Congratulations to Great Neck for electing the two most-qualified candidates to the Board of Education and for overwhelmingly approving the budgets for the school district and library.

It’s obvious that the voters learned their lesson as to what happens when they vote for a candidate with zero experience and zero qualifications (i.e., George Santos).

I was also gratified to see that the citizens of Great Neck prioritized substance and knowledge over rhetoric and fear-mongering.

The candidate forums provided an excellent contrast between candidates that knew and understood the issues at hand and those that made unsubstantiated claims about the role of the Board of Education.

As President Rebecca Sassouni pointed out multiple times, the Board of Education is not involved in determining curriculum or deciding which books students should read.

A candidate for any elected office needs to know the duties and responsibilities of the office for which they are running.

I have two suggestions for future candidate forums:  (i) they should only be held in person – this way voters will be able to see which candidates can think on their feet and properly articulate their positions, and which candidates are reading canned responses and have the ability to shut off their cameras when not speaking, and (ii) the candidates should not be provided questions in advance of the forums.

Congratulations again to Rebecca Sassouni and Joanne Chan and all of Great Neck.

Steven Khadavi

Great Neck