W.H. resident to challenge school board trustees

For the last five years, William Signorile has attended almost every single monthly meeting of the West Hempstead Board of Education. In that time, the single father of two teens has seen what he described as a “flawed system” that lacks productivity.

“Part of the problem I’ve seen so far — and I say this with respect to the people that are there — the board over the last 10 or 15 years hasn’t been savvy in protecting the level of education for the community,” Signorile told the Herald, adding that he believes it’s time to unseat some of the long-standing board members. And so, he has decided to run in May for one of the three seats that will be available.

Signorile, who has lived in West Hempstead for about 10 years, has three primary gripes with the current board; He believes it is not addressing the district’s failure to achieve a level of excellence in education, uses the students as a shield when it demands more money in the budgets it approves every year and poorly handles the teachers’ union and its contract. Signorile fears that within the next two years, the district will go into debt and work with contingency budgets. “We’re in trouble,” he said. “Monies are not distributed properly, we’ve got a lot of situations. … I’m worried. I’m beyond worried.”

District administrators and a number of school board members were unavailable for comment as of press time.

What the district needs is more Advanced Placement classes, less spending and tougher negotiations with the West Hempstead Education Association, according to Signorile, who is a retired New York City firefighter and Wall Street hedge fund manager. He takes issue with three board members — Pamela Lotito, James Mariano and Carol Rilling — who worked as educators or have close relatives who work as educators, calling it a conflict of interest.

The Herald was unable to verify Mariano’s and Rilling’s relationships with educators as of press time.

Signorile came down hard on WHEA President Barbara Hafner and her push for salary increases during the last contract negotiation — which took about two years to settle. Although Hafner agreed to forgo annual step increases for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 fiscal years, she demanded salary increases of about 2 percent in 2011-12 and 1.75 percent in 2012-13. That wasn’t enough for Signorile, who wants a school board that will freeze salaries or even make cuts.

“I’m pro-teacher, I’m pro-union,” Signorile said, “but when a city teacher in New York makes [$10,000] or $15,000 less a year than our teachers — [the board is] giving more and more to the employees, what about the kids?”

Signorile has never sat on a school board, but doesn’t consider that an impediment, considering his financial background, several other qualifications and, most important, his message — one to which he believes others in the school community relate.

“The board says yes or no to the contract,” Signorile said. “I think it’s time to say no to a lot of things and I think it’s time to say ‘more for the kids.’ I want to see some teachers brought back, I want to see more AP classes, I want to see workshops for the children who are [struggling]. … I think it’s time to clean house.”

Signorile believes he should be on the board to help accomplish those goals. “I have no choice” but to run, he said, adding that he will file the necessarily paperwork in the coming weeks.

Mariano and Rilling, who have both been on the board since 1994, are up for re-election. There will also be a third seat available, one currently occupied by Vincent Trocchia, who the board appointed on Sept. 20 to fill the remainder of the year. Former board trustee Tony Brita resigned from that seat on June 30, a year and a half into his three-year term. Whomever is elected to Trocchia’s seat will only serve one year before the seat is up for grabs again. It is unclear at this time whether any of the three trustees will run again in the spring. Election day is May 15.