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Candidates announced in local school board elections

Local school districts announced the names of candidates for Board of Education races after the deadline to file a petition passed Monday evening.

MATTITUCK-CUTCHOGUE

Two seats are up for grabs in the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education this year.

Jennifer Anderson and George Haase, both incumbents, filed petitions to seek re-election along with newcomer Jacqueline Zappulla.

Mr. Haase received the most votes in the 2019 election (712) to fill a vacated seat on the board and Ms. Anderson was elected to the board with 644 votes.  

At a Board of Education meeting April 14, the board adopted the proposed 2022-2023 school budget in the amount of $42.8 million.

Under the budget, spending would increase 1.45% to about $42.8 million. The tax levy, the amount of money raised through taxes, would increase by 1.84% to about $38.7 million and stay under the state-imposed tax cap of 2%.

The district has also proposed a new capital reserve fund capped at $10 million that will go before voters next month.

If approved, the new capital reserve would come after voters approved the expenditure of $4.2 million from the 2018 capital reserve fund, which is currently capped at $6 million.

Those funds would go to the renovation of the STEM wing at Mattituck Jr/Sr High School, costing $3.4 million, Superintendent Shawn Petretti said. The other $800,000 leftover would be directed toward the recoating of the Cutchogue East roof, if approved by voters.

There would be a 10-year term to fund the proposed 2022 capital reserve plan and it would initially be funded by a transfer of $2 million the district has in its repair reserves.

GREENPORT

Three petitions were filed for two open seats on the five-member Greenport Board of Education, district officials said.

The petitions received Monday were from Babette Cornine, Emily Latham Whitecavage and Jaime Martilotta. Ms. Cornine previously served on the board from 2012 to 2021 and came up short in a re-election bid last year.

Neither incumbent board members — Kimberly Moore Swann and Sandra Martocchia — filed petitions to run in this year’s race. They ran uncontested in 2019 and their terms will expire at the end of June.

Voters in Greenport will also be asked to vote on a proposed $21.6 million budget on Tuesday that would increase spending by 5.75%.

Under the proposal, the tax levy would increase 3.11%, the maximum amount it could without forcing the district to pierce the tax cap, which requires two-thirds voter approval.

Most of the spending increase is being driven by cost hikes in special education, repairs, debt service and health insurance, according to school business official Philip Kenter.

SOUTHOLD

The only candidate on the ballot for Southold’s school board this year is current vice president Judi Fouchet, who has served on the board since 2004. She will run unopposed.

At a special budget meeting April 13, the Southold Board of Education adopted a $32.2 million spending plan that carries a 1.71% increase to the tax levy.

OYSTERPONDS

Four candidates will run at large for three open seats on the Board of Education. Three incumbents, including current board president Thomas Stevenson and current members Miriam Foster and Dorothy Dean Thomas filed petitions along with Erin Stanton.

The district has proposed a $5.6 million budget for voters to consider next month along with a proposition to use $330,000 from capital reserves to remove and replace an existing basketball court with one of high school size, install backboards and posts and striping for the basketball court, remove roots from, patch, repave and restripe the tennis court, extend and repair the west parking lot and roadway to the parking lot, and install new sidewalks in front of and on the side of the school building.

A third proposition on the ballot will ask voters to consider extending the term for the capital reserve fund, which was established in 2014, by another ten years.

Officials in the New Suffolk School District did not immediately respond to a request for information on the school’s upcoming election.

School board elections and budget votes are scheduled for Tuesday, May 17.

WITH STEVE WICK & BRIANNE LEDDA