The-Leader_1985-04-18

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€B£EEQRT MEMORiAL LIBRARY - X S/
FREEroRT UEUOaiAL
W HERRICK RD
FRPT llV 115?.0
FREEPORT. NEW YORK. APRIL-'18,1985
49th YEAR. No; 52
PRICE 25^ PER COPY
J Fox For Freeport
Dedsioii On Sawyers
Public Hearing On School,
Libmry Budgets April 25
FREEPORT - A public hearing on the Freeport School District's
1985-86 budget will be held Thursday, April 25, at 8 pm. in the audi­torium
of Freeport High School. •"
The annual public hearing will also include the budget of the Free-port
Memorial Library. Both budgets will be presented at the polls to
school district voters, on Wednes-
4
Two Local Schools
Finish 1st In
C^mpics Of The Mind
WESTBURY - A Freeport and.
a Baldwin school were' among the
13 first-place finishers at the
regional Olympics-of the Mind
. competition held April 2.- ,.v. _ -
Sponsored. by ~ the" Boa^'. of
Cooperattv<L£ducational Services
of . NasssK, .County.' the -.event
attracted 97 teams representing
20 Long Island school districts.
. They competed in three divisions:
Dwision I (K-5); Division n (6-8)
and Division m (9-12). ;; ^
Presenting the most creative
and unusual solution to'one of a
set series of problems earned;
contestants theb trophies.
. Local first-place finishers and
the problems they solved success-
. fully were: Baldwin's Shubert
School, Division I champs in
"Music,. Maestro,, Please,"
whicli called for a'creative multi­media
interpretation of a classical
• music selection; and-Freeport's
Atlcinson School,-- Division • n
winners in "Music, Maestro.
Please,'* for their imaginative
' interpretation of a^iiece of classi­cal
music.
All first-place teams are eli-gible'to
go on to the state Olym­pics
of the Mind finals to be held
later thb month at the State Uni­versity
of New York, Buffalo.
Stale winners will compete at this
year'-s world finals at .the Uni-.
versity of Maryland, College
Park, Md. in June. '" • •
-State Gives
$50,000 To "Mimi"
FREEPORT - A special "Sen­ate"
legislative grant of SSO.OOO
for the Freeport School District
will be used for a groundbreaking
science and mathematics pro­gram,
"The Voyage of the
Mimi."
In announcing the state grant;
Senator Norman J. Levy ex­plained
that it was obtained from
special funds allocated to the
Senate Majority as part of .the
19&S-86 State Budget. The funds
are above and bevond the regular
(Cont.onPage12)
Recommends One Year
Suspension Wifhouf Pay:
byJoanDelaney
BALDWIN -After almost nine months, Sute Departmeht of Ediica-tion
Commissioner Gordan Ambach has rendered hi^ decision in Ihe
appeal case of the Baldwin School District-agunst Industrial Arts
teacher Robert. Sawyers. According to Sawyers, he has been told that
Ambach has recomiQended'a.penalty.harsheT.than.the.S2,00(l fine,~-BeadiAveoue.-
which was decreed by the original
three.m^ p^el which heard the-case.
but'less than tlfe firing re­quested
by the District.
. Backing the panel's deosion
not to impose a penalty which
would result in "economic capital
punishment"' because of "a
relataUe, substantial and...miU-gating
reason,"- Ambach has
decreed that Sawyers should be
suspended without pay for a per­iod
of one year.' . ' '
Pending the decision, Sa-wyers
had been under suspension with
pay during'the peripdLof the hear­ing
and subsequent app<^.pro­cess.
day. May 8.
- Also on the ballot will be a vote
for one seat -on the Freeport
School Board. Incumbent Dorothy
Fox will be running unopposed
for reelection.
Mrs. , Fox, who first won
election to the. School Board in
. 1982, win be seeking her second
three-year term. A 13-year resi-
- dent -of Freeport, she, her hus-
. band, Martin, and their three
children reside on South Long
At the same time, however.
Sawyers is awaiting a hearing be­fore
an adnunistratiye law d{-
ficial of the U.S. Department of
Labor, which has.ordered Saw­yers
reinstated based upon their
initial investigation. That public -
hearing will take place on May
14. In papers from-the Depart­ment
of Labor is the statement
that, "discrimination as_ defined
and prohibited by the statute was
a factor in the actions which
comprise his (Sawyers') com­plaint."
At the heart of all of the contro­versy
is the claim., by Sawyers
that he has been harassed and'
discriminated against. since he
began to confront the School Dis­trict
.regarding the presence of
toxic substances, ' particulariy
asbestos, in the school district.
The District, in its prosecution'
of Sawyers, however, stated that
in an attempt to prove hb al­legations,
Sawyers tampered with
'an 'air filter, which bad been
placed in the school-to test, for
asbestos. Sawyers denied the
charges. That filter had been
placed in the school, 'however,
only after Sawyers' oimplaint
and after the asbestos removal
had been completed and cleaned
u p - . - : - , •. - • • • • ; • • • • -
'; The May 14th Department of
Lab(x process will consist of a
neutral hearing as part of th; bet.
deyelopment process whidi' al­lows
both parties — Sawyers and
the school district -c- to present
evidence for the record;
The rendering of the decision
by Ambach farther complicates
the issue since the Department
of Labor has oSdally required
that the District reinstate Saw­yers
pending the outcome of its
May 14th hearing.
In addition, there has been con-^
cem in the community relative to .
the on-going process of asbestos
removal in the schools. Accord-i^
ig to past public statements by
school officials, there is no -
'.'•friable*' asbes^ in any of the
buildings. However, the volun­tary
removal of other asbestos
..'must still be undertaken accord­ing
to EPA standards .and pro­cedures
which include the filing
of work projects with the EPA,
removal by qualified contractors
and proper safety precautions.
THE LEADER'S 50th To
- Be Celebrated
FREEPORT."- As part of
THE LEADtH's 5(Xh anniver­sary,
the Freeport Chamber of
Commerce will honor the.news­paper
and its publisher and
editor, Ira and Rhoda Keller, at
its April.2Stb luncheon meeting
at Otto's Sea Grill, Wooddefl
Avenue, Freeport.
The 'Thursday meeting will be­gin
at 12:30 pm and continue
until 2 pm.
The public is invited to join in
the tribute to the' Freeport/
Baldwin community newspaper
which has been publishing week­ly
for 50 years.
(Com. on Page 11) '
Kbs'. Fox is an administrative
assistant in a Manhattan &npara-
-tion; her husband is a supervisor
with the New York.Oty Board of
Education. Twins Joijathaa and
Hilary, age 12, are ' seventh
graders at Dodd Junior High.
School, while Julian; nearly eight,
'is a i>econd grader at Archer
Street School.'
In order to vote .for budget or
school board member, a person
must be registered, a citizen of
the. United Stales. 18 or more
years of age, and a resident of the
Freeport School District for a
' period of at least 30 days prior, to
May8.
Absentee ballots' will be avail­able
for both the board election
and the vote on the budget.
Applications can be . obtained
from the District aerk's Ofiice'
in the Administration Building,
235 North Ocean Avenue.. A com­pleted
and- signed application
.must.be in the District Qerk's
. office no later than 5 pm Wednes­day,
May i; in order to have a
ballot mailed to the propective
voter's home. Applications for an •''
absentee balkit may also be made
in 'person on any school day,
9 am-4 pm. and up until.5 pm
-Tuesday, May 7. The ballots
.'themselves.will be acnpted up
- until 5 pm May 7. ."
Two Freeporteis
Die In Shootings
- FREEPORT - A pair of eariy
Sunday morning shootings have
resulted in the death of two young
Freeporters — 19-year-old
Michael Frazier of Liberty Park
Drive and 16-year-old Oyde
' McDowof Maple Aven'ue.
Kenneth Williams,' 21, of
12 Grove Street, Hempstead^
. has been arrested for the two
shootings which took place on
April 14. •
. Frazier was pronounced dead
near the scene of the first shoots.
(Coni. on Page 12)
FREEPORT ON CABLEVISION. The guests of the upcoming "Focus
On Freeport" Cablevlsion show go over their notes prior to taping.
Scheduled for the show are 0- »o r.) Freeport PTA Safety Committee
co-chalrwoman Carol Klarikaitls, Freeport Police Department-jecrult
Wayne Lester, show hostess Austlne White, Police rookl? Fidel
Baian. Village Police Sgt. Arthur Burdette, and Safety Committee
co-chairwoman JoAnn Aymar. Topics to be discussed on the show In-
' elude the current PTA-Police Bicycle Safety Drive, and the training
being recelved-ty Ihe Village'snine new police officers. The show will
be shown on Channel 22'Friday, April 19, and Tuesday, April 24, at
8 pm l>oih evenings.