for the district. Hamlett, a village employee, said that if she were elected, she would strive to keep costs down, which is sorely needed to protect taxpayers struggling with skyrocketing property taxes, particularly in District 30. She also said she would ensure that students who are receiving district services live within its boundaries.
Colbert, meanwhile, said he would focus on ensuring that District 30’s students are “college and career-ready,” and that he wanted to focus on developing STEM curricula.
We believe, however, that of the three, Ureña best understands the community, and would be best suited for the District 30 Board of Education.


$37M budget is worth it
Voters should also approve the school district’s almost $37 million budget for the 2019–20 school year. It maintains all of programs without any major additions, and is $1.6 million larger than the current spending plan, mainly because health care costs are growing and the district needs to meet its contract agreements. Additionally, the tax-levy increase is 0.18 percent — one of the smallest on Long Island.