Endorsement

Support Malverne school budget

Posted

Malverne’s proposed $57 million spending plan has a tax-levy increase of 2.75 percent and raises spending just 2.92 percent, which is below the district’s average year-to-year increase. In addition, the funding for more than half of the items in the budget is decreasing.
The district hopes to build on its science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, program, as well as Project Lead the Way. With short-, mid- and long-term goals in mind for both programs, district officials are confident that this budget will help support those initiatives, and we encourage voters to approve it.

Avvinti for board trustee
One seat on the Malverne Board of Education is up for election, because it is being vacated by Trustee Marguerite O’Connor.

The Herald endorses Laura Avvinti, a 16-year resident of the district, a preschool teacher’s assistant at Grace Playschool in Lynbrook and a longtime volunteer. Married with two children, Avvinti has been active in the middle school and high school PTAs for a decade, and in the Girl Scouts for six years.
We also liked newcomer Martine Santos, the director of English Language Learner programs in New York City’s Department of Education. She is involved in both the community and the school district, in positions that include religious education teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Church and PTA member of the Malverne School District. She is married and has six children, four of whom are students in the district.
We’d like to see Santos run again in the future. With her background in school administration, we believe she has a great deal to offer, but we support Avvinti, in the belief that her experience in the district makes her the best candidate.