Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
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Friday, May 10, 2024
Vol. 73, No. 19
N E W H Y D E PA R K
GUIDE TO MOTHER’S DAY
PALESTINIAN CHILD TREATED AT COHEN’S
CLAVIN SUES MTA
PAGES 21-24
PAGE 2
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Surendra Gupta joins Herricks ed board race
TREE PLANTING
Education center owner campaigns to bolster district’s diversity acceptance Surendra Gupta, a longtime Herricks resident and owner of two children’s education centers in Nassau County, is running for the Herricks Board of Education along with four other hopefuls. Gupta, physician Shaheda Quraishi, financial adviser Eric Lo and two other candidates are competing in the contested race for one of the two seats up for election. Incumbent Trustee Brian Hassan is running for re-election. Challenger Maria Bono is running for his current seat. Newcomers Gupta, Quraishi, Lo, Ravinder S. Ratra and Russell M. Stuart are all running for the seat left vacant by Trustee Nancy Feinstein, who is stepping down from the board after serving for 12 years. Gupta lives in North Hills. He has been a Herricks district resident for 51 years and graduated from the Herricks district. Gupta has a 12th grader in the district and a son who graduated from Herricks in 2018 and now serves as a naval officer. The North Hills resident runs two family-owned children’s education centers in New Hyde Park and Hicksville called Smart Brain International. “My wife and I have run this family business in children’s education for
the last 21 years and quite successfully. We understand education as an overall thinking,” Gupta said. “We’ve dealt with children here that have learning struggles and the other side of the gamut where kids are coming in and they got straight As. We understand that a one-path type of approach is not necessarily the best thing for the general student population overall.” The resident said his biggest concern for the district is intolerance toward diverse students and families. “Diversity is celebrated on some levels and very much not celebrated on other levels,” Gupta said. “Comments that sometimes people make. ‘The neighborhood has changed. It’s not the same as it’s been in the past. We have such-and-such nationalities coming in. It changes the neighborhood.’ Things like that.” While Gupta acknowledged that addressing these tolerance issues is not an overnight fix, he said he hopes to take a multi-pronged approach to diversity conversations if elected. He said he wants to create an environment where people begin talking about diversity more often and encourage small group conversations to take place. Regarding the district’s proposed budget and how the administration is handling costs due to child sex abuse Continued on Page 33
COURTESY OF COUNCILWOMAN MARIANN DALIMONTE
Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte, Supervisor Jennifer DeSena and the New Hyde Park Lions Club plant trees at Herrick’s Ball Field and Caemmerer Park to celebrate Arbor Day.
F.P. clerk Susan Walsh retires after 25 years B Y T A Y L O R H E R Z L I C H Joe O’Grady as the new village clerk fice for 10 years before joining the
village as secretary to the mayor and on Tuesday night. Though originally born in board in 1999. Floral Park Village Clerk Susan “I always loved working with Walsh has retired after working with Brooklyn, Walsh moved to Floral Park in 1968. She worked as an of- people, especially in the real estate the village for 25 years. Continued on Page 34 Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald swore in fice manager at a local real estate of-
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