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Editor's Note

Correction in George Farber's Letter to the Editor Regarding BOCES Referendum

In George Farber's letter to the editor, printed on page 14 of the Dec. 12, 2002 issue of the Garden City Life, entitled "Putting an End to Lingering Suspicions of BOCES Referendum," the first sentence in the fifth paragraph should have read, "Garden City does lose property tax revenue as the result of the purchase of our Administrative Center, but the school district has benefited from the other purchases that Nassau BOCES has made in the past in other communities." The Garden City Life regrets this typographical error.

Several concerns have been raised by Garden City residents about our recent Nassau BOCES referendum. Some of these have been printed in your newspaper and a few people have contacted our offices by phones or e-mail. I feel it is important to address such concerns directly, so there can be no lingering suspicions about the way the vote was conducted - or about our agency's intentions.

A number of questions have been raised about the way the vote was run. I can assure you that the procedures we followed at each polling site were those outlined in the statutes that cover BOCES referendums in New York State and that we consulted with our attorneys to make sure than everything was done legally. It is true that these procedures are different that what we are used to in our general elections and this may seem unfamiliar.

A couple of people have also mentioned (as a criticism) that polling locations were in Nassau BOCES schools. This is a great surprise to us since we went out of our way for this referendum - unlike the other three we have run in recent years - to add 10 polling locations in local district schools, including buildings in communities such as Valley Stream, Oyster Bay, Long Beach and Glen Cove. We had gotten feedback last year that our polling sites were too concentrated in central Nassau and we responded by increasing the number of sites to make sure that no qualified voter would have too far to travel to cast a ballot. It is standard operating procedure in school budget and bond votes for the polling locations to be in district buildings; we have actually now departed from that practice by adding these non-Nassau BOCES polling locations.

Finally - and perhaps most disturbingly - it has been suggested that we are not being fiscally responsible when it comes to our administrative costs and, worse, that we are investing in office space at the expense of instruction for children. Quite the opposite is true. Buying our facilities rather than renting them is the fiscally responsible strategy. This reduces - forever - the facilities charges that we must, by law, pass along to each school district on a proportional basis.

Garden City does lose property tax revenue as the result of the purchase of our Administrative Center, but the school district has benefited from the other purchases that Nassau BOCES has made in the past in other communities. We plan to continue with the purchase of buildings, when appropriate, to alleviate the burden on our 56 school districts of ever-increasing rents, and will certainly take into account our desire to not burden a single district unduly.

My fellow board members and I take pride in all our facilities, especially those that are used for instruction, such as the recently renovated Joseph M. Barry Career and Technical Education Center in Westbury. We ensure that these buildings are well maintained and that they meet or exceed all the standards set forth by local, state and federal governments. Further, for our office and conference facility, we have provided functional, professional space furnished with used and remanufactured modular cubicle systems - far from the "truly extravagant" administrative center that has been rumored. In fact we have less space than when our offices were located at the Salisbury Center and there is no excess room at all. As a central conference facility, our building is utilized by thousands of teachers, administrators and community partners across Nassau County (for meetings, workshops, fingerprinting and other services to school districts). We invite Garden City residents to contact our office of information and ask for a tour of any of our buildings. You may find that the reality is somewhat different than you have been led to believe.

Finally, I wish to express thanks and appreciation to the 4,515 Nassau County residents who voted "yes" in the Nov. 19 referendum, especially to those Garden City residents who did support our building purchases in spite of the nay-sayers in your community.

George Farber
President, BOCES board