Bethpage-Tribune_1973-05-17

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OLDBETHBtfiE PLAINVIEW PLAINEDGE SEAFOW}
VOL. 7 NO. 26 Thursday, May 17,197a 10 cents per copy!
Bethpage School Board Report
By Mary McCutcheon and Lorraine Carley
-PAINTMIXING DEMONSTRATION is provided by Barbara
Deeley at week-long "Paint-In" and spring house cleaning held in
Democratic headquarters in Mineola. Looking on are Lewis J.
Yevoli, (at left), Town Councilman and Democratic candidate for
the office of Supervisor, Town of Oyster Bay, and Herman Kanfer,
candidate, for Town Council. Mr. Yevoli lives in Old Bethpage; Mr.
Kanfer lives in Plainview; and Miss Deeley lives in Merrick and is
the daughter of Bill Deeley, who is running for County Exectuive.
Plainedge School Bpdrd President
Speaks on Supt's Termination
Plainedge School Board
President Terri Bahnken said
that a growing loss of confidence
in School Superintendent John
Rinehart was the principal
reason why she voted against
renewing his contract on January
11, 1973.
At a regular meeting of the
Plainedge School Board held last
Thursday evening, May 10th,
.Mrs. Bahnken broke her silence
"on thcRinehart affair by issuing a
documented public statement on
the matter.
"The overall reason," said
Mrs. Bahnken, reading from a
written statement which she said
had been previously cleared with
the School Board attorney, Leroy
'VanNostrand," was simply a
lack of confidence in his ability."
Saying that it was impossible to,
list all the reasons, she did
nevertheless offer'five specific'
reasons.
The five reasons she gave
were: failure of the Superin­tendent
to submit reports, failure
of the Superintendent to provide
the Board of Education with
back-up information, vacillation
of the Superintendent in
recommendations regarding
programs, failure of the
Superintendent to be alert to the
"significance of certain
materials" given to him, and
"failure (of the Superintendent)
to exert the authority of his
position when dealing with staff
members."
Dr. Rinehart was quick to
refute the charges. He called the
board's decision "a partisan, a
completely partisan dicision"
and said that Mrs. Bahnken
would "have to answer" for what
Rinehart called "fallacious
charges." I,
"The key issue", said
Rinehart, "is whether the
Superintendent will remain a free
agent or be manipulated to
submitted to some- sort of
favoritism."
Upcoming Events
A Plainedge School Board
meeting will be held Thursday
evening, May 24 at which time
members of the New York
University professional'
screening committee will be
available to discuss their
methods and procedures for
screening potential applicants for
the position of Plainedge School
Superintendent.
A board meeting will also be
held Thursday evening, May 31,
at which time the district budget
is expected to be discussed for a
final time.
The public is invited to both
meetings. Both are scheduled to
begin at 8:30 p.m. at the High
School.
May 30 is also the last filing
date for those persons wishing to
run for the three school board
seats presently held by Trustees
Gagliardo, Walsh and Bahnken.
At present, Gagliardo and
Walsh have announced that they
would run for another term.
Additionally, Bob Galante and
Russ Weber revealed that they
would run for the seats presently
held by Mrs. Bahnken and Walsh,
respectively.
Wednesday, June 13, is election
day. In addition to voting for
three school board members, the
voters will be asked to vote on
three proposotiohs.
Proposition I is the district's
$13Ms million dollar budget.
Proposition II is the district's
$350,000 Renovation Bond Issue.
Proposition III is the district's
library budget.
A Special Meeting of the Beth­page
Board of Education was
held on Thursday, May i Mr.
LoFaso was not present. The
meeting was called to take an
official vote oh the Bethpage
Union Free School District
ANNUAL MEETING for the 1973-
74 School Budget and Library
Budget to be held on TUESDAY,
JUNE 12, at 8 P.M. in the high
school auditorium. Official
notification will be placed in the
Long Island Press, Newsgram
and Bethpage Tribune.
VOTING WILL TAKE PLACE
ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13,
1973, from 12 noon till 10 P.M., in
the high school auditorium.
Voting will include the School
Budget, Library Budget and two
school trustee- seats, (3 year
terms), that will expire June 30,
1973, held by Kestutis K. Miklas
and Anthony J. LoFaso; also, one
library trustee seat held by Leon
Carlen, 5 year term.
VOTER REGISTRATION will
be held on May 31,1973, from 2 to
8 p.m. in the lobby of the high
school. (Anyone who has^ not
voted in the last 2 years is not
eligible to vote and must re­register.)
The deadline for filing
petitions for candidates for
school board seats is May 30,
1973. The proposed 1973-74 School
Budget will be posted 7 days
prior to the Annual Meeting.
The following inspectors and
clerks were approved: Rita Gish,
Rose LaBarile, Estelle Prossimo,
Marge Eicchorn, Shirley Yenlis,
Eileen Ammon, Lee Agiesta,
Lillian Maczewski, Ruth Schaaf,
Gloria O'Leary, Judy Lange,
Dolores Bennett, Eleanor
Bussittil, Elinor Munch, Dorothy
Conway, Mary Hopkins, Jan
Krol.Helen Talmadge.
Dr. • Larsen recommended
disapproval of a second year
extension of maternity leave for
Mrs. Bianca - motion carried 5-0;
also Dr. Larsen recommended
approval of a second year
maternity leave *or Mrs: J.
Loftus, contingent upon medical
certificate, motion carried 5-0.
The Board approved 12 additional
sick leave days for Mrs. Janoff by
a vote of 4-2 (Mrs. Regan and Mr.
Gorman voting nay); also ap­proved
a one day, June 22, leave
with pay for Miss Van Sickle,
Physical Education teacher, high
.school, so that Miss Van Sickle
may register at Indiana
University on June 23rd. The vote
was 4-1-1 (Mr. Gorman voting
nay and Mrs. Regan abstaining).
The Nassau-Suffolk School
Board Dinner will be held on
Thursday, June 7 at West
Hempstead High School and Mr.
Miklas will attend representing
the Bethpage School Board.
According to the official school
calendar, on* unused snow day
remains. The Board of Education
discussed three specific days to
consider closing: May 25,
requested by the Bethpage
Congress of Teachers; May 31,
Asqension Thursday and June 22,
last day of school. Dr. Larsen
stated that June 22 would be
impossible to close school
because of regents tests. After a
brief discussion on absenteeism
on Holy Days, Mr. Miklas read
figures for Ascension Thursday,
1972, noting that their were 1900
students and 48 teachers absent
from school. A motion was made
to close schools on May 31 and
was approved unanimously.
Mrs. Regan requested a
statement be placed in the of­ficial
minutes as follows: "My
main reason for voting to close
the school on May 31 is the high
absenteeism by the teachers and
students and I object to the fact
that the'teachers come into the
classroom and tell the students to
stay home on a Holy Day," she
Mr* Kleinman, consulting
engineer, appeared befote the
Board of Education to report on
the progress of the installation
and hook-up of the fire alarm and
vandal alarm systems within the
districts schools. On the fire
alarm system, 90 per cent of the
work is completed; on the vandal
alarm system, equipment is
installed in all buildings,
speakers and •,•',• sensitivity
equipment is in the process of
being completed. The job should
be completed in approximately
four weeks.
When asked about the "ex­cessive
delay" and why the "hold
euqpu ipmonen t,t heM r.i nsKtalelilnamtiaonn ionf­dicated
. . . the contractor had not
read the specifications too
carefully, therefore providing
less than the fire department
would accept; also, there was a
delay because improper in­surance
and bonds were issued.
One remaining problem is the
installation of smoke detectors,
since this hadn't been completed
before the District's electrician
retired.
Mr. Chomsky informed the
Board he was having difficulty in
hiring an electrician. . . he in­dicated
mat four electricians had
turned down the job because of
the wage scale of $8000 and
suggested the Board consider a
$10,000 plus wage scale. The
Board directed Mr. Lavin and
Mr. Chomsky to bring in a
recommendation of as salary
step for hiring a district
elecrician and also to advertise
the position.
Mr. Slavin inquired as to what
provisions were being made to be
sure that the job was done
satisfactorily before final
payment was made. Mr. Lavin
informed him, he would not bring
in the recommendations for final
payment until he received
recommendation from Mr.
Kleinman, the Fire Department,
and Mr. Chomsky. Mr, Gorman
questioned why 60 per cent .of the
payment had been paid prior to
the Board hearing from Mr.
Kleinman and the Fire Depart­ment.
(At the April 24th monthly
meeting, the Board agreed to
hold payments until they had
heard from the Fire Department ,
and until the consulting engineer
appeared with a progress report
on May 10, 1973.
Mr. Lavin, Business Manager,
explained that at the meeting of
May" 3rd, he arrived late and was
told by a member of the Board to
go ahead with payment. At this
point, Mrs. Behrik, District
Clerk, was asked to check the
official minutes. The Board was
polled and none of the members
could remember any action being
taken on this specific item. The
Board instructed Dr. Larsen and
Mr. Lavin that no further
payment be made to Signal
Communcations withou-t
authorization by tije • Board. All
Board members concurred.
At this point, the Board went
G into > exeftHJAv^..««»wiio»v-.«ith-members
of the Budget Advisory
Committee.
The next monthly meeting will
be held on Tuesday, May 29 at 8
'P.M., Administration Building,
Cherry and Stewart Avenues,
Bethpage.
Plainedge Library Budget
Has 'Modest' Increase
Voters of Union Free School
District 18 will be asked to ap­prove
'a proposed Plainedge
Public Library budget of $316,945
which will appear oh the June 13
ballot as Propositions.
Jerome H. Brown, Library
Board Chairman, cited soaring
costs as major reason for a
proposed increase of $2.10 a year
for a Plainedge residence
assessed at $5,000. Although the
change in the Library tax rate
had been held to only 1 cent per
hundred dollars assessed
valuation for the two previous
budget years, resulting in a
current Library tax rate of 66
cents per hundred, Brown termed
the requested increase of 4.2
cents per hundred as modest in
view of the wide range of services
provided by the Library.
A newsletter describing these
services, and outlining the
proposed budget has been sent to
all Plainedge residents, inviting
them to attend a public hearing
on the proposed budget at the
Library on Monday evening, May
21, at 8 PM noted Brown.
United Fund Family Fair
fix participating agencies of
the United Fund of Long Island
will be among the exhibitors at
Long Island's Family Fair, to be
held at the Nassau Veterans
Memorial Coliseum on May 18,19
and 20.
The Fair will officially open at
3 p.m. on Friday, May 18 with a
ribbon - cutting ceremony and
reception honoring by,Ralph G.
Caso, Nassau County Executive
and Bernard E. DeLury, newly
appointed AEfefetam Secretary of
Labor.