The Glen Cove Board of Education convened their regular meeting on Feb. 22 in the Finley Middle School. Glen Cove residents, members of the district's central administration and the seven members of the school board on their way to the meeting were greeted by a large turnout of teachers lined up on both sides of the second floor hallway. The sentiments of the Glen Cove Teachers' Association, (GCTA) were spelled out in black and white that evening as each teacher wore a black tee shirt with white letters stating, "Teaching Without a Contract Takes the Joy Out of Teaching. GCTA." The teachers have been working without a contract since July 1, 1998. Under the Triborough Act both parties, the GCTA and the school district, are bound to the provisions of the expired contract until a new agreement is reached. During last month's school board meeting GCTA president Joan Thompson said the district's offer on the table at that time was demeaning to the membership. During the Feb. 22 meeting, Mrs. Thompson said the union's attorney was mulling over the board's latest offer.

Superintendent Frank DeLuca and the assistant to the superintendent for business, Dennis Lindner took turns in presenting the district's proposed 1999-2000 school budget. The proposed $44,476,824 school budget includes a 3.03 percent tax rate increase which is lower than the budget increase because of an upward swing in assessed valuation of property in this city. The estimated tax rate is $49.96 per hundred dollars of assessed valuation.

"The expenditure increase at this point is at $1.4 million. State aid is reflecting a $300,000 loss. We're expecting a little under $200,000 in other revenues which leaves us with an increase in the tax levy of $1.5 million," said Mr. DeLuca. The tentative budget does not include busing for grades 9-12 and the shared parking lot/entry at the Deasy School. The budget does include funds in anticipation of a teachers' contract settlement, (the amount was not disclosed because of ongoing negotiations),; an additional bus going to St. Peter's School in Port Washington; additional ESL and special education staff per new state mandates; summer school. In preliminary talking stages are possible alternatives to reduce taxes. They include significant cuts to programs and services; staff cuts across the boards; larger class sizes in the 2-4 grades and the high school; fewer electives at the high school; fewer clubs; and fewer athletic teams; loss of equipment and capital projects and support staff. Mr. DeLuca said another option may be to float a bond for tax certioraris but the problem with this option is, until the district knows there's an end to the tax certs, the district would be mortgaging the future.

There will be public hearings on this proposed budget prior to the meetings of March 8,15, 22 and April 19

A high school senior, who spoke on behalf of all the students at the high school asked the board to reconsider their decisions regarding the hiring of a certain teacher at the high school. The senior said all the students would like to see the physical education teacher who currently holds a temporary position be given permanent employment. School board president Vito Abbondandolo said, "Any questions concerning personnel will not be discussed. It will be discussed in executive session and if anyone else has questions regarding personnel, it will not be answered." Marilyn Abrams, a parent and member of a school district hiring committee, read a prepared statement and said, "On Feb. 8, the school board instructed the superintendent to withdraw the recommendation of the candidate that was selected by consensus of the staffing committee and the district administrative staff. During the process of interviewing there was illicit lobbying by a school board member for another candidate who is related to the mayor that was not the choice of the staffing committee. The board's action was not based on the best interests of the school. The board's decision was not justified...and the board has violated their charter and perhaps the candidate's civil rights. You all will be receiving a package from me tomorrow and this package will be forwarded to the Commissioner of Education." Dr. Ron Abrams said the board's statement of not discussing personnel matters in public flies against the fact that everybody is talking about what recently happened with a personnel decision. "The intent to keep personnel as a private executive matter has already been breached. Every person here knows the importance of confidentiality and I'm sure they'll all share with me the outrage that individual board members were talking out of school to individual committee members about the process. You owe it to the public, the students and faculty to open up and talk about this in public," said Dr. Abrams. Mr. Abbondandolo said, "This is not really our policy. It is state law not to discuss personnel in public, specifically individuals. I have no proof that any member of the board was talking outside of executive session." Dr. Abrams said he had the proof and it was being submitted to the commissioner. In addressing a statement made by this reporter regarding the sanctity of executive session, Mr. Abbondandolo said, "Any board member that gives out any information from executive session is clearly illegal and I will look into that. We are forbidden to talk about executive session matters. There are no board actions during executive session. The person neither got the job nor did not get the job. We don't know when a decision will be made." When reached for comment at press time this Wednesday afternoon the mayor said, "The unfortunate thing about being related to me is that it probably hurts in getting a job in the school district rather than help."

Also during the open forum a Connolly School teacher wondered why she had never seen a board member visit the school, the front lines. High school teacher Dale Zurbrick said one of the reasons his colleagues were wearing the tee shirts was that for about ten years, not enough of the school board members had visited the schools.