With the filing period for candidate petitions now over, it appears that there will be a school board race in Carle Place, but no race at all in Westbury.

According to Superintendent Dr. Robert D. Pinckney's office, three candidates will vie for three seats on the Westbury School Board.

These candidates are long-term incumbent Larry Zaino, local Realtor Carlos Aristy, and attorney Floyd Ewing.

Neither Alfonso Sposito nor Arthur Outram chose to make a bid for re-election this year.

In Carle Place, meanwhile, Wallace Ryall will stand for re-election in a contested race. He is being challenged by first-time school board aspirant Eric Rogers.

The irony is that the nine-year resident of the Carle Place School District portion of the Village of Westbury is actually a refugee from the Westbury School District.

"The fact is, I moved into the Carle Place School District from another part of Westbury, in part, due to the politics that were going on in my former district," Rogers said.

Rogers, a CPA by profession, currently has one child in kindergarten at the Cherry Lane School, and "two more on the way."

He said his decision to run for the school board was a natural progression from his involvement on the district's Budget and Finance and Facilities Committees.

"Basically, I guess you can say I'm running because I feel the current school board has abandoned the voters," Rogers said.

"It seems to me, the board in recent years has ignored the recommendations of the budget and finance committee, it's done things like disband ¬ or at least not convene ¬ the pre-K advisory committee ¬ and more than anything, when it comes to the advisory boards it does create, the board members failed to be active participants.

"Personally, I'd like to see the board more actively involved in these kinds of things, because sometimes I feel as if these boards work for three months and then their suggestions fall flat because the board doesn't really understand them."

The Westbury Times attempted to contact Mr. Ryall for this article, but due to his busy schedule as a school teacher, he was unable to be interviewed for this article.

Look for more on the Carle Place School Board race in next week's issue.

School Board Election Day is May 19.