Massapequa School Board Candidate: Christine Lupetin Perrino

Christine Lupetin Perrino is a candidate in the May 17 Massapequa School Board Election.

She has been a resident of Massapequa for 24 years. She has two children currently in the district and a daughter in college.

Perrino is a former sales and merchandising executive in the fashion industry and an active PTA member.

She has served on the School Board for nine years and currently serves as board president.

We recently sat down with Perrino at the school district offices and heard some of her opinions on the issues facing voters.

On the district’s financial planning:

“I think we’ve planned very frugally in our spending, but our reserves are in such a place where we can utilize them. We utilized them last year, and this year. We have another three, or four years and then at that point there are things that are opening up where the money will be offset by bonds that are maturing. So it’s a comprehensive, long-range plan. “

On Governor Cuomo’s proposed two percent tax cap: 

“If you look at some other areas of the country, that have put the tax cap in place, on the tax levy side of things, not on the budget side of things, it has disintegrated their education system. California, Massachusetts, it’s really disheartening to see, because once you cap a tax rate it means you can only spend so much. It erodes your programs over the years.

On whether there should be teacher layoffs:

“Laying off teachers would mean larger class sizes. I guess that because we’ve had this long range financial plan, we are in the position of protecting the program as it is. I have been a strong proponent of smaller classes, so I don’t think at this point that’s something I’d be willing to do.”

On eliminating administrative positions:

“We have eliminated administrative positions when we did our restructuring and we will continue to revisit that and if need be we will eliminate administrative positions. We have also maybe not eliminated positions but changed the responsibility of the position and thus changed the title of the position. That has saved us money.”

On the salaries of the district’s administrators:

“You have to look and see what the going rate for salary is in certain positions...You can’t just throw somebody in there and say, ‘OK, do the job.’ You need a professional. You need an expert in education and in this day and age you need an expert in finance. I think when you look at the salaries of our administrative team you will find by and large that it’s in the middle of the road for Nassau County. We certainly do not pay administrators at the top level, but we get results that are towards the top level.”