After more than four months of rigorous interviews, the Farmingdale Board of Education has named its new middle school principal. Luis A. Pena has been tapped to replace the retiring Arleen Besner at Howitt Middle School.

Pena will assume the principal role on Dec. 1. He is currently an assistant principal in the Bayshore Union Free School District. The educator is a doctoral candidate at St. John's University and has an education degree from Dowling.

"He's a very talented man," said President Anthony Vitale during the Sept. 4 meeting of the Farmingdale Board of Education. "He's bilingual and he will be a great asset."

"He's a gifted educator," District Superintendent Dr. Roberta Gerold added. "He's a perfect match for Farmingdale. We were impressed with the research he did about our school district. And we believe he has excellent motivational abilities."

Pena is a longtime resident of Bayshore and is fluent in Spanish and English. He could not be reached for comment. He will be present at the October board of education meeting. Besner is retiring in January.

In other news, the board continued its discussion of future school fees from last month and it appears likely parents will be paying for driver education courses beginning on July 1, 2003. Trustees did not vote on the measure, but they said at least some of the $100,000 annual cost must be defrayed.

"It's something we can't continue to pay for," said trustee Robert R. Guarino. "It's a luxury we don't charge for."

Assistant Superintendent John Lorentz estimated the school district pays an average of more than $500 per student for driver education. Trustee Tina Diamond added that private companies charge about $350 per student for a similar program.

"I certainly don't want to charge what a private company charges. We'll start the bidding at let's say $200 (per student)," Guarino said in jest.

"I have no problem going with $200," said Vitale.

Trustee Marie Colalucci said starting at $200 would be okay with a possibility of escalating slightly during a three-year period. But Jane Rubinstein asked the board to allow the PTA and the public to respond to the implementation of the fee.

"We should allow them to come before us and discuss it before we vote," she said. Lorentz also wanted to do more research on the subject before a vote was made.

Trustees also talked about musical instrument fees.

The school district charges each student musical rental fees of $15 during the school year and $5 for the summer. Fees collected equal about $13,000 a year and go toward repairing instruments and buying new ones, Lorentz said. However, trustees wondered if the fees were enough.

"We need to bring revenues up," said Colalucci. "Buying musical instruments is very expensive."

Vitale added that Farmingdale's fees for musical instruments was low in comparison to other districts and it was acceptable to bring fees "in line" with other towns.

The board did not vote to raise the fees during the meeting because it had no financial figures of how much the school district pays annually to maintain instruments. Lorentz said he would get that information to the board as soon as possible.

As for the new school year, Dr. Gerold said 50 new staff members were welcomed on Sept. 3. Students' first day of class was the following day and everything ran smoothly, she said.

"It was a very good start to the school year," said Dr. Gerold. "Some buses were a little late because they had to learn their routes. But that was it."

On September 11, it was suggested that students wear red, white and blue and a moment of silence came after the morning announcements.