Executive Director's Message

Why Local School Board Associations Matter

Recently I was asked the question, “What value is there in being a member of N-SSBA?” This is a fair question and one that I asked myself when I was a board member. There are times when local issues require local advocacy, or a regional school board association makes a difference. Here are some examples of where N-SSBA has made a difference.

A couple of years ago there was an initiative at the state level to make LIPA a full public power authority as opposed to the hybrid set up that is now in place with LIPA and PSEG. We were concerned about what would happen to the PILOT payments school districts currently receive. I was appointed by the legislature to the LIPA Advisory panel and made sure PILOT payments would be preserved for our schools no matter how this initiative ended up. In addition, a Nassau County school district had a specific concern regarding a LIPA PILOT payment in their district, and we helped to set up a meeting with the chair of the local government services committee in the Assembly to work on their issue.

N-SSBA has also facilitated CTE opportunities for districts connecting a Suffolk County school district with the Marine Industrial Base to help pay for welding machines and help implement a welding program in their district to help rebuild the Navy submarine fleet. Soon there will be more programs placed in other districts across Long Island.

We have spearheaded a Mental Wellness Workgroup in which community-based providers and superintendents get together to try and develop new ways to help with the mental health crisis. As a result of the work from this group a new CTE program will soon be launched in several districts in Suffolk County to help students who are interested in becoming mental health professionals.

Another new program that came out of this group was called "Handle with Care.” To summarize “Handle with Care” is a program where law enforcement responds to an address and depending on the reason for the like an overdose as an example and notice school aged children, they send a notification to the school with no details other than “123 Main Street, Handle with Care.” The school then knows that something happened and looks up the address and knows which students are impacted. Instead of disciplining a student for not having their homework or acting out, they handle them with “extra care.” This program is currently in place for all of Southampton Town schools and a new pilot program has been launched in the Huntington School District with the Suffolk County Sheriff. There will be a state bill forthcoming to implement the program statewide.

This past legislative session, a bill was proposed to require only Long Island school districts to enter into project labor agreements for any capital projects over $1 million dollars. This bill would increase costs for capital projects for Long Island districts. This bill passed in the Senate and was not voted on in the Assembly. We have continued our advocacy against this Long Island specific bill as we believe it will be re-introduced this coming year.

Last year, the Suffolk County legislature tried to pass a bill to limit executive compensation for non-profit organizations or require the County to cancel the contracts with these organizations. This presented issues for Eastern and Western Suffolk BOCES and had the potential to further decrease the availability of mental health, food pantry, and other vital services that many of our families rely on. We advocated

strongly against this bill and it was defeated in the legislature.

In Nassau County we have over the years successfully fought against the County trying to end the Nassau County guarantee to hold school districts harmless against successful tax certioraris due to the County's current assessment system.

Most recently the Suffolk County Board of Elections sent notices to school districts that they would no longer be providing voting machines and election day services to schools in May 2026. N-SSBA immediately acted and set up a meeting with representatives from the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association (SCSSA) and the Commissioners from the Board of Elections to work on alternatives to minimize the logistical and financial impact.

In addition, we work closely with local organizations like the Long Island Association (LIA) to work on regional advocacy issues, workforce development programs, and work in partnership with our business community.

We partner with our local superintendents’ associations (NCCSS & SCSSA) to align advocacy efforts and work together when dealing with media relations. We have formed strong working relationships with our federal, state, and local elected officials to help Long Island public education continue to be one of the best systems in the country.

We fight to make sure regional costs are properly recognized in all funding formulas because it costs more to do business on Long Island than in other areas. We continue to provide local training to our members both in-person and virtual on relevant timely topics to help the governance teams stay informed. We are always available to our members to answer questions on roles and responsibilities.

Local school board associations matter and we are proud to work with and for you.



Thank you for your support and membership in N-SSBA.