New Faces on Commack School Board

By a margin of 50 votes, James Tampellini ousted incumbent candidate Jeffrey Egan in the Commack School Board Election Tuesday night. He will be sworn in this July, along with another newcomer, Steve Hartman, who ran against Jarrett Behar. Hartman won by 247 votes.  

Tampellini, an attorney, may be new on the board, but he’s no stranger to the process. Tampellini has avidly criticized the current board over the past school year for what he has called a lack of transparency and poor financial decisions – two matters he is hoping to improve during his term.  

“I’m hoping we can get past our differences and do what’s best for the district,” he said. “Now we have our work ahead of us to try and see if we can work with everyone on the board and make the changes that need to be made.”  

Hartman, who works as an engineer and serves as president of the library board, said that his main goal is to keep student programs alive despite the economic climate.  

“I’m excited for my first term as a trustee and I really want to thank the community for coming out and supporting me in my campaign,” he said.

On the topic of transparency, Tampellini said that he would like to see the board minutes posted online, so that residents can see how their elected officials voted. He also said he is looking to make the budget clearer to residents, by creating an easier format for voters to understand, such as spelling out line items, instead of printing a budget code number.  

“Hopefully we can try to make some changes. We can’t do miracles but at least we are going to try to start somewhere,” he said.  

While Tampellini was elected, Proposition Two, which would have raised the number of board trustees from five to seven, failed. Tampellini started the petition to expand representation on the board, which led to the proposal being put on the ballot.

Tampellini said he was disappointed it didn’t pass since it would have given residents a chance not to go up against an incumbent and allow for new ideas on the board. However, he feels that the proposal wasn’t given a fair shot due to the phrasing of the question on the ballot. Tampellini said he would have liked to have seen someone from the PTA run for candidacy in the summer, but the organization came out against the proposal. The propsition failed by 588 votes.

Tampellini and Hartman will be sworn in this July.