Videos: Board of Education Interview Round-Up

With Tuesday's Board of Education elections approaching, Riverhead Patch has compiled the four video interviews previously posted here for viewers to take a look at who they think are fit to fill the three vacant positions.

Voting will take place at the Riverhead High School gymnasium from 6 a.m. - 9 p.m.

A brief introduction to the candidates: 

Ann Cotten De-Grasse is the current Board of Education president and is seeking her second term on the board. 

After running on a platform of "bringing civility to the board" in 2007, she has since turned her focus to passing a capital improvements bond. After a $122.9 million bond failed roughly a year ago, she has served on a committee dedicated to presenting another, more palatable bond, to taxpayers in the school district. 

Greg Meyer is the current Board of Education vice-president and is also seeking his second term on the school board. 

Meyer, who lives near the Wading River border, says he "bleeds blue and white." He is a volunteer football coach and Wading River fire fighter, and works as an emergency medical tecnhician at Brookhaven National Lab. 

Patricia Sapienza-Brown is running with DeGrasse and Meyer. Both Meyer and DeGrasse have cited their ability to get along with Sapienza-Brown as reasons for their own support for her.

She currently serves as the director of transportation at Peconic Bay Medical Center, and has worked there for 28 years. She cites her heavy involvement with alumni events at Riverhead schools and fund raising experience at PBMC as experiences that would lend well to her role on the school board. 

Sapienza-Brown, a Riverhead High School graduate who has a granddaughter coming into the school system in coming years, said she "would have to take a look" at any future bond proposal before supporting it. 

Kim Ligon is also a Riverhead High School grad with two children currently in the school system. Ligon said she decided to run because once her kids got into Riverhead schools, she said she wanted to get involved. 

Ligon cited her past experiences playing on team sports and running the usher and dance ministries at her church as experiences that would lend well to her role on the school board.