At-large voting will help the community

To the Editor:

In the article “At-large voting still on the table” (April 26-May 2), the Herald reported on the East Meadow school board’s decision to ask the community to vote on Tuesday whether or not to change the current election system.

Currently, challengers must decide which incumbents they wish to challenge. This does nothing but protect sitting board members, who can be perceived as difficult to challenge. How so? Because this happened in the last two elections, when one candidate faced a challenger, while the other incumbents ran unopposed.

The community deserves the right to have our board members challenged for their seats each term. I find it admirable that five of the current trustees voted to leave it up to the community to decide on what voting system it prefers. To me, this is the increased accountability Leon Campo and Frank Saracino should have been seeking in their April 12 letter, “Don’t Fall for at-large school board balloting.” The only “agenda” that should be pushed is what is best for the children. If anyone feels differently (even if a member of a political party, community group or clique, as was referenced), it’s up to the public to vote them out.

Another letter to the editor suggesting that at-large voting is “very easily manipulated and dilutes the impact of every voter” is insulting to the community. I also find it surprising that the same authors who suggested that the board was not acting transparently must not know about four current board member who are very engaged in dialogue at all hours on social media community forums to communicate and address concerns. At any given time, thousands of residents know the positions of Scott Eckers, Matt Melnick, Melissa Tell and Alisa Baroukh. Where is the accessibility of the others? Again, where is the accountability and transparency that Campo and Saracino are calling for?

For those who believe if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, East Meadow would still have: half-day kindergarten; crumbling infrastructure; administrators who bullied parents, faculty and children over flawed testing while past (and a few current) board members sat idly by; and a library in desperate need of modernization. Thankfully, our community has passionate new leaders (many with children in the schools) who don’t accept “this is how we’ve always done things.” Change is good when the community members have their say in it. If this wasn’t the historical case, our nation would still have legal inequality, segregated schools and women who weren’t allowed to vote. We owe it ourselves to have a chance to vote for the best candidates. As the saying goes, may the best man or woman win.

Todd Weinstein

East Meadow resident