Veronica Levitan said she decided to challenge Mineola School Board incumbents Terrence and William Hornberger because she has been following the district school consolidation proposals from the start, and now sees an opportunity to help contribute.

“I’ve been following this since the very first surveys on school consolidation went out years ago,” Levitan said. “I think I would make a good contribution to the board we have now.”

Levitan said she believes the district has been “torn apart” by the consolidation process, and wants to help bring the community back together.

“I understand what the board has done in dealing with our current economic situation,” Levitan said. “They have had to make some difficult decisions, and I credit them with moving the community forward.” I do think there needs to be more of a focus on the educational and financials of the plan.”

The district’s proposed lease of the Cross Street School in Williston Park to Solomon Schechter Day School of Glen Cove as part of the consolidation process has touched off a heated controversy in Williston Park where residents have raised questions about traffic, safety and use of the school’s ball fields. In response, the Mineola School District recently hired a consultant to study the lease’s impact on traffic.

Levitan is joined in challenging the two incumbents by Gerald Magaldi, an executive with Signature Bank from Albertson, and Jospeh Manopella, a Franklin Hospital executive from Williston Park.

Levitan has been a school teacher in the New York City public school district for the last 14 years. She has a teachers certificate and a professional diploma in administration and supervision.

She is on child care leave, and tutors at the Long Island Conservatory of Music.

Levitan said her children were also another reason for her entering the election, since they will be going into the district’s middle schools in a few years. Levitan’s two children, Jake and Samuel, attend the Willis Avenue and Meadow Drive schools.

As the Mineola school district prepares to vote on its $84 million budget next month, it will also include the first phase of the school consolidation plan, which includes a $2.6 million commitment to upgrade the Hampton Street School. The consolidation plan has become one of the main focal points of the election.

The Mineola District Council of PTAs will present a “Meet the Candidate Night” on Monday, May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Mineola High School auditorium.

The Mineola Village Board trimmed an additional $19,200 from the 2011-12 budget before unanimously approving a $18.5 million plan at its April 20 meeting that increases spending 3.5 percent over this year.

Most of the savings were realized by changing insurance carriers and included a $4,200 reduction in life insurance coverage and a $13,000 reduction in dental insurance coverage for municipal employees.

Village Treasurer Giacomo Ciccone also said that the village’s share of sales tax revenue from the county was reduced slightly from $53,487 to $52,234 based on final figures issued by the county administration.

“It pains me to say we have to increase the budget. We can’t print money,” said Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss.

Strauss said the village board would have been able to craft “a legitimate zero tax increase” without the state-mandated pension and insurance increases factored into next year’s budget.

“It does hurt to say we’re increasing taxes. But it could be so much worse,” Strauss said after the meeting.

He said that the average residential tax bill in Mineola is $1,400 this year.

“We’re not cutting services,” said Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira. “It is the reality and we’re trying to prepare ourselves for next year.”

Pereira called the budget a “responsible” one.

Trustee Lawrence Werther described the budget as “fair and balanced,” but dismissed the county sales tax return from the county as “an insult.”

Werther said Mineola’s share of county sales revenues should be in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and said the board should petition state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) to draft a bill that would “balance the playing surface.”

Werther also suggested that the village board should impose heavier fines on commercial vehicles that cause damage to village streets and sidewalks.

“Commercial vehicles are causing havoc on our curbs,” Werther said. “I don’t think these things should fall on the shoulders of our residents.”

In one recent instance, construction vehicles revamping the Winthrop-University Hospital parking garage on Jericho Turnpike accidentally damaged the curb adjacent to the parking garage. But Ciccone assured the board that Winthrop would pay for the necessary repairs to the sidewalk.

“There’s not a doubt in anybody’s mind that they’re going to take care of it,” said Ciccone, who explained after the meeting that the village has an understanding with Winthrop that “whatever needs to be repaired, will be.”

In another development, village building department superintendent Daniel Whelan said he had responded to residents’ complaints about political graffiti on the property of a former Getty gas station on Herricks Road.

Whelan said he had contacted the property owner, who told Whelan the graffiti would be removed.

On a recreation issue, resident Rick Masso told the board members that the four municipal tennis court in Mineola Memorial Park and the two tennis courts at Wilson Park have been badly neglected by the village over the past decade.

“No maintenance has been done on those tennis courts in the past 10 years,” Masso said. “They’re becoming an eyesore.”

He said he recently noticed that moss was growing between the cracks on one of the tennis courts.

Masso said he was speaking on behalf of elderly residents who use the courts.

Strauss replied the village would check the condition of the courts.

Agreeing with Masso that the tennis courts in the park should be maintained, Strauss said, “The parks here in Mineola are one of the crown jewels in the village.”

The village of Mineola School District’s proposed lease of the Cross Street School to Solomon Schechter Day School of Glen Cove continues to be the source of a heated debate among local residents who have voiced their opinions in both letters to the editor and user comments to articles online at archive.theisland360.com.

One of the central figures in recent discussions is John O’Kelly, a former East Williston School District Board member who does not live in Williston Park or within the Mineola School District. O’Kelly has written two letters to the editor in the Williston Times in the past three weeks highly critical of the plan and Mineola School Superintendent Michael Nagler.

Nagler and residents both online and off have questioned both the information O’Kelly is presenting in his letters and his motives for writing them. In several cases, St. Aidan’s School, which is located on Willis Avenue, across the street from the Cross Street School in Williston Park, has been drawn into the discussion.

“If there is anyone out there from St. Aidans who does not consider O’Kelly their leader, please make it known,” demanded an online respondent under the username URbrats “Because in your silence, O’Kelly is emerging as your leader.”

Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler also asked for O’Kelly’s reasoning.

“What is you interest and motivation in this lease,” Nagler stated on a comment section at archive.theisland360.com, in response to O’Kelly’s most recent letter to the editor.

A comment from “Lifetime Resident” asked, “What is your purpose for getting involved in this as a non-resident and non-taxpayer?”

O’Kelly, a vocal critic of East Williston School Superintendent of Schools Lorna Lewis who chose not to run for re-election last year, declined to comment on why he had gotten involved in the lease proposed by the Mineola School District.

“Do you take your direction from Nagler?” he asked in response to the question.

In a letter to the editor two weeks ago, O’Kelly said he obtained a copy of the proposed lease agreement between Mineola School district and Solomon Schechter Day School using a freedom of information request. In it there were a number of projects that would cost Mineola taxpayers more than they were taking in from rent revenues, according to O’Kelly. “In summary there is no net revenue to the district to be realized from the proposed lease.”

“It appears the Mineola School District will continue to be responsible for all the costs of maintaining the building and grounds,” O’Kelly said in one part of the letter.

Since the time of O’Kelly’s letter, the proposed lease with Solomon Schechter was restructured, according to Nagler.

“We have restructured the lease to specifically require the Solomon Schechter Day School to pay the exact amount of any and all work that goes out to bid once approved by the State Education Department,” Nagler said.

Nagler said Solomon Schechter Day School will pay dollar for dollar the work that needs to be done.

O’Kelly’s most recent letter to the editor did not address Nagler’s statement that Solomon Schechter Day School will now be responsible for any and all work that goes to bid. The letter also accused Nagler of “having something to hide” since Nagler’s reluctancy to provide a copy of the lease, specifically the part that lists all of the work required to be done at Solomon Schechter Day School.

“In my experience when someone stonewalls requests for documents, it’s because they have something to hide, and are aware of it,” O’Kelly said.

O’Kelly said that the lease should be withdrawn, and the taxpayers should vote out the trustees responsible for approving it and vote down the budget.

Nagler cited his belief that O’Kelly’ has a child who attends St. Aidan’s school, as one of the possible reasons for his involvement in the lease.

Mineola School board trustee John McGrath said in a post online and a phone conversation that he assumed O’Kelly is a member of St. Aidan’s Church, and that is why he has injected himself into this situation.

In response to questions about O’Kelly’s connection to St. Aidan’s, Monsignor James McDonald, who oversees St. Aidan’s Church, said “Monsignor McDonald speaks for Monsignor McDonald.” He asked that further questions be directed to the Archdiocese of Rockville Centre.

St. Aidan’s involvement in the opposition to the proposed lease of Cross Street School was raised shortly after a heated Village of Williston Park board meeting in which residents expressed concerns about traffic, safety and the use of the school’s ball fields by the Williston Park Little and CYO teams. The Mineola School District hired a consulting firm recommended by the Village of Williston Park to conduct a traffic study shortly after the meeting. In a move that surprised Mineola school officials, the Village of Williston Park announced last week that they hired a consultant to review Mineola’s traffic study.

Several residents complained that a flyer was inserted in a St. Aidan’s church bulletin calling for residents to attend the Williston Park meeting. The flyer said people needed to be aware that the Mineola School District was leasing the property to a private yeshiva, which Solomon Schechter is not.

At the time of the flyer, some officials expressed concern about an undertone of anti-Semitism in the opposition – an issued raised again in a letter to the editor last week by Jordan Goldstein, a former member of the Herricks School Board.

McDonald said at the time that the flyer had not been authorized by church officials.

In a post McGrath confirmed making, McGrath said that while he found “the tone of Mr. O’Kelly’s letter intemperate and perhaps uncalled for I certainly find it in keeping with the posts in other forums by supporters of the school district’s reconfiguration plan. I strongly object to all these type of posts as unproductive as well as damaging to the school district community as well as the community at large.”

McGrath, who has frequently clashed with Nagler on Mineola school policy, said that online posts that linked him with O’Kelly were incorrect.

“I assume his concerns are related to his affiliation with the St. Aidan’s school and Parish,” McGrath said. “As such he has every right to express his opinions on any matter concerning the surrounding community whether he’s a resident or not. My own position on reconfiguration long predated Mr. O’Kelly’s participation in the discussion.”

The Mineola District Council of PTAs will present a Meet the Candidate on Monday, May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Mineola High School auditorium (10 Armstrong Road, Garden City Park).

Candidates running for Trustee of the Mineola Board of Education will be present to answer questions from the public.

In a game played under miserable weather conditions of rain, wind and cold, the New Hyde Park Lady Pumas took on the super tough Wantagh-Seaford Renegades in Division N1 play.

After a back and fourth first 20 minutes, Wantagh took the lead (at a time the match was still being played under ‘tolerable conditions’) when their attack took advantage of a scramble near goal and snuck one in far post to make it 1-0.

In the second half, the rain picked up and so did NHP as we got moving and tied the game minutes into the second half when Katie Krems fed Theodora Papadoniou on the left who snuck in a nice low shot into the far-post netting to tie the game 1-1. The game was a back and fourth affair for the remainder of the game.

Wantagh needed a win and kept pushing up, while NHP did a nice job of counter-attacking and came up inches short of the game-winning goal when Theodora just missed a point blank shot with seconds left in the game.

The NHP offense was led by Papadoniou (game-tying goal and just missed the game winner with seconds left – very spirited left-fwd play and effort), Eleni Spiratos (great tackling, nice passes, several shots on goal),Krems (assist on Papadoniou’s goal and would have had an assist had Papadoniou converted the game winner), Cara Becker (very spirited play, good hard runs on goal and fighting for the ball), Clare Iriarte (nice passing, close marking and dribbling), and Kira Crehan (good trapping and super shot late in the game that over the goal).

On defense, Casey Sanders did a great job at sweeper, closed down the Wantagh attack and cleared the ball very well. Stephanie Karczewski looked like she did not miss a beat after her knee injury and played super on the left. Casey Conners played stopper for most of the game, did a nice job of tackling and fighting for 50-50 balls. Isabel Ugolini passed well from the right on D and did a nice job on 50-50 balls also.

In goal was Ellie Eisenberg who did not give up a goal in her half of play and punted well. Edna Dudek gave up one, but did well with the wet ball in her stint in goal and blocked well.

All in all a very spirited effort and great comeback against a team that NHP had never beaten or tied in LIJSL play.

Great start to the season ladies!

This week’s session was played under blustery skies but it didn’t damper the teams’ spirits. The juniors battled to a 5-5 tie.

The Lightning had goals by Vincent Schifiano, Chris Cooney (3) and Sammy Duggan. Charlie Hinz (3), Demond Pearson and Nick Mininson scored for the Thunder.

Mary Glass was the Thunder’s star play maker. The seniors were a little short-handed so they played against the coaches.

It wasn’t much of a match as they easily won 5-3.

Billy Russo (2), Debbie Chan (2) and David Glass lit up the scoreboard.

Sebastian Garcia was super in goal.

Frankie LaPinta and Tristan Yang sparked the potent offense with great passes and outstanding charges up the field. Michael Raihl, Jefferson Yen and Andrew Raihl were formidable forces in midfield.

We are off next week (April 23) for the holidays but will be back under warmer weather on April 30.

The Kool Kats had all that they could handle from the Hauppauge Comets.

The Comets lived up to their name streaking all over the field. Hauppauge was a fast team that went non-stop.

Thanks to some timely goal tending by Kaitlyn Biscotti and the offensive prowess of Victoria Lofaro and Casey Naab the Kool Kats were luky to escape with a tie and a much needed point.

Lofaro put the Kool Kats 1st goal in the net to tie the match at 1-1. The goal was scored on a nice layout pass by Emily Bunyon (assist).

The half ended in a 1-1 tie.

Things looked bleak for the Kats as the Comets dominated. The Comets scored two goals on six shots and had a 3-1 lead with about 15 minutes to go in the game.

The Kool Kats gained their composure and started to put things together.

Spirited play in the mid-field by Elissa Mejia started to turn the tide resulting in a few scoring opportunities. Captain Samantha Wheeler (assist) fed Casey Naab the ball, and Naab drilled it into the back of the net to bring the Kool Kats within one goal.

Due to injuries the game time was running out when Erin Balletta (assist) found Lofaro just outside the 18 -yard box, where she curved the ball into the top right corner for the tying goal.

After about another minute of play the referee blew the final whistle to register the tie.

The New Hyde Park Village Board on Tuesday approved the tentative 2011-2012 budget and unveiled civic events.

The proposed $5,630,770 budget total is up – 5 percent – from last years budget of $5,573,366.

The average New Hyde Park homeowner will pay an additional $50 in annual taxes, according to New Hyde Park Deputy Mayor Robert Lofaro.

To reduce overtime expenses, the budget will benefit from a revamped work schedule for the village Department of Public Works employees, who will now work five eight-hour days weekly instead of four 10-hour days. Part-time workers scheduled have been cut back by one day a week.

“They should be recognized that they are trying to help, and we appreciate their support to help us meet our financial needs,” Lofaro had said when the DPW work rule changes were revealed at the previous board meeting.

The budget includes $500,000 for the village’s ongoing program to improve roads throughout the village

The upcoming civic events announced on Tuesday night include a play at the recently refurbished William Gill Theater, a community clean-up day, and an ongoing tree-purchasing program.

Trustee Donald B. Barbieri announced the first play of the newly renovated theater will be “The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk.” The play, featuring a cast of local youngsters, will be performed on Friday, May 6 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 7 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets will go on sale at the village hall on Friday, April 29, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Saturday April 30, from 2:30 to 4:30.

“Come on in and let’s fill up the auditorium,” Barbieri said. “Lets kick this play off right.”

Lofaro said that the Community Clean up Day will be taking place on Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m., and said volunteers are needed. Residents are to meet up at the village hall on Saturday.

The event has been an annual activity by the village since the inception of the beautification committee more than 10 years ago, Lofaro said.

After gathering at village hall, volunteers go around village cleaning up litter or graffiti.

“The challenge is finding places to clean up,” Lofaro said. “In the past we’d find a lot of graffiti down by the LIRR station. We usually finish up around noon.”

As the tree planting program continues, residents who wish to have a curb-side tree planted in front of their property are directed to call the department of public works and make a request, according to Lofaro.

Barbieri also expressed his gratitude for the Village of New Hyde Park Auxiliary police for their rise in numbers

“I want to acknowledge the auxiliary police,” Barbieri said at a village meeting Tuesday. “The numbers of people joining have gone up, and it’s terrific that we have residents stepping forward.”

Volko Supply Company is the place where you’re mostly likely to find what you won’t find in most other building supply outlets.

That’s the sort of refrain co-owner Ron Volpe said he most often hears from his customers: “If anyone’s going to have it, it has to be you.”

A walk through the large warehouse behind the storefront at 205 Herricks Road provides evidence in the form of orderly stacks of old Spanish tiles, cedar shingles and aluminum siding, valuable remnants that testify to Volko’s 56 years at its present location. They also have custom wooden window frames, slate roof tiles and copper gutters.

“We keep every possible kind of discontinued materials that nobody else carries,” Volpe said. “Sitting here is what you can’t find anywhere else.”

The older products, common at their peak of popularity, are much more expensive today than their more contemporary alternatives. Aluminum siding sells for $3 a square foot at Volko versus 80 cents per square foot for vinyl.

The store was first opened in Floral Park by Vicktor, Ron’s father, who Volpe started working with in 1972 before eventually taking it over four years later. He learned the business from the outside in, driving trucks and operating fork lifts in that warehouse.

Often, Volpe said, he hears his father’s mocking voice in his head.

“I hear him laughing at me constantly,” he said.

Volpe, 61, is now working with another Vicktor, his 30-year-old son, who earned a degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and had embarked on a career in real estate. Vicktor was working as an executive for First Boston in Europe when his father called and asked him to come home and help run the business three years ago.

“It’s nice to be back in a small-business environment,” the younger Volpe said, recalling younger days when he was just running around the store rather than helping to run it.

He said he knew he was destined to play a role in the business that had sustained some of the best opportunities of his life, including attending Chaminade High School.

“How could I turn my back on it?,” he asked, saying he feels a strong sense of pride about the family’s business legacy.

“I always knew I’d be back here. I just got here faster than I thought I would,” he said, smiling.

The father and son formed a bond in this family business that brought their relationship to another level.

The Volpes already shared a bond as rifle marksmen, shooting together in high-powered competitive rifle contests.

In his free time, Vicktor also races competitively in modified Miatas on circuits such as Watkins Glen and also test drives cars for racing teams.

“I think we’ve learned a lot about each other,” the elder Volpe said.

They’ve also become better acquainted with what has been a difficulty stretch in a business where the average sale they make to a homeowner is $100 lately.

“But we’ve managed to hold on,” Ron Volpe said. “We didn’t suffer from the Home Depot and Lowe’s invasion. Once people realized the difference in quality we were able to work around them.”

That’s because it’s a long-standing business that draws on generations of customers, and because it has used its Web site (www.Volko.com) – and its reputation – to land some big clients in recent years, like the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii.

Volko has seen an “uptick” on commercial products, according to the younger Volpe.

“After the winter season, it’s mostly repairs and materials,” he said, adding that people aren’t expecting advice, but they get it. “They’re looking for the best way to get things done. They’re not willing to close their eyes and let a contractor go ahead.”

The building supply business itself, he said, has shifted from being contractor-oriented to homeowner-oriented. Either way its management remains home-grown, with a third generation to maintain the franchise.

Reiner Scherzinger, although not a family member, is considered one by the Volpes after his 22 years in the business. He started working there as a summer helper during high school, gathering nails that had mostly galvanized together in the intense heat of a warehouse blaze at the site. After college, it was still a good fit for the Mineola High School alumnus.

“I guess it’s just a home location. I guess I’m just a fixture,” Scherzinger said. “I guess it’s a comfort zone. Everybody’s family. Everybody has respect for everyone else.”

Ron Volpe and Scherzinger have been fishing buddies for years, and Volpe is currently teaching Scherzinger’s son about deep-sea fishing. They couldn’t say how many fish they’ve caught together over the years.

But Volpe offered a conservative estimate of 71,500 as the number of roofs the company has helped surface or resurface over the years. Volko draws its business primarily from Queens to Huntington. Ron’s cousin John runs the Volko business in Port Jefferson.

Volko has a solid base of customers cultivated over time.

As Ron Volpe recalled customers saying, “My father did business with you. My grandfather did business with you.”

He understands the dynamics of maintaining that business.

“I like helping the folks that come and go. It’s never the same,” Volpe said. “You don’t keep a business without understanding it’s a two-way door.”

New Hyde Park resident Daniel Madigan got his 15 minutes of fame recently on “Wheel of Fortune,” winning $4,000 in an episode that ran on April 8.

Actually, it was 20 minutes of time on the TV screen in the early evening, preceded by telephone calls from friends who had seen Madigan in a 15-second promotional spot about the episode.

“It was great to see myself on national television,” Madigan said. “It was surreal seeing me on there, and I was shouting at the TV set, hoping things would go differently.”

They didn’t. He still lost, notwithstanding the $4,000.

For Madigan, the experience at the Hollywood taping in February was a bit of a blur, which became manifest as he watched the segment.

“I don’t actually remember saying some things that I said,” he said. “It’s only 20 minutes of actual game play. And when you’re shooting it, there are no retakes.”

He watched the segment with some friends, taking a bit of ribbing about his performance, which came after watching other segments being taped before going on for his episode.

“I did hit a lot of bankrupts, so it was difficult. But it was a lot of fun too. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.

The time goes so quickly during the taping, Madigan didn’t even have time to tell host Pat Sajack the story about his late grandmother, Katherine Barone, the family “Wheel of Fortune” fan who had inspired him to apply for a shot at being on the show.

Several years ago when he was going to film school in Los Angeles, he had an opportunity to appear on the show. But he had a conflict on the day of the taping and couldn’t go on. But his mother already had told his grandmother, who kept telling her daughter she still hadn’t seen her grandson on her favorite game show.

When his grandmother died a few years ago, Madigan thought about his missed opportunity to please her. After a grueling experience in New York at a taping to audition for the show, Madigan received a phone call several months sooner than he was told to expect it – on his grandmother’s birthday – telling him he’d made the cut.

“I think she’s somewhere smiling about it. She’s definitely proud of me,” Madigan said.

And now that he’s been bitten by the TV bug, Madigan’s thinking that he might just try to recoup with a stronger run on some other game show the next time around.

“There’s a little part of me that wants to redeem myself. Who knows? There’s ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ in New York, so I wouldn’t have to fly across the country,” he said.

Garden City Park’s Synergy Fitness Club offers a broad array of exercise machines and classes for anyone feeling the urge for a conditioning regimen as spring starts blooming.

The club’s facilities include 60 cardio machines and more than 100 strength and universal machines – all new – in a 35,000-square foot location that also offers classes in yoga, zumba, cardio exercises, body and pilates sculpting, belly dancing and rigorous exercise “boot camps” with its $34.99 monthly subscription fee.

Synergy provides space to Kayo Boxing, the Tai-Zen Academy of Self Defence, which provide their own training programs, and the LI Batting Cage, which rents batting cages by the half-hour.

Last July, Synergy supplanted Gold’s Gym, which has been at the 190 Broadway in Garden City Park for the previous 15 years.

“We just came in and renovated but we kept the same staff,” said Anthony Cosenza, managing partner of Synergy on Broadway

There’s still “quite a bit of renovation to be done,” Cosenza said.

But the facility’s large array of universal exercise machines by Life Fitness, Hammer Strength, Pre-Core and Cybex suggests that there is enough hardware in place here to satisfy demanding exercise aficionados.

“It’s a service and a value we’re offering. We try to keep it family-style,” Cosenza said.

The 3,000 club members represent a demographic cross-section from college students to senior citizens, according to Cosenza, who acknowledges the competitive environment for exercise gyms.

That’s part of the reason Synergy only offers monthly subscription deals. People don’t feel tied down, Cosenza said, and can cancel their subscriptions at any time.

“It’s less pressure and more flexibility,” he said.

The fact is, most members maintain a regimen for about 14 months before they start backing off or dropping out, Cosenza said.

He said Synergy seeks to provide a high level of service, and a personal touch from its staff members, who are encouraged to learn the names of the clubs’s members. The management maintains several service tenets, Cosenza said, most notably one that reminds workers that every interaction with a member is a “make or break” occasion.

So far things are going well for the gym, which Cosenza said has been averaging 130 new members monthly over its seven months in business at the location. The gym has five affiliated locations in Franklin Square, Baldwin, Merick and Long Beach, and offers a “passport” membership to permit members to work out at any of the five locations for a $44.99 monthly rate.

The Garden City Park Synergy also keeps members entertained with monthly parties catered by Uncle Bacala’s and Gonzo’s Mexican Grill.

The club also is planning special summer events. And next month it will sponsor a charity fund-raiser “Spinathon,” with members cycling on stationary bicycles with sponsors to raise money for what will most likely by cancer research.

That remains to be determined this week, Cosenza said. Anyone seeking more information about the “Spinathon” or membership at the club can go online at www.synergyfitclubsli.com or call at 742 – 4477.

Continuity is the theme in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school board election, which features three uncontested races.

Incumbents Patricia Rudd and Alan Cooper are running to keep their seats. Former board member Frank Miranda is running for the seat vacated by Annette Giarratani last year due to illness.

Rudd has served on the board for 12 years and said she was ready to step down, but felt a responsibility to run for another term.

“I thought it was enough. But because of the difficult times right now, I thought I should stay another three years,” Rudd said. “Things are going to be changing in education.”

She said she is concerned that people seem to be focusing too much on test statistics rather than the fundamentals effective teaching.

“They talk about test scores being better in other countries. I think we should get away from the testing and back to the basics,” Rudd said.

She said she fears the prospect of a system becoming increasingly privatized, and said she opposes the concept some school districts – notably Herricks – are considering to require parents to pay a fee for their children to participate in extra-curricular activities, including athletics.

“People are barely holding onto their homes right now. There are many homes up for sale in our district,” Rudd said.

Rudd was school board president from 2005 to 2009, and was a member of the Sewanhaka School District from 2003 to 2008. She has also been a member of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards in 2008 and serves the New York State School Board’s Association as a delegate to an annual education lobbying conference in Washington, D.C.

Cooper is running for his second three-year term on the board.

“I feel that I have made a significant difference over the past three years but my work is far from complete,” Cooper said when he announced plans to run again.

Calling the 2.97 percent increase to $33.5 million in its proposed budget “historic,” but added, “there are tough times ahead.”

Cooper is vice president for the Center for Learning and Innovation at the North Shore-LIJ Health System and serves as the assistant dean for knowledge management and associate professor of science education at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University.

Cooper is also a 29-year member of the Garden City Park Fire Department, where he served 12 years as Water/Fire Commissioner. He is also a board member for the Merillon Athletic Association, a Merillon baseball coach and a New Hyde Park Wildcats soccer coach.

Miranda could not be reached for comment on his candidacy

The race for the lone contested seat on the Herricks School Board pits two high-profile civic activists Jonai Singh and Jim Gounaris against each other.

Singh, co-president of the Herricks Council of the PTAs, entered the race last month expecting to run unopposed for the seat being vacated by Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar. Gounaris, a member of the Herricks Community Center Advisory Board, said he decided he should try to get more directly involved in school board business.

Ehrbar decided to not run because of scheduling conflicts between his mayoral and school board duties. He encouraged Singh to run and endorsed her as an “independent voice” the school district needed.

Singh, who is past president of the Herricks Indo-US Community, a non-profit Indian American organization, is also an informal liaison between the PTA and the Herricks Community Center seniors group. She has a reputation as a consensus-builder in the district.

She’s running on a ticket with board president Christine Turner, who has 21 years of experience on the school board.

Both Singh and Gounaris have children attending district schools and both are vocal participants at school board meetings. Gounaris was particularly vocal during the recent school budget hearings as he sharply criticized the Herricks Teachers Association for not taking a wage freeze next year in light of the current state fiscal crisis.