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Smithtown school board president Gladys Waldron sworn in
Photo credit: Erin Geismar | Main Street in Smithtown. (Feb. 20, 2012)
Smithtown school board president Gladys Waldron has been sworn in for her third one-year term.
Waldron, a board member for 36 years, and vice president Theresa Knox were unanimously re-elected at a July 2 board meeting.
Knox, who was re-elected to the board in May, was sworn in at the July 2 meeting. Trustee Louis Liguori, who also won re-election in May, will be sworn in at a future meeting, Waldron said.
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Waldron said the district is struggling to maintain programs without piercing the state cap on tax levy increases. In May, Smithtown voters approved a $224,381,704 budget that raises taxes 3.6 percent, which is equal to the state’s tax cap.
Working within the tax cap “is going to be a problem,” Waldron said, adding that her goal is “preserving our programs we fought so hard for, for so many years.”
She said she will fight for the district’s “fair share” of state aid.
Waldron said the district may have to close one of its 13 schools because enrollment is projected to continue falling over the next decade. She said she has seen the district’s enrollment drop from 16,000 to 10,000.
Waldron, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, is a former Westbury public schoolteacher who works part-time — teaching parenting classes for teenage mothers — for Western Suffolk BOCES.
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