Three to run for Rockville Centre school board, two for library

Three residents of the Rockville Centre school district have announced their intention to run for the two open seats on the Board of Education. They returned completed nominating petitions to the district clerk on Monday — which was the deadline for filing.

Two incumbent candidates, Charles Kelleher and April Wexler, will also seek election to the Rockville Centre Public Library's Board of Trustees in an uncontested election.

The candidates for the school board are David Meoli, John O’Shea and Gregg Spaulding.

Meoli, 54, an elementary school principal in Port Washington, has a son who is a junior at South Side High School and a daughter in 10th grade.

O'Shea, 50, a landscape contractor, has four children in the Rockville Centre school district — two at Riverside Elementary School and two at South Side Middle School. He is co-president of the Riverside PTA.

Spaulding, 48, is a fire communications technician for Nassau County and the co-president of the Covert Elementary School PTA. He has two children there, and two at South Side Middle School.

In the "at large" election which will be held at the same time the public votes on the district's proposed 2010-11 spending plan — May 18 — the two school board candidates with the highest number of votes will take seats as trustees of the Rockville Centre Board of Education.

The candidate who receives the second highest vote tally will be sworn in immediately to fill the term vacated by Kathy Horace, which runs through June 30, 2011. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes will be sworn in on July 1, 2010 for a full three-year term as a trustee.

David Meoli

Dr. David Meoli is a parent and professional educator who has lived in Rockville Centre for over 20 years. He holds degrees from Duke University, St. John’s University and Western Connecticut State University and has taught and served as an administrator at the elementary, middle and high school levels for over 30 years. Meoli is a longstanding member of the St. Agnes Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, and recently wrote a choral work that was premiered at the cathedral. He is an avid runner who can often be seen huffing about town, and has participated in the RVC 10K and the Long Island Marathon.

In the past two months, Meoli has presented workshops on Digital Portfolios at the ASCD (International Education) Conference and, more locally, on Web 2.0 tools for teachers, differentiation of instruction, arts integration and curriculum mapping. Meoli will be offering several workshops at the Curriculum Mapping Institute this summer. His doctoral dissertation was on the topic of school climate.

Meoli believes that a strong public education system is the cornerstone of a free society and that nothing you ever do for a child is wasted. He has worked tirelessly to see that public education serves all students in the schools where he has been employed, and hopes to serve on the Rockville Centre Board of Education to continue this work at home.

John O'Shea

John O’Shea is a lifelong resident of Rockville Centre. After graduating from high school, he participated in a National Park Service student work program in Utah. In 1982, after attending Nassau Community College and Farmingdale State University, O'Shea started his own landscape design and maintenance company. He owns and operates that company today and employs three full-time workers and several seasonal workers, giving him firsthand knowledge of what it takes to run a business and more importantly, of how to watch the bottom line.