Bethpage-Tribune_1972-03-02

              oOilMit ruuiK L
Island Trees
6tTHP*0C L«B
47 FOWtWU *V
B£tHP*Ot NY I »?«*
Serving Bethpage - Plainview - Island Trees - Plainedge - Seaford
— — — — — — — — * & - — — •
Old Bethpage
VOL. 6 No. 17 Thursday, March 2, 1972 10c par copy
4 *
Bethpage Seeks BOCES Curb
PAINT PARTY: Susan Mittermeier of Bethpage
tarings a smile of delight to Steve Linker (right) of
North Woodmere and Lit* Margaria of Valley Stream
as she demonstrates the finer points of "abstract" a rt
Miss Mittermeier is a senior Art Edt<|catifB ma^sf a»
: fluVifM sUi *f hsHraraiaLalnBiiflafni ftn • • • * • j l i ^ i ajnai^-::
she i s currently a teaching, intern in the art program at
Human Resources School in Albertson, where she
works with some of the school's 200 severely disabled
children.
The Bethpage Board of
Education went on record in
support of greater budgetary
control of the Board of
Cooperative Educational Ser­vices
(BOCES) by member
districts. The Board took action
at its regular monthly meeting,
Tuesday night, Feb. 29, in the
administration building, Stewart
anf Cherry Avenue.
After attorney Lou Orfan read
a letter mm the Baldwin School
District requesting a united front
on control of BOCES* ad­ministrative
budget, 45 minutes
of discussion between Board and
public ensued. Finally, the Board
voted 5-2 to endorse Baldwin's
efforts, and to urge the South
Shore district to seek control over
BOCES' educational budget as
well.
As explained by. several
members of the Board, the ad­ministrative
budget is a more or
' li ••"fliHlid mmtimttttHt mi' i m'Ti
district based on its total student
population. The educational
budget is more unstable, and
much larger, and is based on the
number of BOCES students in
each district.
Baldwin has had a history of
disputes with BOCES, the state
agency which coordinates
vocational and handicapped
education in the county. One
struggle wMch^rereivetKgreat
publicity concerned the attempt
by BOCES to build a school for
handicapped and retarded
children in Baldwin, a move
opposed by residents there.
Trustee Richard Gorman
added other reasons for
scrutinizing BOCES besides
sympathy for Baldwin. He noted
that tuition for students attending
the BOCES trade and tech school
3 ^ hours a day is $1800, $400
more than the average cost on
Long Island for attendance, all-day,
at an academic high school.
Dr.' Roper Larsen, school
superintendent, later put the
tuition cost at $1670, and ex­plained
that Bethpage had been
refunded $130 per BO'CSSf
student. This illustrated a
problem with trying to control
BOCES educational budget, he
argued, because the numbers of
students involved from each
district is hard to estimate.
Under the terms of the Baldwin
resolution, member boards would
review the BOCES budget in
May, based/ on estimates of
student population made in April.
Dr. Larsen felt June was the
earliest date for a reliable
estimate.
In addition to this problem, Dr.
Larsen noted the question of state
law, which (though he did not
spell it out) might prevent
member districts from con­sidering,
directly, what
educational programs BOCES
could offer.
Though in favOr of member
districts voting on BOCES ad­ministrative
" budget, Board
member Anthony LoFaso argued
against the inclusion , of
educational matters. He com­pared
the-BOCES situation to
that of a single school district:
the BOCES Board of Education,
and, like taxpayers, each district
can opt not to accept the
(Continued on Page 8)
Baldwin School Parents Protest Closing
By Richard Wood
Over 500 taxpayers, parents
and teachers attended stormy
Plainedge School Board meeting
Feb. 24 to hear School Superin­tendent
Dr. John Rinehart's
public report on the school
district's proposal to close one of
its six elementary schools.
Prefacing bis remarks with
"This is not the happiest or most
thrilling report I've given in my
career," Dr. Rinehart told the
seven member board and largely
unsympathetic audience that due
to a smaller elementary school
population, the most
economically feasible action the
district could take was to close
the Baldwin Drive School.
Citing an actual drop in
enrollment from 4,033 in 1966 to
3,192 in 1971 in the kindergarten
through sixth grades and
statistical projections of a drop
from 3,192 in 1971-72 to 2,126 in
1975-77, Dr. Rinehart stated that
..$192,000 in educational costs
could be saved in the first year by
the closing, and $212,000 the
second year. '
For taxpayers, this would
mean reductions of 42 cents and
53 cents-, respectively, for each
$100 of assessed valuation.
What distressed the audience,•
however, was the fact that
students presently attending the
Baldwin School would have to be
based to the remaining five
schools and that the average
classroom size would rise from
25.5 to an unfavorable 26.8 pupils
per class.
Board member Kanter,
following Dr. Rinehart's
presentation, told the audience to
"put out of your minds your own
children and think of the
Plainedge School School District
as a whole....Try to put yourself
in the place of a school board
member."
Immediately met with jeers
and general unruliness,
something that would. continue
and intensify throughout the
evening, Kanter further
reminded the audience that the
district was operating on an
austerity budget and that the
taxpayers had defeated five of
the last six school budgets.
Kanter's implication, • of
course, was that it was
economically impractical on an
austerity budget to continue
operating six individuals schools
with steadily diminishing
enrollments.
Irving Klineman, the first
taxpayers to speak, suggested
that, as an alternative, the
district continue to utilize the
Baldwin School. Rather than
leasing or selling the school, he
asked the board to consider the
estiblishment of special science
and reading labs and pre-kindergarten
classes. He lauded
the concept of neighborhood
yhqflUs and smaller classes and
denounced the busing of Baldwin
School children" all over the
district."
With Klineman's remarks
setting the framework, other
taxpayers and parents attacked
the board with the same or
similar arguments. One tax­payers
suggested the selling or
leasing of the "exquisite ad­ministration
building" instead of
closing a school. Another
questioned the board about the
dangerous thoroughfares and
intersections some of the Baldwin
children would have to cross
while walking to their new schools.
Whys Everybody Always Picken On Me?
For a while this week, it
looked as if lice might
succeed where parental
pressure had not in local
schools; but now the in­vasion
seems under
control, and long hair can
be worn without undue
scratching.
It all started Monday,
Feb. 28, when it was
reported that 70 pupils and
eight teachers in two
Plainedge grade schools
had been infested with
Uce. Although not a serious
enough problem to force
shut-down of the school,
the outbreak was
described as unusual by
the Nassau County Health
Department.
Later reports in daily
newspapers stated that
Bethpage students had
been infested with the
parasites. This was denied
Tuesday by Bethpage
School officials, who
stated that spot-checks
had revealed no such
cases. They attributed the
mistaken report to the fact
mat parts of Bethpage are
included in the Plainedge
School district.
In Island Trees and
Plainview-Old Bethpage,
similar precautions were
taken, but as yet no cases
have been reported.
Only two elementary
schools in Plainedge were
involved, though others
have since been partially
checked. According to Pat
Conners, Director of Pupil
Personnel Services for the
district, the .two schools
were fumigated over the
weekend and the Infested
students and parents have
been advised to seek
medical advice.
Conners said the
situation was under
control at the Charles E.
Schwarting School,
located at Jerusalem Ave.
and Flower Road. Action
was also being taken at the
Robert E. Picken School.
Lice are not dangerous
to health, but, as any non-bald
person can attest,
they itch like mad. Soap
and water are not always
effective in killing them,
but non-toxic f umigants or
very cold temperature
should do the job.
Or so we're told.
Reached later this week by
the TRIBUNE, Mrs. Bahnken
pointed out that Nassau County
crossing guards would be
patrolling dangerous in­tersections,
as they do now for
students attending other
elementary schools.
After listening to more than 20
taxpayers, School Board
President Mrs. Theresa Bahnken
revealed that the board, in
executive session, had already
decided to close the school.
Someone in the rear of the
audience yelled out, "This
meeting is a farce!" Others
joined in. But Mrs. Bahnken
stated that no public vote had yet
been taken and that the meeting
had been organized for the sole
purpose of listening to the tax­payers
and parents before a final
decision was reached.
David Leibowitz, another
resident, asked the board why
they didn't hold a public meeting
before they voted in executive
session.
"It's like having a gun pointed
at our heads," said Leibowitz,
"and us begging you not to shoot
us when we know you're going to
do it anyway. It's already been
decided, what's the use of this
meeting?... We want education,
not economy!" Applause filled
the auditorium,as Leibowitz left
the microphones and returned to
his seat.
As another resident pointed
out, however, "We have an
economy-minded school board
because we voted for it. We voted
for this austerity program. If we
no longer want it, then we must
vote out the board.
With the emphasis slowly
(Continued on Page 8)