Serving Roslyn, East Hills, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, Roslyn Heights, Greenvale, Old Westbury and North Hills
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Friday, May 10, 2024
Vol. 12, No. 19
GUIDE TO MOTHER’S DAY
PALESTINIAN CHILD TREATED AT COHEN’S
PAGES 21-24
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Kids’ ed center owner runs for Herricks board Gupta, Quraishi, Lo, Ratra, Stuart vie for one seat, election set for May 21 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 fam-
ily 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 Continued on Page 33
PHOTO COURTESY OF MAYOR MICHAEL KOBLENZ, BRIAN MEYERSON, CLARE POMERANTZ, DAVID OZER, FANNY BONEH, ALEX SILBER AND CARMIT ROZENZVIG
East Hills community members walk in solidarity with the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
East Hills marches for Hamas hostages B Y T A Y L O R H E R Z L I C H Their Lives, a global initiative that mit Rozenzvig said. Around 500 community members from towns on Long Island marched Sunday in Roslyn to demand the safe return of the Hamas hostages, an event organizer said. The march was part of Run for
BEST
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2024
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COUNTY WWW.THEISLAND360.COM/CONTEST2024
calls upon community members to meet weekly for an 18-minute walk to call for the return of the hostages. The length of the walk derives from the Hebrew word for 18 minutes, which also means “alive,” Roslyn resident and Israeli-American Car-
vote
The walk was organized by East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz, Trustee Brian Meyerson, Trustee Clara Pomerantz, David Ozer, Fanny Boneh, Alex Silber and Rozenzvig. “It was amazing to see how the Continued on Page 33
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