The deadline for entering the Oct. 5 Board of Education election in the Roslyn School District expired this past Tuesday, Sept. 7.

As of press time, three candidates had filed petitions for the two open seats. They are Keith Kopinski, Chris Cavaliere, Jeffrey Sapper, and Jeff Borowick.

In addition, several other residents, including Stuart Agranoff, Dani Klein, and Alvin Rosenstein have all expressed a serious interest in running. The petitions of these candidates are in the process of being submitted to school district officials.

All of the candidates have been contacted by The Roslyn News and profiles of them will appear in future editions.

The Roslyn News begins with a profile of Keith Kopinski, the first school board candidate to deliver the required number of petitions to district officials.

A native of Corona, Queens and a former resident of Hicksville, Kopinski, for the past six years has been a resident of Roslyn Estates, where he lives with his wife and two children, both of whom attend the Roslyn School District. In Roslyn Estates, Kopinski serves as president of that village's civic association, of which he has been a member for the past four years.

Kopinski works in the city as a captain in the New York City Police Department. He is a former volunteer for the Hicksville Fire Department.

The main theme of Kopinski's campaign for the school board is to bring greater accountability to the beleaguered district.

If elected, he would like to see a "Comstat style" of management brought to the board. The Comstat method has been employed by the NYPD for the past decade, Kopinski said. On a periodic basis, precinct commanders and other top brass were questioned by NYPD personnel on the progress of their precincts and departments. In addition, tracking methods were used to gauge the effectiveness of their recent performances, namely, in containing crime.

At the school district, Kopinski would like to see the same methods used to track the financial situation of the district and the academic progress at the various schools. A Comstat-style arrangement could prevent future embezzlement scandals by having all trips by school personnel placed under a pre-approved process.

In the Roslyn district, the superintendent, school principals and all other administrators, including groundskeepers would be subject to Comstat-style reviews. Such reviews might happen on a monthly or a weekly basis. The Comstat method was introduced by William Bratton, the first police commissioner during the administration of Rudolph Giuliani.

Kopinski would also like to look at the issue of overtime. Last year, the district paid out $1.6 million in overtime pay to its employees, Kopinski said. "That's too much overtime," he added.

Noting that his own school taxes doubled last year, due mostly to reassessment, Kopinski added that he would like to see more of a "balance" between the needs of taxpayers and the students, including those residents who no longer have children in the school district.

On financial matters, Kopinski said he would like to see local civic and volunteer groups have their say in the budget process.

Finally, Kopinski supports amending a state law that allows school personnel to receive their salaries when they are placed on administrative leave.

A 17-year veteran of the NYPD, Kopinski currently is the "school captain" for Manhattan North. That is, he is the department's liaison for all the school safety agents, those uniformed civilians who patrol all of the public schools north of 59th Street.

"As a police officer, I once arrested two people who tried to bribe me," Kopinski recalled. "I have also filed corruption charges in the past and I wouldn't hesitate to do so again."

The resignations of Trustees Michael Barkan and Ellen Seigel left the two vacancies, which will be filled after the Oct. 5 elections. The two highest vote winners will be elected and will become board members immediately after the results of the vote are accepted.