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A slate of candidates backed by the Nassau and Suffolk County police unions were elected to the Smithtown school board Tuesday night. Across Long Island, over 400 candidates ran for school boards. Voters also approved school budgets in 116 school districts by mostly wide margins.
However, the Smithtown election was bitter and focused on the school's race and diversity curriculum.
During nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, a thousand Smithtown school district students and residents wrote the school district asking for more racial diversity in the school’s curriculum.
Among other things, the school responded with the reading of a children's book about a child whose skin was “too brown” to play Snow White in a school musical. School administrators said similar materials were available in the library.