F.P.-Bellerose BOE re-elects prez, veep

District opens comments for safety plan

BY BRANDON DUFFY

The Floral Park-Bellerose Board of Education re-elected President Beth Kierez and Vice President Jaclyn

O’Donohue to another one-year term during the Monday night meeting at the Floral Park-Bellerose School library.

Trustee Laura Trentacoste was also sworn into another three-year term after being re-elected earlier this year in an uncontested race. During the reorganization meeting, Kierez and Trustee Rose Peltonen were appointed to serve as the district’s liaisons to the Sewanhaka Central High School District, which has eight members serving from four middle school districts.

Kierez has spent the last two decades in the educational field, including as the current assistant principal at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens. She has lived in the district for over 15 years with her husband and four children.

O’Donohue, a registered nurse, has been active in several local organizations, including as president of the Wednesday Mother’s Club, Liz’s Day board member and co-leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop and son’s Cub Scout den. She has been a resident of the district for over 30 years and is a graduate of the district.

Trentacoste, a writer, is a graduate of both Floral Park-Bellerose School and Floral Park Memorial High School and has lived in the district for over two decades. She has previously served as vice president and president of the board.

During the board’s annual public hearing to accept the district-wide safety plan, district Facilities Director Fred Mandracchia went through the updates that were added from last year’s plan to the current one.

Public comment will remain open for comment on the safety plan and the Board of Education will approve a resolution to accept the plan prior to classes starting, Mandracchia said.

The first update to the plan was the installation of silent panic alarm systems in the district, which was signed into law last year by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The law was enacted in response to the mass shooting in February 2019 at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Fla. Mandracchia said there is cur-

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Hate Crime Act legislation requiring the federal government to better track hate crimes and bias incidents.

“We were able to see a historic alliance of the Jewish community and the Asian American community,” Meng said, “And that’s something that we are going to, with Weihau’s leadership, continue to strengthen and expand on here in Nassau County.”

Yan’s personal background starts in 1987, when he arrived in America as a high school foreign exchange student. He said he started his journey with two suitcases and hardly any English.

But soon, “I was soon over-

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CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: Deborah Flynn 516-307-1045 x218 dflynn@theisland360.com whelmed by the warmth and generosity of complete strangers,” Yan recalled, “And that motivated me to return and earn my bachelor’s and data master’s degree in computer science and to pursue my American dream…

“America has given me everything that I could only dream of and it’s time for me to give back to this great nation.”

He also wants to use his platform if elected to restore trust in local politicians, something waning since the George Santos fraud debacle. “I’m running to restore the trust and decency to our elected offices to ensure

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