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Plainedge School Board needs to learn a basic lesson: play nice together Dear Editor: I feel the need to express my disappointment at the outcome of the Plainedge School Board reorganization meeting held July 1, 2008. For the first time in Plainedge history, the school board was unable to elect a Vice President. Mrs. Pat Zinke was re-elected as President, but there were three nominees for Vice President, none of whom received the required majority of votes. After a vote and a re-vote, two board members got three votes each and a sole board member got one vote. One of the VP candidates was the incumbent Vice President, Cathy Flanagan, who just received over 2,200 votes by the community to be elected onto the board this past May. (more votes than any other candidate or the budget) As you may know, this is not the first time that the board was not able to work together to achieve a goal. The recent opportunity for the Plainedge district to work with the Town of Oyster Bay on the Picken-Packard deal did not even get to the stage of a community vote due, in no small part, to the inability for the board to bring a unanimous front to the town. Five of the seven board members (including President Pat Zinke and VP Cathy Flanagan) voted for the deal, one board member was silent and one voted against the deal and also made a separate public plea to the Town not to go through with the deal. We all know the result - the Town of Oyster Bay's faith in the entire board's commitment to the deal was shaken, and the deal was withdrawn. The most important transaction for this school district in recent years, which would have provided the ideal solution for the deteriorating Packard building, brought much needed tax relief, and provided wonderful new playing fields, did not happen. The community's wishes were ignored by those with what I perceive as their own personal agendas, and we were denied our golden opportunity. I feel that if we are to have any opportunity at all to work with the Town to possibly uncover any alternate negotiations regarding the Packard Property; we will need all seven school board members to act with our best interests in mind, not their own individual interests… And they can not ever agree upon a Vice President. Moving forward, a divided school board can only result in more stalemates which will, in no way, benefit the children nor the community. So I ask that the board nominates a Vice President as soon as possible. This will demonstrate to the community that those seven individuals can work together to achieve a goal. Based on my observations, Mrs. Flanagan was a very pro-active Vice President with the children, the community, and the Town officials. So using my mothers philosophy of 'if it aint broke, don't fix it', my recommendation would be Cathy. But that's just me. Once they have achieved the goal of selecting a VP, I hope they work together with the community and the Town to find another solution for the Packard building. On the other hand, if they can not get past their personal differences and continue these stalemates, there is always next May……
Dennis Gustafson Plainedge Resident
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