One would expect that the president of any Board of Education should be fairly experienced to do that job. Anthony Falco has served as the Sachem Board of Education's president not only for the last three consecutive years, but also eight other times during his 24 years as a board member. He was also vice president four times and is running again this May to reclaim his board seat.
The Sachem Board of Education is not Falco's first contribution to the community. He became a member of the Sachem Youth Advisory Group (SYAG) 38 years ago when he began coaching his oldest son's baseball team. Falco and his wife of 46 years raised four children in Lake Grove – all have since graduated college and started lives of their own.
He feels the Sachem community is very much like a family as well.
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"I know many people say the same thing about where they live, but it really is like family here," he said. "This community has stuck together in tough times and it is one of the best on Long Island. Academically we are gaining great strides."
Falco became a board member to serve and give back to the community, which he also did as a New York City police officer for 23 years before retiring from the force in 1990. He also believes the size of the district helps a great deal.
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"We can offer more and we can give so much more because of our size," he said. "We also save money by the way we purchase for so many instead of a smaller amount of students."
Falco admits the taxes are not low but fair for what the district offers.
"The goal is to keep the taxes at an affordable rate," he said.
Although he recognizes the crisis New York State is in right now, he said it certainly is not the toughest time.
"Back at the beginning of the 1990's, $11 million in state aid was cut, and we lost 60-70 staff members," he said.
Not long after the community recovered from that the district voted for some tax increases that led to the opening of another middle school, a second high school and the full day kindergarten program.
While Falco is happy with the fact that taxes have stayed the same for the last couple of years, as the district has offered zero budget increases, the district faces some challenges in the 2011-2012 year.
"That is when the stimulus money runs out, so we have a challenge ahead of us," he said. "It is very important not to lose staff and try to maintain programs. Our task as board members is to try to keep taxes as low as possible while offering quality educational and extra curricular programs.
We have a great staff that offers a safe nurturing learning environment to all of our students as they develop and grow into contributing members of our community."
