"Pendulum swings back" says Woodstock Times

The Woodstock Times has a cover story on the election, by Lisa Childers, as follows:

Ralph Legnini, Donna Flayhan, Ann McGillicuddy and Laurie Osmond, the block of four candidates who ran on a platform to put a moratorium on the Onteora Central School District's Grade 5-8 middle school proposal and pledged to keep the currently operating elementary schools open, secured a landslide victory over three incumbents, Mary-Jane Bernholz, Cindy O'Connor and Rita Vanacore. Osmond, the fourth place finisher, will fill the unexpired term of Herb Rosenfeld, who resigned in April.

Onteora administrators were pleased to see that all four propositions on the ballot, including the $48,215,077 school budget for 2008/2009, a 3.08 percent increase in spending, were easily approved in the May 20 election. Also meeting with voters approval was a proposition, rejected twice in the last two years, to approve $189,127.32 for the purchase of two new school buses.

District superintendent Leslie Ford was thrilled that all four propositions passed. "This is really good news for kids, we're going to be able to work on the facilities upgrades, we're going to get new buses and the child safety zone, this is really good news."

Results from the towns were tabulated at Onteora Middle/High school after the 9 p.m. closing of the polls. However, even before the last town votes from Shandaken and Lexington were called in, it was clear that the three incumbents were defeated.

Although O'Connor, Bernholz and Vanacore achieved their highest votes in their home town of Olive, it was not enough to secure a win. Fewer votes were cast in Olive (1,083) than the 1,525 in 2005, when townwide anger boiled over due to the imposition of the Large Parcel provision of state law by the school board that caused Olive taxes to rise an average of 60 percent. In contrast, more voters came out this year in Woodstock (1,001), West Hurley (738) and especially Shandaken (812), where the front running candidate Legnini outpaced the leading incumbent O'Connor, by 751-95. (Town vote totals are based on the budget proposition, a yes-or-no deal.)

Legnini totaled 2,460 votes, with Woodstock resident Donna Flayhan close behind with 2,379. Legnini appeared stunned by the result. "I am overwhelmed that the community spoke and got to vote on the direction that they want the schools to go in." He said come July, when the new school year begins and the new board members take office, that they would work on the procedure to overturn the Grade 5-8 middle school proposal. Flayhan agreed. "We have a mandate to move forward to fix the schools," she said. "That is what we promised to do and make sure we keep the student teacher ratios low...because that is the best learning environment and the people have spoken, democracy has spoken."

Of the three incumbents, O'Connor tallied the most votes, 1,446, far below the last winner, Osmond, who finished with 2,267. Bernholz tallied 1,384 and Vanacore, 1,301. Once the totals came in, all three left the High school auditorium and moved toward the cafeteria to approve the votes. They all refused to comment, with Olive Matters leader Judith Boggess and O'Connor's sister, Lisa Valvo sweeping them away. "I think you should leave them alone," said Valvo.

Vanacore said, "No comment. I am not going to comment at all to anybody."

Some cracks may have appeared in the previously monolithic Olive vote, also. Legnini, who is an Olive resident, tallied 339 votes, slightly more than 30 percent in the town. One year ago, with significantly lower turnout, Marino D'Orazio, also an Olive resident, garnered only 94 there.

The total district vote for the budget of 3,633, less than 2000, 2001, 2005 and the peak of the last decade, 2002 - the year voters unseated trustee Joseph Doan - when 4,108 went to the polls. But it far surpassed last year's total of 2,232.



A function of democracy

Ann McGillicuddy, who came in third with 2,294 votes was beaming. "The people have spoken," she said. "I am really proud to be a member of this community. It was a grass roots effort by so many members of the Onteora community and I look forward to working with everyone in the community."

Legnini, Flayhan and McGillicuddy will serve full three-year terms. Osmond, who will fill Rosenfeld's unexpired term, was sworn in during the special school board meeting and will begin serving as a trustee immediately. "It was so heartwarming to see this community come together, it was great," said Osmond. "I think this is a sign of very good things to come." She thanked all the people who helped with the campaign and said she enjoyed talking to everyone in the school community.

For nearly a year Ford followed the school board's direction to create a Grade 5-8 middle school, to be located at the current site of the shared middle/high school, although with new construction added and extensive renovations. The plan would have called for the closing of one of the three currently functioning elementary schools, likely Phoenicia Elementary, and would have studied the relative merits of remaining at Woodstock Elementary or perhaps switching back to the now closed West Hurley Elementary. It would likely have required voters to approve borrowing approximately $70 million, a sum the consultants had said would have been somewhat offset by state aid and savings from closing an additional school. Farther down the road, the potential was for having a single campus in Boiceville.

Now that a new board intends to change that direction, Ford's thoughts on starting from scratch were optimistic. "That is a feature of working with the board," she said. "That is the democratic process so that's not something to be disappointed over."

High School senior Adam Pollock who came in last at 739 votes said he was happy with the outcome. "I ran my campaign on $300, so I think I did really well, I am not disappointed at all." He plans to run again next year