Four candidates in BOE race for two trustee seats

Four candidates will be vying for the two available seats on the Northport-East Northport Board of Education (BOE) when the annual budget vote and election of trustees is held May 18. Running for reelection is Victoria Buscareno, who won her first BOE election in 2018. The three other candidates are Warner Frey, Carol Taylor and Tammie Topel. Fellow trustee David Stein, whose term is also up, is not running again.

Let’s take a look at each candidate.

Victoria Buscareno

Lifelong Northport resident Victoria Buscareno first joined the Board of Education as trustee in 2018, and has been a special education teacher at Syosset High School for the past four years.

A class of 1992 Northport High School graduate, education is in her family’s genes. Her two oldest daughters (ages 22 and 21) and her 19-year-old son are or will soon be teachers (English, health and physical education, and history, respectively). “We're breeding them in the Buscareno household,” she joked. Her youngest daughter is a seventh grader at Northport Middle School.

Trustee Buscareno said her decision to run for reelection was, first thing, a family decision. (Her children and husband all approved.) Being involved in the district is a major time commitment, and she believes her family is not only used to her running around, but proud of her, too. She attends almost every evening PTA meeting, is a member of the Drug and Alcohol Task Force, and stays up-to-date with district sports, “not just because I’m a board member, but because I want to feel connected. I love this town and I love this school district.”

Victoria believes her biggest asset stems from her past experience on the board. “I’ve learned a lot over these three years. I think I am definitely a more confident candidate,” she said. “You have to be a really good communicator, you have to be a really great listener and you have to be able to come to the table collaborating with others, checking your ego at the door, and working to make the best decisions for these kids and the community.”

Regarding this year’s race, Trustee Buscareno said she is excited more people are getting involved and running for the open seats. Community service is the best thing you can do to give back to your community, she said. “I don’t want to be on an all like-minded board. I want to hear different perspectives from different people because we’re representing the people in our community and you have to be able to listen to all the stakeholders.”

Trustee Buscareno does not have a social media page for this election but welcomes in-person conversation both at the upcoming candidate forums and around town.

Warner Frey

A retired NYPD police captain who recently left the force after more than 20 years, Warner has a long history in town. He attended Bellerose Avenue Elementary School and Middleville Junior High (now Northport Middle School) before graduating from Northport High School in 1989. He has three sons (ages 9-15) in the district, and he volunteers extensively at Dickinson Avenue Elementary School, where his wife is PTA president.

Warner’s mother and father, ages 87 and 89 respectively, live in the Northport house Warner grew up in. He is now their primary caretaker.

He joined the race for BOE, he said, because he loves the community and feels the board needs somebody who has gained knowledge from the ground up, “someone who went to these schools and has their kids in these schools.”

He believes the perspective he gained in his time with the NYPD would be an asset to the board, and promises to be an autonomous presence, whose primary duty is to support the community’s students, families, taxpayers, and teachers.

While Warner admits that the past 18-24 months have been tumultuous for the board and school community, he says he hasn’t lost sight of all the positives the district has to offer, and is grateful to be a part of it. “We were challenged, we had a lot of things we had to deal with, some expectedly, some unexpectedly, but overall we survived,” he said. The schools and their staff are committed, he said, parents are energized, and the future is bright. “I’m very invigorated and I’m very into winning and getting on the board and really spreading this message that, ‘Hey listen, I know we’ve been through a lot but we are moving forward and at the end of the day, we live in a wonderful district.’”

You can contact Warner with questions about his candidacy at FreyforBOE@gmail.com.

Carol Taylor

Retiring Pulaski Road Elementary School teacher Carol Taylor began her career in the Northport-East Northport school district two decades ago, and has been a third grade teacher at Pulaski for the past 16 years. She is also the executive vice president of United Teachers of Northport, the district union that recently endorsed both Carol and Trustee Buscareno in the upcoming BOE election.

Carol credits the district’s “community-college-style high school” to guiding her children, now 42 and 27, into career certainty at an early age (they are a lawyer and teacher, respectively, and knew they wanted to be since participating in the high school’s special programs). Her late mother-in-law, Irene Taylor, was Assistant Superintendent of Instruction in the district, and worked in the NENUFSD for 32 years.

“I love our district and feel strongly that I can contribute to the conversation,” Carol said. She believes her decades-long “insider’s view” of the district, including work with central administration, has given her a unique perspective.

“Change is always difficult. Education is always evolving,” she said. As a teacher Carol is used to the occasional lack of equilibrium felt as districts have to adjust to changing times. She admits that this has been a challenging year and reshuffling during a pandemic, “is the fly in the ointment.” She is for a pause in the school closings and thinks it’s imperative to listen to the community before reaching a personal decision. “I want to be part of the continuous dialogue here,” she said.

Carol describes herself as pragmatic, open-minded and eager to communicate with district residents. She is running not as an indictment of current members whose terms are up, but because she wants to be part of the dialogue.

If she is elected to the BOE, she said, she will be “a vocal extension of the community who votes me in,” and is committed to listening to what parents want.

Carol does not have a social media page for this election; she recommends people attend the upcoming candidate PTA forum, where there will be a Q&A.

Tammie Topel

Tammie Topel is no stranger to the board, having served two nonconsecutive terms as trustee as recently as 2018. She said she has been toying with the idea of returning for a year now, and that the April 8 BOE meeting on the budget, and more specifically the board’s lack of transparency regarding critical issues surrounding the budget and redistricting, pushed her into action.

A resident of Northport for the past 29 years, Tammie considered her work with the board done once her two children graduated from Northport High School. She stayed active in education, redirecting her energies as a two-term SEPTA president, and is currently completing her certification in special education advocacy.

She says she is seeking election now for the younger crowd, parents who may be too busy to get involved, or to keep up with the inner workings of the district, as well as those with children in the district who may fear retribution for speaking up. ”With everything that’s happening, I just had to get involved,” she said.

She promises “total transparency” if elected to the BOE and does not hold back from criticizing the current administration. Tammie believes the district has been hiding behind the technology practices so prevalent since Covid, including online Zoom meetings that oftentimes discourage participation and dialogue.

“They do not want anyone to confront them and challenge their narrative,” she said. Tammie has been actively vocal in her opposition to the budget increase, and questions other district issues, on social media and her own Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tammi....

“I don’t sit still and I don’t cave to the narrative,” she said.

Tammie can be reached with questions about her candidacy at tammietopel4boe@gmail.com.

Find out more about each candidate during a PTA-sponsored candidate forum scheduled for May 11 at 7pm, and an online interactive candidate forum hosted by the Northport Journal on May 13. More information to come.