Longtime Massapequa School Board member Arlene Martin faces challenge from Tim Taylor
by Andrew Coen

A heated race for one seat on the Massapequa School Board has unfolded, with incumbent president Arlene Martin facing an aggressive challenge from Tim Taylor who is running, in part, on a platform that criticizes the sharp increase in administrative costs over the past five years. Martin counters that the district's spending is below the county average and that the administrative staff helps to provide the oversight necessary to maintain the district's high quality curriculum.

Taylor, a 1979 Massapequa High School graduate, said that he believes central administrative staff, guidance counselors and librarians are paid too much and that those salaries have contributed to the sharp increase in taxes in the district over the past five years. The owner of Tim's Tree Service in Massapequa, he points to how the district has five top administrators averaging salaries of more than $200,000 a year, which has contributed to the budget increase from $125 million to more than $156 million in just over three years.

"I think they (the school board) give it away like crazy on the administrative end," said Taylor. "I want the best education possible but I also want to be able to afford to live here."

In response, Martin, a 47-year Massapequa resident, said the school board has been successful in controlling taxes so that they are $733 less than the average Long Island district. This has been accomplished by leasing out school buildings, implementing the Energy Efficiency Contract and participating in cooperative purchasing. In addressing the issue of administrative costs, Martin notes that Massapequa is third from the bottom out of 40 districts in spending on their superintendents.

"If two administrators were to be eliminated, the average home would save only $1.42 a month, four would equate to $2.84, and eight would total $5.68," said Martin. "This is a small amount to save considering the negative effect on curriculum development, delivery and assessment, which would ultimately impact the education of the students."

Taylor disagrees. "I have never seen this board say no to anyone on the administrative side when they have asked for money," he said. "I believe we could lose 15 to 20 of these bloated salaries, without missing anyone and then have plenty of money for more athletic teams which would get kids off the streets and on to the fields where they belong." With a three-year-old child not yet in school and four in school, Taylor said he has a vested interest in quality education and would never do anythng to hurt teachers or the district's curriculum. "However, I am totally against the outrageous salaries our administrators are getting from my opponent."

According to school district records, the average annual increase for all the administrators is 3.73 percent a year over the past five years. "While there have been some fluctuations in individual salaries that are higher than that, the average in the central office and general support areas is in the 3.73 percent range," said Alan Adcock, the district's financial administrator.

Adcock added that some state reports show a marked increase in the number of administrators over the past five years, but that the reality is much different than the perception. The state requires that school districts report the number of administrators they have earning above the state cap, which in 2002-03 was $97,000. "Figures I gave the district's finance committee for that year showed the number of administrators earning above the cap," said Adcock. "Reports for the following years list more administrators because we had more earning above the cap of $107,000, so these are not new positions but rather more administrators who earned salaries above the figure set by the state."

In the 2003 school year the district had approximately 26 administrators earning above the state cap; that figure has risen to 59 this year.

Martin, a retired Massapequa Public Schools' teacher, is seeking her fourth three-year term and said she is seeking re-election in order to use her educational background to help advance the district. Martin, who taught sixth grade for 18 years at Birch Lane Elementary School, has also trained educators at the teacher resource and staff development organization, M-TRACT and is a professor at Molloy College in Rockville Centre. She was the recipient of the 2007 Town of Oyster Bay Woman of Distinction in Education Award and is also a Cultural Arts instructor.

Her work on the board includes working on Massapequa's Budget and Finance Committee as well as the Audit Committee. She works both on the Fields of Dreams Committee and the Athletic Fields Committee.

Martin said she is proud of many changes that have occurred during the decade she has been on the board, including the alignment of curriculum across the grades, standardized test scores above the county average, expanded efforts to meet the needs of special education children and a steady growth in Regents diplomas, which reached 92 percent last year. Martin said she is also proud that the district has moved from close to bankruptcy to a financial position praised by State, Federal and private auditors, raising the bond rating to the AA standard.

Taylor, 45, a lifetime Massapequa resident, is active in the athletic community both coaching and sponsoring the Massapequa International Little League and serves as a wrestling coach for Massapequa youth wrestling. He has five children in the Massapequa Public Schools and said that in addition to containing administrative salaries he would also like to encourage more residents to attend school board meetings and improve communication between the trustees and taxpayers.

Taylor said he has no problem with Martin as a trustee or a person, but criticizes the entire fivemember school board for the "reckless spending" which he hopes to help contain if elected.

"As the middle class of Massapequa is slowly being squeezed out ofTown, this current board has no problem raising salaries for their administrators," said Taylor who added he believes 15-20 administrative jobs could be cut. "My taxes have gone up $1,500 in the past year, which I can swing, but if 200 of my customers say I can't do my trees because of my tax increase- then I may be on the next boat to North Carolina or Pennsylvania."

Taylor said he has attended nearly every Massapequa school board meeting since last summer in preparation for his school board race. He also became motivated to run for his race school board. He said one reason he got motivated to run in addition to the escalating administrative salaries was the lack of support from district officials or the current trustees to name the baseball field at Lockhart Elementary School for Tyler Dunn, a young boy who accidentally shot himself a year ago.

Martin said if re-elected she would like to use the experience she has gained serving on Nassau County's Committee on school tax relief, to work with other board members to find additional ways to relieve the tax burden on residents. Martin said one way is to form a consortium of local districts to invest money, make energy and other purchases and contract for legal services. She'd also like to expand Massapequa's School-Wide Enrichment program into all the elementary schools, providing additional technology learning and developing a five-year district athletic plan.

School board members serve as volunteers and receive no financial compensation for their work. They are responsible for setting school policy, hiring upon recommendations from administrators and adopting and monitoring the district's budget.

Voting on the May 15 Massapequa school board election will take place on Tuesday May 15 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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