3 running unopposed for school board seats
Two incumbents and a third candidate are running unopposed for Highland school board seats in the May 15 election.
On the ballot will be incumbent Michael Bakatsias, incumbent Edward Meisel and Camille Adoma. They will serve three-year terms.
Board member Debbie Pagno, whose term is up this year, did not file a petition seeking re-election.
Voting will be 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the high school, 320 Pancake Hollow Road.
Camille Adoma
Adoma, 39, of 19 Hilltop Lane, Highland, is assistant principal at Haviland Middle School in Hyde Park and a first-time candidate for the board.
“We (Highland) don’t offer as much as our neighboring districts,” she said. “There’s no technology courses at the high school level. At the middle school, there’s technology offered [for] grades six, seven, eight, but when you get to the high school, there’s nothing.
“When you look at any job for the future, technology’s a part of it,” Adoma
said. “Whether it’s teaching kids how to become more familiar with the technology, teaching kids programming languages, there’s so many jobs that we don’t know about, yet they will involve technology for our students. And to have kids leave the district without being able to get that experience, I think doesn’t make them competitive with their peers.”
Adoma has lived in the district for 12 years. She and her husband, Osei, have two children.
Michael Bakatsias
Bakatsias, 47, of 2 Mayer Drive, Highland, is an assistant superintendent in the Marlboro school district and is seeking a third term on the board.
“I think the first priority is to continue assisting our newly appointed superintendent of schools in his mission to improve all schools and district services,” Bakatsias said.
Also, he said, “I’d like to see more electives offered at our high school. I think in comparison with other area high schools, I think Highland schools just doesn’t offer the same number of current electives. Some examples would be business and computer classes, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) course work.”
Bakatsias has lived in the district for 20 years. He and his wife, Eleni, have three children.
Edward Meisel
Meisel, 49, of 21 Mile Hill Road, Highland, is a freelance writer and is seeking a second term on the board.
“Obviously security is the number one priority,” he said. “We have in place a plan, and the way the district is functioning right now, they’re doing the[ir] best to ... maintain a safe environment. There’s more in the works involving the hardware and surveillance equipment.”
Meisel also said he would like to see the district develop STEM programs.
“The New York Times had an article [that said] 75 percent of the jobs that are going to be available involve STEM knowledge, technical engineering, mathematics, and of those, over half of them involve programming,” he said.
Meisel has lived in the district since 1995. He and his wife, Annmarie, have two children.