It would be no surprise to discover that most people throughout the Sewanhaka High School District are unaware of the schedule of hearings the high school board of education has set for continuing its discussion on its proposed plans for the Alva T. Stanforth School property located on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont. It was after all the board's decision to not widely publicize these continued hearings after having received a critical reaction from Sewanhaka residents at the first Stanforth school meeting on this past June 22. As most people in the district know, the building has sat fallow and empty for about the last 15 years.

This letter is submitted for two reasons by the P.P.A.T.S. Group (People for the Preservation of the Alva T. Stanforth School). The first is to notify the greater Sewanhaka Community of the dates, times, and locations of the upcoming hearings. The second is to provide context to the current community discussion and to urge the community at large to endorse the P.P.A.T.S. initiative to see the Alva T. Stanforth School used to advance the delivery of necessary educational services to students and their families throughout the Sewanhaka School District.

All Sewanhaka residents should pay very careful attention to dates, times, and locations of the next three hearings, as they could be the last on the subject before a referendum is held. Thus, people from all around the district should be sure to mark your calendar now and plan to attend all three meetings. They will be held as follows:

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m.

at the New Hyde Park Memorial High School Auditorium

500 Leonard Boulevard

New Hyde Park, 11040 (for directions dial main office phone no. 488-9500)

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m.

Floral Park Memorial High School Auditorium

210 Locust Street

Floral Park, 11001 (for directions dial main office phone no. 488-9300)

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m.

H. Frank Carey High School Auditorium

230 Poppy Avenue

Franklin Square, 11010 (for directions dial 539-9400)

Sewanhaka residents should know that at the Aug. 23 meeting of the Sewanhaka Central High School District Board of Education, in response to questions posed by the P.P.A.T.S. Group, the board president stated for the first time that the Sewanhaka High School Board of Education had no intentions of utilizing the Alva T. Stanforth School for educational purposes. Indeed, the board president essentially stated that the athletic field design it introduced to the Sewanhaka District at the first special hearing held on June 22, on the question, "What do do with the Alva T. Stanforth School?" was now being developed as a proposal which the board intended to move forward into a district-wide referendum.

At the June 22 hearing, however, the P.P.A.T.S. Group submitted an educational use proposal for the high school board to consider in preparing any plans the board had for reopening the Alva T. Stanforth School. This was carefully prepared with present day school district concerns in mind. For instance, the New York State Department of Education now requires that all high school students take and pass Regents examinations in order to graduate high school whether or not a student is college bound. The state also expects that as many as 15 percent of the students presently in school will not be able to meet the new criterion. It, therefore, behooves us to have educational policies in place that will stem the tide or eliminate altogether such a daunting casualty rate amongst our students.

In this context the P.P.A.T.S. Group recommended that the Alva T. Stanforth School be reopened as a district-wide educational center for students from all schools who are in need of extra assistance, remediation, tutorial services, and the like. The educational utilization plan for Alva T. Stanforth which the P.P.A.T.S. Group recommended included:

-- Reconfiguring Alva T. Stanforth (ATS) in ways which make it possible to use as a school. This means refurbishing ATS in ways that maintain classrooms, an auditorium, a cafeteria, and a gymnasium;

-- Implementing at ATS a district-wide tutoring program in order to raise student skills for passing the regents exams and ensuring a virtual 100 percent graduation rate district-wide;

-- Implementing at ATS a district-wide tutoring program in order to raise student skills for passing the regents exams and ensuring a virtual 100 percent graduation rate district-wide;

-- Implementing at ATS a district-wide remedial program in academic subjects where the district-wide school report cards indicate a sub-standard showing.

-- Implementing at ATS a district-wide "English As A Second Language" (ESL) program for both students (who need) and parents (who desire) such training in order to enhance the potential ability of the individual foreign student to excel in her/his academic studies by promoting an English-speaking home environment.

-- Implementing district-wide, a return to our schools of students at risk who have been placed on a home-school program and returning these children into a special remedial program at ATS, with computer literacy training one of the components -- as well as other vocational training -- to meaningfully prepare them for the marketplace, if not advanced academic training. Such training should be made part of the curriculum of all students who are designated "at-risk".

-- Implementing at ATS district-wide credited civics course seminars to provide our students with an appealing link between academic achievement and volunteering community service.

Interestingly, the administration of such an educational center at the Alva T. Stanforth School would be cost effective, notwithstanding the high school board's alleged concerns to the contrary. Even under the athletic complex design, the board's plan calls for moving central administration to the Alva T. Stanforth School. In such instance, there would be no need for a separate administration to supervise the educational center. Indeed, as a part of the overall duties of the school superintendent, central administrators could oversee the day-to-day operations of the Alva T. Stanforth Education Center. Such a plan promises to alleviate some of the cost concerns board members otherwise allege as reasons why an educational design for Alva T. Stanforth is impossible, while simultaneously permitting the district to tackle the formidable task of delivering quality education to all its students under the new state education standards.

The high school board president most recently made statements that he would take the flack for putting to rest the idea that ATS will be opened as a school, proposing instead to solely utilize the ATS property's athletic fields and to leave only a small section of the Alva T. Stanforth School standing to house the central administration (Franklin Square Life News, Sept. 2, page 1). In telephone conversations with the P.P.A.T.S. Group, the Superintendent of Schools regarded the P.P.A.T.S. proposals submitted on June 22, as ludicrous because these issues are being addressed locally in each school and no need exists for a centralized alternative plan that would insure the delivery of a quality education to all our students.

Consistently, however, the Sewanhaka High School Board and Administration have failed to meaningfully set forth a central plan that would address the growing concern most district families have regarding the delivery of quality education to all our students. When one considers the existence of an educational asset such as the Alva T. Stanforth School, which with even the slightest exercise of educational leadership, could be used to promote continued excellence in education for our district in these changing times, it is short-sighted to a fault that the board of education now presents plans to build a district-wide sports complex, and to effectively demolish the Alva T. Stanforth School, all at their estimated cost of about $9.7 million. Certainly a proposal to expend the district's resources in this way, renders unbelievable any school board argument that it would be cost prohibitive to reopen the Alva T. Stanforth School as an educational center.

The current board of education and its longstanding administration both need to address the Sewanhaka community on the educational issues noted within the context of its overall plans to rehabilitate the Alva T. Stanforth School property. It would be irresponsible for any of us to consider opening a sports complex without first weighing the utility of reopening that longstanding educational structure to meet and advance the educational needs of the district's families.

In a conversation the P.P.A.T.S. Group had with a leading school administrator, P.P.A.T.S. was told that although Sewanhaka Central High School District students and their families would travel from around the Sewanhaka community to the Alva T. Stanforth School to participate in inter-school sports events, they would never do so to engage in educationally meaningful activity inside a classroom. While this may be the view of one or two district officials and board members, as well as some small constituent lobbying groups within the Sewanhaka community, the P.P.A.T.S. Group believes that the Sewanhaka community will ultimately rise or fall on the community's ability to recognize that the newest generation of children in our schools are far better bred when brought together in the pursuit of shared educational achievement and understanding rather than simply in competition on a football field.

The choice is all of ours to make. Your participation at the upcoming hearings is, therefore, critical in deciding the future of the Alva T. Stanforth School, as well as the health and well-being of the Sewanhaka community at large.

Richard A. Mastrocola, Esq., - Facilitator

People for the Preservation of Alva T. Stanforth (P.P.A.T.S.)