Gerald M. Houck III, a Herricks resident for the past 16 years has announced that he is a candidate for board trustee in the upcoming Herricks School Board election to be held on May 15 at the Herricks Community Center, 999 Herricks Road, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Houck, a Nassau County Police Department Civilian Radio Dispatcher for the 911 emergency system, has a degree in computer programming from New York University.

He is married to the former Linda Fleischer, a registered nurse at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, a lifelong resident and graduate of Herricks High School. They are the parents of a 12-year-old son attending Herricks Middle School and an 8-year-old daughter, who attends the Denton Avenue school.

Houck said, "I have enthusiastically volunteered over the years with the goal of helping the children." He served as Cubmaster of Pack No. 201 in the Center Street School; is the manager in the Albertson/Herricks Little League and on several PTA committees including Yearbook, Move-Up and the Five Year Capital Plan Fields.

Houck founded the "Denton Avenue Knights" Chess Club two years ago, a chess at lunch program where once a week he teaches children of all academic abilities how to play chess. He commented, "I developed the Chess Club as a simple solution to solve some playground behavior issues and to promote positive self-esteem."

Houck continued, "I am the liaison to the Herricks Board of Education for the Denton Avenue School PTA. As a result of consistently attending board meetings I believe I can fulfill the responsibilities of trustee. They are to define the philosophy of education, establish operational policies and develop a budget consistent with the educational needs and available community resources."

He added, "My experience as a former executive board member of the New Hyde Park Jewish Community Center will assist me in the role of trustee. As an executive board member of the center I reinitiated the NHPJCC Youth Program, a precursor to Project Elijah which is an alternative Hebrew School with the philosophy of parent and student participation."

Houck said, "Many of my suggestions have been adopted by the Herricks Board. These including incorporating the needed replacement boilers into the Board Construction Project. This action will save us money by purchasing big ticket items at a scale discount; getting a better service contract and having the interchangeably of spare parts. The board also adopted my proposal to take the Middle School window replacement project out of the Five Year Capital Plan budget and move it into the Bond Construction Project. This action moved up the timeline on this project and as a result will avoid the additional costs we are incurring from subsequent water damage and wasteful fuel heating bills. As a member of the Fields Committee we influenced school district policy. The board may now accept money, goods and services from outside organizations specifically earmarked for a particular improvement project. All of these ideas illustrate my logical common sense approach to lowering operational costs."

In conclusion Houck said, "The most important goal is to maintain and strive to improve the excellence of our student's performance, while keeping the tax burden at a minimum. Achieving this high quality cost-effective education steadily increases the desirability of the school district and consequently the resale value of our homes. If elected I will continue to contribute my ideas to get value for every dollar spent."