The Glen Cove Board of Education met on Monday, Jan. 28 and was host to more than 50 residents. Most of the residents were on hand to discuss and support the subject of busing for high school students, a matter not on the agenda but which took the forefront of the meeting through questions of a board member. As part of old business, board member Dr. Rodger Silletti inquired about an information sheet, part of the board members' packets, which addressed the costs of high school transportation. That opened a discussion among board members, and rolled right into the comments from the public section of the meeting. The subject of high school busing has been a chronic problem in the district for many years, with parents of private and parochial school students on one side, and parents of public school students on the other. In order for the issue of busing to be amended two possibilities exist. It can be included in the budget, or a separate referendum could be presented to the voters. While it has not been that many years that the city of Glen Cove has been voting on the school budget, a few years ago a referendum on high school busing was offered to the public, but was defeated. Another defeated budget contained busing as a part of the budget.

Board member Carol Sucharski asked about the feasibility of "phasing in" the program, so that the district does not need to spend $800,000 all at one time. She reminded the board that she had made this suggestion before. It would mean that for the first year, busing would be given to ninth-graders, the next year, ninth and 10th graders, the third year, ninth, 10th and 11th, and within four years, all students would be bused. This would mean that the next budget would just include approximately one-quarter the full expense. She also brought up that when high school busing used to be in the budget, Chaminade students were given transportation by train, which is less expensive. The board agreed to look into the idea of phasing in busing.

Board President Vito Abbondandolo then opened the meeting up to comments to the public. The public began by continuing the old business of busing high school students. Resident Frank Riolo came with numbers. "There are 776 students attending Glen Cove High School who are not provided with transportation, and approximately 205 students attending private or parochial high schools who also do not get transportation." Mr. Riolo stated it is "a sad commentary for 1,000 students in the city not to get transportation to high school." The estimated cost for in-district students is $430,000, and the out-of-district estimate is $350,000. This $800,000 represents 1.6 percent of the over-all school budget of $50 million. He asked that the board members put the funding in the budget this year.

Speaking as a private citizen, Zefy Christopoulos brought up a related point from earlier in the meeting. It had been pointed out in a discussion on state aid that 38 percent of Glen Cove's children are entitled to free or reduced lunch. At some point, each of those children would reach the high school. Ms. Christopoulos pointed out that "in order for that child to get to school, the parent has to give that child $3 to go and $3 to come home. That's $6 a day times 182 school days, for a child who qualifies for free or reduced lunch, out of the pocket of probably some very hardworking families who can least afford to have Arena taxi transport their child to and from school." Ms. Christopoulos urged the board to "finally let us have what every other school district has, and that is busing to the high school."

Mr. Abbondandolo stressed that a majority of the board members do want to see high school busing. He explained that the board can include the item in the budget, but if it didn't, the public could garner signatures and prepare a separate referendum on the issue. It was suggested that interested and involved members of the community put together the petition and signatures and prepare a proposition should the board decide not to include busing in the budget. Mr. Doug Brown questioned if the board was sure at this point that it would not be more cost effective for the district to own its own fleet of buses again as some other districts do. We would be able to use these for after-school activities and athletic events, and as things stand now, we have a lot of empty seats on rented buses on the evenings of sports outings. Larry Blake, interim assistant to the superintendent for finance stated that he has found it is not cost effective to start up your own fleet, and that many districts with their own buses are starting to contract out. He acknowledged that he has not looked at all of the factors in Glen Cove, but, in general, buying buses, storing them, maintaining them, finding drivers all add up to it being a difficult and expensive proposition.

The only other moments of disagreement and questioning came up regarding the approval of certiorari payments. The school board voted 5-1-1 to approve two tax cert payments, one for $955,000 (Limco) and one for $82,000 (Pergament). Mr. Enright stated he has a problem with approving tax cert payments because the school district is not involved in any part of the process. He said the school board should suspend cert payments until the board looks into the integrity of the process. Board president Abbondandolo replied that tax certs are orders and judgements and the board must pay them in a timely manner or risk monetary penalties and other legal action. The year-to-date total of certiorari payments stands at $3,442,505.

Glen Cove City Controller Vincent Suozzi stated that the city is responsible for the assessments, and has always looked out for the school board. He added that if there are any questions, he would be more than happy to have any help the school board is willing to offer in getting the job done.

Other items on the agenda included the approval of a donation to the high school television studio of a state of the art digital video camera, and approval of donations from St. Paul's Episcopal Church to the Finley Middle School music department, to the Robotics team, and to SADD. The board also approved the addition of a new textbook, Managing Your Personal Finances, to be used in a new course which was in part developed by DECA under the guidance of DECA advisor Ms. Quackenbush.