An unusual school board election
Jaclyn Napolitano-Furno is a Connetquot school board member. Her father Salvatore Napolitano is running for the school board this year. Credit: Barry Sloan
Daily Point
Family ties in Connetquot
May is school board election month and it’s already clear there will be some contentious races come Election Day, which this year falls on May 21.
While many voters will evaluate typical budget and education-related issues, an unusual topic has cropped up in the Connetquot school district race.
Salvatore Napolitano is one of four candidates vying for two spots for school board. But Napolitano’s daughter, Jaclyn Napolitano-Furno, is a current board member, elected two years ago to a three-year term.
Some residents of the district have questioned Napolitano’s presence in this year’s race, citing language in the school district’s candidate paperwork that makes it seem as if two family members can’t serve together.
“Not more than one (1) member of a family may be a member of the same Board of Education in any school district,” states the document, titled “Board Member Qualifications.”
But that’s not quite accurate, according to the New York State School Boards Association.
“To qualify for membership on a school board in a common, union free, central, central high school, or small city school district, an individual … may not reside with another member of the same school board as a member of the same family,” the association’s elections requirements packet states.
Since the Napolitanos do not live together, it would seem both could serve.
The question of having a father-daughter duo on the board did not come up during the first Meet the Candidates forum held this week. But significant culture war lines already have been drawn. Salvatore Napolitano’s social media features fellow candidate Brian Burger’s signage in addition to his own. During the Meet the Candidates session, both critiqued policies that would bring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion-related curriculum into classrooms and rejected efforts to allow transgender athletes to play on sports teams not associated with their gender assigned at birth.
Jaclyn Napolitano-Furno has been a frequent critic of similar issues, going as far as to criticize Crayola’s “Colors of the World” crayons, which include a variety of skin tones, as a “social justice kind of method in buying crayons.”
The other two candidates are Melissa Torregrossa, who ran and lost last year but had the support of the progressive Long Island Strong Schools Alliance, and current board member Marissol Mallon, who has frequently disagreed with Napolitano-Furno in often-heated exchanges at public meetings.
— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com
Pencil Point
Stuck
Credit: CAGLECARTOONS.COM/Christopher Weyant
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Final Point
SOS in Oyster Bay
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino isn’t letting up on the “Save Our Suburbs” pitch to his residents — even after fights with Gov. Kathy Hochul over building more housing seem to have waned.
“State lawmakers are once again trying to override local zoning laws to allow for high-density apartment buildings to flood our neighborhoods in Nassau County,” says an Oyster Bay Town web page titled “Help Supervisor Saladino Save Our Suburbs,” complete with the suffix “SOS” in the web address itself. (The full website can be found at https://oysterbaytown.com/sos/)
Saladino, who has continued the tradition of Oyster Bay leaders fighting to maintain the town’s suburban — i.e., single-family home — feel, has targeted state lawmakers’ proposal to promote development on properties owned by faith-based organizations.
“In reality, this means over 1,100 properties in Nassau County could instantly be eligible for development into high-density apartment buildings that are five stories high, even if they’re located next to single-family homes,” the page said.
In actual reality, the faith-based property proposal was not included in the final state budget. And it wouldn’t have automatically allowed every religious property to be converted to apartment buildings.
Saladino also issued a survey last month to residents to assess their priorities, with choices ranging from downtown revitalization and the environment to improving roadways and “preserving our suburban quality of life.”
Besides asking questions about the budget, the direction of the town and what music residents would like to hear at summer concerts, the survey specifically highlighted the town board’s handling of golf courses. A town board proposal, the question noted, would “limit development to single-family homes situated on 2 acres each.”
“Do you support this proposal to limit development to single-family homes OR do you support high-density apartment buildings to be constructed on these sites?” the survey asked.
In the Town of Oyster Bay, the answers to a question worded like that may end up surprising no one.
— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com
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