RSS 2.0 FeedThursday, November 10, 2011, Merrick Life
Board fields questions on hypothermia
Concerns aired regarding athletic playing conditions.
A warm-and-fuzzy evening quickly turned cool during last week’s Central High School meeting once the floor was opened up for public comments.
Several students from the three high schools and two middle schools opened up the meeting, being feted for their accomplishments. The evening included songs by Grand Avenue Middle School Choir, a skit from Merrick Avenue Middle School students and updates from Calhoun, Kennedy and Mepham students – all to cheers and applause.
Once certificates were presented across the student spectrum, and proud parents filed out with smiles on their faces, the meeting addressed the cold realities facing the district, including an ominous warning from the district’s audit counsel that leaner budgeting days lay ahead.
Auditor Andrew Yu said the board – depending upon the outcome of a lawsuit against Nassau County by school districts for shifting tax certiori payments to school districts, the loss of federal stimulus money that had netted the district $3 million over two years, and the real concern of even less state aid money next year – would have to dip into its reserves even more in the coming years if it wanted to continue existing programs without raising taxes on residents.
He added that new unfunded mandates from the state could further erode existing reserves.
John Pinto, former board member and PAL lacrosse coach, asked Mr. Yu precisely how much money was in the Accrued Liability Reserve, a fund for teachers who retire. Mr. Yu responded it had $7.325 million.
The amount of the Accrued Liability Reserve has been crucial to Mr. Pinto’s argument with the board that it could be accessed to pay for three synthetic turf fields that could provide new sports revenues for the district.
After the meeting, however, board Trustee Janet Goller and former board President Nina Lanci said only a state law could permit the district to access the funds without being charged with a misdemeanor.
They said Mr. Pinto claimed that Deputy State Assembly Speaker Earlene Hooper had introduced legislation to provide that access, but that they hadn’t seen it, believing it to be languishing in the Legislature.
Not acting on behalf of majority
Barbara Haimsen of the Bellmore PTA asked the board why residents in the elementary districts couldn’t vote for synthetic fields during recent elections.
Several board members commented that a meeting in February ended with board members defeating a proposal to bring the synthetic field vote to the public by a 6-2 straw poll.
Ms. Haimsen said board was not acting on behalf of the majority of residents by keeping the fields from a full residential vote.
“Why not let the community decide if it wants to pay for a field or not?” instead of the board arbitrarily deciding it would not put the issue to the voting public, she asked.
But trustees Janet Goller and Diane Seaman explained that passing a bond to pay for the fields would impact fees and other incidentals, for example, in the years the bond would be applied, and would likely lead to cutting other programs to help pay for it.
Mr. Pinto told this newspaper after the meeting that he disagreed with that assessment, saying the district had paid for new tennis courts – complete with new surfaces – and new running tracks for the district at no extra cost to taxpayers.
He added that the Freeport community had recently voted for a new synthetic field, and it would be paid for with existing capital funds available.
Another attendee then leveled the same charge of arbitrary decision-making against the board regarding majority wishes when she inquired why graduation programs at commencement exercises no longer included schools the students would be going to.
Henry Kiernan, superintendent of schools, told the attendee that it was a new board policy the last couple of years to not list the schools students would be attending, to protect those who may feel uneasy about not going on to university after high school.
The attendee told this newspaper after the meeting that both parents and children work hard to get a child into a university, and to be not recognized for that work was unfair – and against majority wishes.
Hypothermia no football injury
North Merrick School District Board Trustee Wendy Gargiulo (see her letter to the editor here) pressed the board on how 11 Calhoun players could have come down with hypothermia playing football last week, and wondered if there was an underlying issue leading to the incident.
“Hypothermia is not a football injury,” she said. “We are your constituents,” she reminded the board.
Saul Lerner, district athletic director, told the board that in his 16 years as athletic director he had never encountered the problem that Calhoun experienced that week.
“I was at that field at eight in the morning, and conferred with coaches, looked at weather reports and it was decided we could play a game on that field,” he said, “just like the majority of athletic directors in Nassau County decided that day.”
He said the game would not have been played that day if “we felt it would be unsafe to play.” Players from Plainview Kennedy High School and Garden City High School also suffered hypothermia playing that day.
Mr. Pinto reminded the board that the fields being played on were grass fields, which collect water and pool. “This wouldn’t have happened on a synthetic field.”
However, he blamed the referees for not stopping the game, as those at Plainview Kennedy did at halftime that day.
