Voters to Fill Two School Board Seats

By Mary B. Pasciak

Voters in the Lancaster School District will elect two men from a field of four to the School Board on Tuesday.

Joseph A. Casimino, a retired educator; Leonard C. Goodman, a retired corrections counselor; Kenneth E. Graber, an administrative law judge who is the only incumbent in the race; and Robert Phibbs, a business development manager, are vying for seats on the board.

Lorraine Bona did not seek re-election to the board.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the gym at Lancaster High School, 1 Forton Drive.

Casimino, 62, worked in the district for 33 years as a music teacher and music department chairman, then became principal of St. Mary’s High School until January, when he retired. He would like the district to strengthen its math and science program to improve student scores. Lowering the class sizes in science labs would be a good first step toward improving student performance, he said.

The district also should hone its focus on technology, he said.

“I think we should always be on top of new technology,” said Casimino, who has adult children. “[Students] need to know all the new programs, all the innovations that are coming out. We’d have to invest in the software and hardware to do these things.”

Goodman, 76, worked as a corrections counselor at the Attica and Wende correctional facilities. He criticized the current board’s decision to offer a three-year contract to the new superintendent. Such an agreement should not be for a “certain period of time,” he said, because it encourages superintendents to serve their time, then leave for another job.

Goodman would like to see the schools remain open on weekends and in the evenings to provide more activities for children, he said. He also would like to take a closer look at the maintenance of buildings and grounds.

“What goes on, who does it, how long does it take?” he said.

He has run twice before for the board but has not been elected.

Graber, 56, the current board president, is seeking his second term on the board. An attorney, he is the administrative law judge for the state Division of Parole.

The contracts the board approved with its unions last year were “reasonable,” he said, and employees agreed to move to a single health insurer — an indication of good relations with the unions.

He would like to see a fine-arts academy established at the high school, he said, something the superintendent has said is likely to happen.

“I’d like to see some sort of dance program started,” said Graber, whose youngest child is in high school. “That way [students] would already have their foot in the door with some of the colleges.”

Phibbs, 37, is a business development manager for Brady Corp., which makes identification products. He has two school-age children.

“At the end of the day, the bottom line is, we still need to provide a solid education to our children,” he said. “What I’m not interested in is spending money needlessly and creating an unnecessary burden to the taxpayers. One area I think costs could be controlled a little bit better is energy usage.”

The district could save money by turning the temperature in buildings down a degree or two, and turning off lights that aren’t in use, he said.

e-mail: mpasciak@buffnews.com

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