Board of Education Races Set in Local School Districts
At least two area boards of education will have contested elections next month while Byram Hills and Pleasantville will have candidates who are unopposed..
The Chappaqua School District will see a relatively crowded field of five candidates vie for the two available seats. Incumbents Jeffrey Mester and Warren Messner will look to retain their seats against challengers Cailee Hwang, Hilary Grasso and Leah Heiss.
In a race for two seats in Mount Pleasant, incumbents Christopher Pinchiaroli and Vincent Graci will seek re-election against challenger and former trustee Thomas McCabe.
Mount Pleasant will hold a school board candidate’s night forum on Wednesday, May 1 at Westlake High School at 7:30 p.m.
The uncontested election in Byram Hills will have current trustees Mia DiPietro and Lara Stangel return to the board and be joined by Jason Berland, who has been serving as chairman of the Byram Hills Education Foundation. Three-term board member Robin Glat has decided against running for another term. DiPietro and Stangel are both currently completing their first term.
The Pleasantville Board of Education, which has only one seat up for election this year, will see the return of Shane McGaffey who was the only candidate to submit a petition.
Calls placed to the district office in the Bedford School District to find out who the candidates are in that Board of Education election were not returned.
In addition to the board elections and budget votes in each district, Pleasantville and Chappaqua will also have propositions on the ballot. Pleasantville voters will decide on an $8.9 million bond to pay for various facilities improvements in all three of the district’s schools.
Chappaqua School District residents will have two propositions to weigh. One asks for voter approval to transfer up to $1,350,000 from the current year’s unassigned fund balance to the capital fund to upgrade security at Douglas Grafflin, Roaring Brook and Westorchard elementary schools and Bell and Seven Bridges middle schools.
The second proposition would authorize the district making $390,000 in improvements in the Bell School cafeteria. The district hopes to move $190,000 from the fund balance of the district’s lunch fund to its capital line on June 30, then take $100,000 each from the current year’s and 2019-20’s general fund.
Voting in all districts will be held on Tuesday, May 21. Check each school district’s website for voting hours and polling locations.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
