Nassau County school districts have locked in their candidate lists for the May 19 board elections, with competitive races taking shape in Herricks, Great Neck, and Floral Park-Bellerose, and at least one seat that could go unfilled.
The most unusual situation is playing out in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District, where Board Vice President Danielle Messina is not seeking reelection. No candidate. The April 20 petition deadline passed without a single submission for her seat, according to the district. Trustee James Reddan is running for his seat unopposed, meaning voters will decide one seat but face a blank line for the other. The district didn’t provide any explanation of what happens procedurally when a seat draws zero candidates, and that ambiguity is unlikely to sit well with parents who expect their school board to be fully staffed. Last time around, roughly 690 voters showed up for the district’s board election, a number that may climb given the unusual circumstances this spring.
Over in the Herricks Union Free School District, the race looks much more crowded. Two seats are open because Trustees James Gounaris and Henry Zanetti are both stepping down. Five candidates have jumped in to compete for those two spots. Lisa Iuculano and Eric Lo, a financial adviser who has run in the district before, are contesting the seat vacated by Gounaris. For Zanetti’s seat, three candidates filed petitions: Nidhi Guru, neurologist Ritech Ramdhani, and Athul Santhoush, a recent college graduate entering the race for the first time. That’s a genuine choice for district voters, who turned out roughly 800 strong in the most recent board election. School board races on Long Island rarely draw five candidates for two seats, and Herricks parents paying close attention to curriculum, budgeting, and the district’s academic performance data will have real decisions to make on May 19.
Great Neck is seeing a four-way race for two seats on the Great Neck Public Schools Board of Education. Incumbents Rebecca Sassouni and Joanne Chan are both seeking reelection and bring name recognition into the race. They’re being challenged by first-timers Marisa Brandeis Kermanian and Callie Ives. The filing deadline closed at 5 p.m. Monday, according to Long Island Press, which covered the certification of the final candidate lists across Nassau County districts. Great Neck’s board elections tend to draw engaged, high-turnout communities, and this year’s contest gives voters a clean choice between experience and fresh faces.
In the Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District, Trustee Laura Trentacoste is fighting to hold her seat against two challengers. Jaqueline Klein and Jen Wesolowski both filed petitions, setting up a three-way race for a single position. Three candidates. One seat. It’s the tightest math of any contest on this list, and it means vote-splitting could decide the outcome as much as any individual candidate’s record or platform. Nassau County school board elections don’t require a runoff, so whoever gets the most votes wins, full stop.
One district on the list won’t have an election at all. The Sewanhaka Central High School District operates as a central district, meaning its board is drawn from member feeder districts rather than through a standalone public election. No vote scheduled for May 19 there.
Across Nassau County, these elections rarely produce the kind of turnout their stakes deserve. Hundreds of voters, sometimes fewer, typically decide who oversees budgets worth tens of millions of dollars, who sets curriculum policy, and who negotiates contracts with teachers’ unions. The Nassau County Board of Elections publishes polling locations and absentee ballot information online, and any registered voter in a school district can participate in that district’s board election regardless of whether they have children enrolled. Property owners feel school board decisions in their tax bills every year, whether or not they ever set foot in a school building. May 19 is a Tuesday, and registration deadlines have already passed for new voters, so residents who want a say need to confirm their eligibility now rather than scramble the morning of the vote.