A first-time candidate will take a seat on the Manhasset School District Board of Education this spring without facing a single opponent, after longtime board president Ted Post chose not to file for re-election before the April 20 deadline.
Jenna Rizzo, 40, a former elementary school teacher and mother of three daughters in the district, learned only after the filing window closed that she’d be running alone. The Nassau County race drew no additional candidates despite Manhasset school board elections typically attracting a competitive field. “It is surprising that no one else is running,” Rizzo said.
Post, who served as board president, announced he won’t seek another term, citing “completely personal reasons” in a statement to the Manhasset Press. He expressed confidence in what comes next. The district is in “very capable hands,” he said.
Rizzo grew up in Commack, in Suffolk County, and moved to Manhasset in 2017 with her husband, a stock trader they’ve been together since high school. One daughter attends middle school. Two are enrolled at Munsey Park Elementary School. The family is by her own description a full-on “girl mom” operation: school, sports, activities, the works, year-round.
Her background carries weight here. Before stepping back to raise her children, Rizzo taught second and fifth grade in Great Neck and Herricks, two Nassau County districts. She holds a master’s degree in special education. That’s not filler on a resume. Those are credentials that translate directly to the work of a school board, particularly one looking at how services for students with disabilities continue to grow and evolve.
For the past two years, Rizzo served as president of the Munsey Park School Community Association, where she ran fundraising and coordinated parent-led enrichment programs. That role shaped her understanding of the district’s day-to-day rhythms in a way that classroom experience alone wouldn’t. “That experience really gave me an appreciation for the community and the people working with our children every day,” she told Long Island Press. “I’m grateful for the time I had in that role, and I’m ready to take on a different one.”
Her platform doesn’t announce itself with bold reinventions. She wants to build on current board work while pushing against complacency. “Education is always changing,” she said. “It’s about making sure we’re not becoming complacent, looking at what’s working, and asking what else we can do better.” On special education specifically, she said she’d like to see ongoing efforts in that area continue to develop, informed by her own professional background.
What she won’t do, she says, is arrive with a fixed agenda. “I don’t want to come in with a set agenda. The board works together on those decisions.” That’s not a dodge. For a first-term board member, collaborative instincts are more useful than a platform full of promises that require majority votes she doesn’t yet have.
Running unopposed. No small thing in local school politics.
It changes the campaign dynamic but doesn’t, she says, reduce her sense of responsibility. The practical effect is that she gets more time to prepare for the transition from community association president to board member, learning the governance structure rather than spending weekends canvassing.
Board elections like this one carry real stakes for Nassau County families. The New York State School Boards Association tracks district governance trends statewide, and uncontested races, while not unusual in smaller communities, often reflect either deep community satisfaction or a shortage of civic volunteers willing to put their names on a ballot. Manhasset, a district that draws consistent attention for its academic performance, may simply be running low on the latter.
The school board’s decisions on curriculum, budgeting, staffing, and programming affect thousands of students across the district. Rizzo’s background in special education brings a perspective that’s sometimes underrepresented at the board level, where members with business or law backgrounds tend to dominate. Her time running the Munsey Park Community Association also gave her direct experience managing competing stakeholder interests, which is precisely what board membership demands on a monthly basis. Voters who want to understand the Manhasset School District’s current strategic direction can review board meeting minutes and budget documents on the district’s website.
Post leaves having steered the district through a period that included enrollment pressures, post-pandemic program rebuilds, and ongoing conversations about pre-K expansion. Rizzo inherits a board that, by Post’s own assessment, is in capable hands.
The election is scheduled for May 20.