Unofficial election results for the Mamaroneck Union Free School District budget and Board of Education trustees are in: the budget passed easily and the two candidates endorsed by the Committee for the Selection of Mamaroneck School Board Nominees will take their seats on June 30.
The $133 million budget passed overwhelmingly with 1,037 votes in support of the budget and just 197 against.
The budget will fund the addition of one elementary teacher, an expanded dual language program at the Mamaroneck Avenue School and the introduction of an eighth-grade exploring music course at Hommocks Middle School.
Sari Winter and Rina Beder will replace James Needham and Nancy Pierson on the board. Most trustees on the board serve one or two three-year terms.
Winter received 1,001 votes, Beder got 958, and outside candidate Michael Rosenbaum received 314 votes.
Rosenbaum congratulated both Beder and Winter on their victories although he did imply that the endorsement of the selection committee provided an advantage that wasn’t available to him. “It just doesn’t seem democratic to me,” he said. He pointed out that the 24-member committee, which has been picking candidates since 1946 was unlikely to have a number of Hispanic members relative to the number of community members of Hispanic descent in the district.
But he added, “Both winners are qualified and I congratulate them.”
This election marked the first time a school board race in Mamaroneck had been contested since 2012.
Rosenbaum’s decision to enter the race was based on issues and his general perception that the Board of Education was exhibiting little leadership. The decision whether or not to allow an onsite medical center at Mamaroneck Avenue School was one example of a lack of leadership, he said.
In addition, he saw the board’s decision to OK a budget that included reductions in funding for the summertime Co-op Camp as parsimonious.
Winter and her husband have three children. Two of them are enrolled at Murray Avenue School and a third will start kindergarten in the fall. Her family has lived in the district for six years.
Before the move to Mamaroneck, Winter taught English at area schools including the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City.
Beder has two sons, one of whom graduated from Mamaroneck High School a year ago and another who will graduate from the high school next month.
“I’m very excited. Between the two of us we cover the whole spectrum,” Winter said, also referring to Beder. “I have the younger ones and you’ve just been through the whole process.”
Robin Nichinsky, a former Board of Education member who served three terms for a nine-year total, was among those in Superintendent Dr. Robert Shaps’ office foyer awaiting the election results. “It’s always wonderful to see energetic people coming onto the board,” Nichinsky said.
Shaps jokingly said to the pair of newly elected board trustees, “You have no idea what you’re in for.”
