UPDATED: School Budget Approved, Acampora, DeSabato, Peller Claim Board Seats

Residents approved a $216 million Half Hollow Hills school for next year Tuesday by a margin of 1,748-1,110.

Diana Acampora, Betty DeSabato and Paul Peller were elected to the three open seats on the school board.

The budget represents a 3.9 percent spending increase over the current year and a 4.9 percent hike in the school tax levy.

"Ecstatic" was the word Victor Manuel, assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, used to describe his feelings after the results were tabulated at Tuesday night.

Manuel called the 61 percent vote in favor of the budget "a solid resounding yes of support."

"We felt we put together a fair budget for the entire community and I think the community felt that way as well," said Manuel, who is leaving HHH at the end of the school year to move into a similar position for Jericho Schools.

The district will let go of 14 teachers next year due to declining enrollment at the elementary level and a salary for teachers and administrators at a savings of $3 million helped school officials combat continued cuts in state aid and rising costs for employee benefits. 

Turnout for the budget vote was down 30 percent from last year when more than 4,000 came out to the polls. 

New Faces on School Board

In a five-way contest for three seats on the school board, DeSabato, Acampora and Peller were the leading vote-getters, receiving 1,655, 1,613 and 1,558 votes, respectively.

The victory was bittersweet for DeSabato and Peller as the third member of their candidate ticket, Maria Holmquist, came in a close fourth with 1,515 votes. finished in fifth with 1,120 votes. 

"I'm excited most importantly that the budget passed," said Peller, a urologist and president of the medical staff at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage.

Peller, a 13-year HHH resident with two children in the district, said the newly elected board members "have a lot of work to do," and that he looked forward to working with a new superintendent and administrators. 

"I'm obviously disappointed to some degree that one of my running mates didn't get elected, but we'll move on from that," Peller said, referring to Holmquist, the vice-president of the HHH PTA Council. "I think all five candidates really had their heart in the right place and have things to offer for the district."

DeSabato, the co-chair of the PTA Council's Legislation Committee, focused on the budget in her comments to Patch Tuesday night.

"The most important thing is that Half Hollow Hills produced a fiscally responsible budget and the budget passed," said DeSabato, a 12-year resident of the district with three children in school. "I'm looking forward to working with the current board."

Acampora, a resident of the district for 21 years with a daughter currently in 10th grade at High School West, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Acampora, co-chair of the PTA Council's Facilities Committee, has said that serving on the board would be her full-time job if elected to a three-year term.

“We really need to try to maintain what we have, the academic standards that we have and continue to further them,” Acampora said in an with Patch earlier this month. “Just because of the budget issues and the financial things, our kids should still continue to benefit from the hard work that the board and the administration has put in place over the years.”

Holmquist and Schiavo, a Suffolk County police officer, were not available for comment Tuesday night.

The newly elected will officially take their seats on the seven-member board in July, replacing incumbents Anne Marie Sorkin, Carole Catapano and Jay Marcucci, who did not seek re-election.