Calling himself a candidate who can appeal to a broad sector of the Roslyn School District population, Stanley Stern has announced his candidacy for the Roslyn School Board.

Other candidates for the board, whose election will be held May 18, are incumbent BOE member Karen Bodner, Judith Wilner, Clifford Saffron, and Geoffrey Goldberg. The Roslyn News hopes to have profiles of all the candidates in upcoming issues.

A resident of Roslyn for 36 years, Stern recently retired from a long career with the New York City Board of Education, where he served as a teacher, an assistant principal and a principal, the latter position at P.S. 206 in Rego Park, Queens.

"I worked with local school boards developing budgets, planning educational programs and hiring teachers and supervisors," he said. "Upon retirement, I served as a consultant to the New York City Board of Education."

In Roslyn, Stern and his wife, Barbara, who is well known to local residents as the longtime Director of Building Blocks Day Care Center, raised two children, both of whom still live in the Roslyn area. As a result, Stern has five grandchildren, attending three of the five schools in the district.

"As a candidate for the position of Trustee on the Roslyn School Board, I believe I have the ability and qualifications necessary to bring about the changes that are desperately needed," Stern said.

"But let's not forget our most important job: to develop a school system which understands the needs of all our children, respects parent and community input and responds in a professional way," he continued. "Only then will we have a cooperative system geared to successfully educating each and every child."

Concerning the subject that's on everyone's mind, the alleged embezzlement of funds from the 2001-2002 school budget by a former school district employee, Stern said: "I was angered to learn, as was most of this community, that a large amount of money had been stolen from the Roslyn Public Schools. Furthermore, I was shocked to discover that this information had been kept from the public for almost two years!

"Let us now turn our anger toward actions which are constructive," he continued. "We should pursue repayment of the monies through criminal and civil actions and we should institute procedures which will prevent the recurrence of such an incident. Our hard-earned monies, in the form of school taxes, must be used to provide outstanding educational programs for all of our children, and we, the public, must know that we are getting our money's worth."

On the same subject, Stern said that, if elected, he would work towards getting a process into effect that will "prevent a theft from ever happening again."

More specifically, Stern noted that the school district had only one person signing all of their checks. At least two people, he added, should be signing such checks. In all, more oversight on the board over such matters is needed.

The candidate also said that he would not run a negative campaign for the board. Instead, he would highlight the expertise he has gained in his long career as an educator, which he claims is the greatest strength of his candidacy.

Stern added that as a senior citizen himself, he is sensitive towards the concerns of that sector of the population, while having grandchildren in the school system, gives him a special perspective on what goes on inside the classroom.

"I want to reflect the needs of the community and have them actively pursued," he said. "I would be proud to serve this community as a representative of parents and children."

Finally, Stern said that his candidacy has been formally endorsed by Denise Drexler, the co-president of the Roslyn High School PTA; Zena Korn, co-president of Roslyn Middle School; and Faith Russo, co-president of the East Hills School. Ms. Korn said that she is "thrilled" that Stern is running for the school board and that she has been urging him to make such a run for "many years."