Serving Great Neck, G.N. Plaza, G.N. Estates, Kensington, Kings Point, Lake Success, Russell Gardens, Saddle Rock and Thomaston
$1.50
Friday, May 19, 2023
Vol. 98, No. 20
LIVING 50+
SARAH HUGHES SON OF N. HEMPSTEAD RUNNING FOR CONGRESS TRUSTEE ARRESTED
PAGES 21-32
PAGE 3
PAGE 6
Sassouni beats Tabari easily in ed board race
B R AV O !
Joanne Chan defeats Aili Zhang, district’s $272.1M budget passes BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z Great Neck Board of Education President Rebecca Sassouni decisively defeated challenger Niloufar Tabari, in a hotly contested race for trustee and the school budget passed by a wide margin on Tuesday. Sassouni received 4,008 votes compared to Tabari’s 2,686. District resident Joanne Chan also defeated Aili Zhang in the race for a vacant seat previously held by Trustee Jeff Shi, who did not run for re-election this year. Chan received 4,011 votes while Zhang received 2,620. The Board of Education elects a trustee to the post of president each year. The district’s $272.1 million budget was approved with 4,259 votes in favor and 2,261 votes against. The Great Neck Library’s $10 million budget also passed, receiving 3,809 votes in favor and 2,549 votes against. Great Neck has been home to Sassouni for 29 years, and her four children all attended Great Neck public schools. Sassouni, a lawyer practicing out of Carle Place, said she does not handle any matters in Great Neck. Sassouni, who was first elected to the board in 2017, said she was pleased with some of the practices adopted by
the board since she took over as president in 2021. These include the live-streaming of board meetings to make them more easily accessible. She lauded the board’s decision-making and collaborative work during an interview with Blank Slate Media earlier this year. “I think that our decision-making has become much more deliberative and more process-oriented, which I’m very proud of,” Sassouni said. “We are working together very collaboratively and very collegially in executive session and in public.” A mother of four, Chan has been a resident of Great Neck for 20 years, volunteering for 15 years in the Parent Teacher Associations of Saddle Rock Elementary School, Great Neck South Middle and South High Schools, and became co-president of the United Parent Teacher Council’s Total Community Involvement Committee in 2016, which oversees all the PTAs. Chan addressed the many issues the board faces, including the hiring of a new superintendent and negotiating contracts with Great Neck’s teachers, in a letter to Blank Slate Media. She touted her two decades of office management and Master’s from NYU, saying her educational and professional skills would serve the district Continued on Page 44
PHOTO COURTESY OF Y. CHOI
Three South High stufrtns performed in the 39th annual Young Musicians Concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center earlier this month.
Santos pleads not guilty to 13-count indictment BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z
funds and making false statements to Congress. The charges against Santos, whose U.S. Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty on Wednesday afternoon to fraudulent resume was exposed by a 13-count indictment, which includes the New York Times and other media allegations of wire fraud, theft of public outlets earlier this year, include seven
counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to Congress, officials announced Wednesday. Continued on Page 45
Visit thegreatnecknews.com or theisland360.com for the latest in breaking news.