Four vie for three seats on school board
RHINEBECK, N.Y. » Four candidates will be on the May 17 ballot for three Board of Education seats carrying three-year terms.
The positions are being sought by Mary-Kay Lombino, of 78 South Park; Dov Frankel, of 5 Crowell Ave.; Juliet Gorman, of 373 Nine Partners Road; and incumbent Steve Jenkins, of 84 Knollwood Road.
Lombino, 55, is curator for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. She has lived in the district for 15 years and with her hus- band, Eric, Steinman has one child.
Lombino graduated from Rye High School in 1985. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Richmond in Virginia in 1989 and received a master’s degree in art history and museum studies from the University of Southern California in 1995.
Lombino would like the district to focus on how it deals with the impact of COVID and similar events that could affect student learning.
“I think it’s very important for the district to have an opportunity to be able to plan,” she said. “I think long-term planning with an eye to sustainability is essential.”
Frankel, 36, is a software engineer for Orion Resource Partners. He has lived in the district for four years and with his wife, Christine, has one child.
Frankel graduated in 1969 from Arlington High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in film and computer science from New York University in 2008. He is a volunteer with the Hour of Code youth program and a coach with Rhinebeck Soccer League and Rhinebeck-Red Hook Little League.
Frankel expects to have a better understanding of district needs after listening to administrators.
“There are no specific things that I have in mind and I’ll be working with … the rest of the board to help fill me in on where we stand,” he said.
Gorman, 42, is a self-employed human resources consultant. She has lived in the district since 2020 and with her husband, Elliott Mal- kin, has two children.
Gorman graduated in 1997 from Dalton School in New York City and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Oberlin College in Ohio in 2001.
“The history is that in the past there’s been declining enrollment in the schools,” she said. “That has improved of late in part because of new families moving to the area and obviously there’s been some budgetary help coming from the state. So it’s about keeping the momentum that we have in terms of a stable budget.”
Jenkins, 59, is co-owner of Sterling Manor Financial. He has lived in the district for 17 years and with his wife, Kathy Malaga, has two children.
Jenkins earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from New York Institute of Technology in 1986 and received a master’s degree in finance from Cass Business School in London in 2003. He is a member of the Rhinebeck Science Foundation and is on the Assessment Board of Review Committee for the town and village.
“There’s a lot of money through the federal government through these various programs that I think need to be allocated appropriately to support social and emotional ability and growth,” he said. “They are being assessed and we’re putting procedures in place for before school and after school programs. We’re looking at how we use space and time and what have we learned through COVID and remote learning that can be brought into an everyday classroom setting.”