N. Babylon School Board Winners in No Mood to Celebrate

The picture does not tell the story.

Geri-Ann McNamee and Heather Rowland posed and smiled for a photo Tuesday night after they won seats on the North Babylon Board of Education. Neither of them was happy. 

"I'm devastated," said Rowland, referring to the defeat of the proposed school budget. "It's not even bittersweet. That meant much more to me than getting the Board of Ed seat." 

Between them, Rowland and McNamee have five young children in the district. 

"Their futures are here and to think that we have to start digging ourselves out of a hole, it's disheartening," said McNamee, who edged incumbent Bob Scheid by a margin of 1,133-1,078 to win a three-year term on the board. 

McNamee, an elementary school teacher in another district, said voters were "misinformed," in part because of the media focusing on the fact that the budget proposal exceeded the state's tax cap. 

"Taxes were going to go up either way," said McNamee, speaking of the difference of about $50 in the tax increase between the budget proposal and one within the tax cap. "We are going from getting everything we wanted for our children that we were fighting for to hopefully saving some of it." 

In her second run for the school board, Rowland, a school psychologist, defeated incumbent Jay Shinnick by a margin of 1,424-759. 

"I think there is an apathy in the community," Rowland said of the budget results. "I think people just weren't informed." 

Rowland and McNamee will be sworn into office in July. Both plan to attend Thursday's Board of Education meeting at Robert Moses Middle School where the discussion will shift from what to add into the budget to how to cut $1 million from it to setup a budget revote next month.