More than 75 teachers in neon yellow shirts reading "Still no contract..." on the front and "...hurts teachers, school, community" on the back lined the halls of Glen Cove High School as the Glen Cove Board of Education and Administration walked from their executive session to the regular public meeting on Monday, March 31. Instead of the silence that has traditionally accompanied teachers' demonstrations of this nature, on this night the board members' walk was accompanied by teachers' chanting of slogans such as "Two years overdue, board of ed shame on you" And "5, 10, 15, 20...zero money isn't funny."

At the opening of the meeting, board President Richard Tortorici remarked that he was glad to see so many teachers present and stated that in negotiations between the district and the teachers' union they have "seen movement" on a number of items. Currently, negotiations are being held "two-on-two" between Superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Aronstein and the district's counsel John Gross, and GCTA President Karen Ferguson and counsel for the union, NYSIT labor relations specialist Mary Lee Corliss. The four have met on two occasions; the next negotiation session is scheduled for April 17 and Mr. Tortorici said the board is "hopefully optimistic."

In a statement presented later in the evening, however, GCTA President Karen Ferguson said that she "continue[s] to fear that the breadth of items being demanded by the board would not be acceptable to this membership, as they are not acceptable to our negotiators." She added that the association has been willing to move on many of the district's proposals, but that "We cannot meet all the district's needs in one contract." She requested the board to consider the damage being done to its "disillusioned, unappreciated and demoralized" professional staff and said she looks forward to continuing negotiations and coming to a "fair agreement."

The upcoming 2008-2009 budget vote continued to take center stage and the audience was offered a presentation by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Aronstein of the proposed budget's third draft. Little has changed since the last presentation, due in part to the fact that the administration has been working on a "bare bones" budget, asking "just for what we need," as the superintendent has said on numerous occasions. Expenditures remain the same, however, revenues have improved, thanks to a $20,000 donation from the Glen Cove PTA Council for a new Booster Board to replace the one currently at the corner of Forest Avenue and Dosoris Lane. As money for a new board is included in the 2008-2009 proposed budget, Dr. Aronstein was happy to say that the funds can now be used elsewhere. The board of ed and administration expressed their appreciation to the PTA Council.

There also is a possibility that additional funding may be made available to Long Island schools through the proposed state budget, following an agreement among the state senate, state assembly and the governor. Should revenue increase due to additional state aid, less money will be needed from the taxpayers, and the proposed budget could be lowered. However, this is not something upon which the board and administration are relying.

As it stands now, the proposed budget-to-budget yearly increase is 2.92 percent, which translates to a projected tax levy increase of 4.85 percent. Dr. Aronstein, who prides himself on frugality, was proud to announce that the proposed increase is the lowest of all 56 districts in Nassau County. As previously reported, the proposed budget would ensure that the district has enough money to pay for present and future labor contracts, sustain current student programs, maintain financial solvency, continue improvements to the district's facilities, maintain reasonable class size, provide all students with the necessary materials for learning and run an effective and efficient operation.

Dr. Aronstein iterated the fact that the projected 4.85 percent tax levy increase is more than 1 percent lower than the projected contingency, or austerity, budget, increase of 5.91 percent. Should the budget fail and the district be required to go on austerity, taxes would be higher than with a passed budget, so, said the superintendent, a yes vote means a lower tax increase. Additionally, a contingency budget would mean "severe consequences for the community," said Dr. Aronstein. Under austerity, the district would not be allowed to make any capital improvements, nor could it make any purchase that exceeds $1,000.

While there was much talk of teachers and taxpayers, students were not left out of the mix. Representatives of the newly formed Glen Cove Youth Bureau Youth Council made a presentation to the board on the functions of the council and its current project. Jamara Clark, Alex Franklin and Melanie Weiss introduced a campaign called Going Green, which they hope to implement within the school community. Jamara stated, "We would like to place recycle bins in the school cafeterias and eventually in all the classrooms with permission and support from our school administrators. We, the Youth Council members, plan to visit classrooms to encourage our peers to 'go green' and recycle using these bins. To date, we have received the support of Mayor Ralph Suozzi, the city council, and members of the Youth Board." As Melanie turned pages of pie charts and graphs, Alex reported, "We surveyed 508 students in total, at the high school and middle school level to find out our peers' views about recycling. As you can see from our pie chart, 71 percent of high school students and 85 percent of middle school students [surveyed] already recycle daily. In addition, 71 percent of high school students and 89 percent of middle school students care about recycling. There was a lot of confusion among our peers about whether the schools offered the opportunity to recycle; 77 percent of high school students and 84 percent of middle school students said they were unsure or thought the school did not participate in recycling. An overwhelming 83 percent of high school students and 90 percent of middle school students surveyed said they would recycle if available in their school. These results demonstrate strong support from the student body for recycling." Mr. Tortorici thanked the young ladies for their presentation and stated the board would discuss the proposal.

In the public comments section of the meeting, parent Gina Rant stood to say she was "sad and disgusted" that there is no JV baseball team at the high school this year. According to Ms. Rant, her son and other players had been practicing for JV for four weeks, but when JV and varsity split, the coach cancelled practices and scrimmages for JV due to a lack of players. The team members were asked to help recruit more players and they did, she said, going so far as to have those players get medical clearance as well as equipment, but scrimmages and practices continued to be cancelled. "In the past, middle school students were always brought up to the high school level," she said, and questioned why this had not been done, if most ninth- and tenth-graders were scheduled to be on the varsity team. For the first year, the middle school has two teams, said Ms. Rant, so there are obviously enough interested players to bring eighth graders up to play JV baseball. She added that the boys were told they could move up to varsity, but would not have an opportunity to play in games; they could keep score and play an occasional scrimmage. "When they said no," continued Ms. Rant, "they were asked how they thought it would look for the coaches when they got to varsity. With all due respect," she asked the board, "how do you think it looks for the Glen Cove School District to have to forfeit every one of our JV games because we have no team, because the only ones that care are our kids that showed up to practice every day and wanted to play?"

The board members acknowledged that they were not aware of the situation because, said Mr. Tortorici, this is an operational matter and the board of ed does not get involved with the everyday operations of the schools. Board member Doug Brown was particularly vocal on the matter, stating that he believed the loss of a program went "over the line from operational matters." He said that historically eighth graders are brought up to play JV ball and that it is "the beauty of community" to have players of different grades on a team.

Dr. Aronstein said that he had spoken with the high school athletic director Dr. Scott Silverman the Thursday and Friday before the meeting, and Dr. Silverman had told the superintendent there were only six players for a JV high school team and that he had tried to recruit more students from the high school for JV. He said there was consideration giving to dropping some players from varsity to JV, but the varsity coach said no. As there were so many middle school students that wanted to play ball, the decision was made to have the two middle school teams. The superintendent said he was not certain of the rules of the athletic department, but would look further into the matter.

This reporter spoke with Dr. Aronstein on Wednesday, April 2 and he had, indeed, done his homework, as promised. Dr. Aronstein quoted at length from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Rule Book: "The intent of selection/classification is to provide for students in grades 7-12 a mechanism allowing them to participate safely at an appropriate level of competition based upon readiness rather than age and grade. Students do not mature at the same rate and there can be a tremendous range of developmental differences between students of the same age. The program is not to be used to fill positions on teams, provide additional experience, provide a place for junior high school [in Glen Cove's case, middle school] students when no modified program is offered, or reward a student. Instead, it is aimed at the few select students who can benefit from such placement because of their level of readiness." In other words, said Dr. Aronstein, the rules clearly state that a school cannot use middle school students to simply fill positions to provide a team. Had the high school done that, he said, the league would have "closed us down for being in violation of the rules."

There were originally eight students who qualified for JV, and, said the superintendent, two were injured and required surgery. The other six were invited to join the varsity team and get some experience, perhaps playing in a game or two if a game were to be a "blowout." Two students opted to join; the other four did not. Dr. Aronstein reiterated the middle school concept of allowing all students to participate in sports at an appropriate level, which is the reason there are now two teams at the middle school. The bottom line, he said, was that both he and Dr. Silverman were "playing by the rules."

The next meeting of the Glen Cove School Board will be held on Monday April 14, at which time the board will officially adopt the 2008-2009 budget. The meeting after that will be Monday, April 28, followed by a budget hearing on Monday, May 5. All meetings will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Glen Cove High School at 7:30 p.m. The budget vote will take place on Tuesday, May 20 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Connolly School, Landing School, Finley Middle School and the Glen Cove Boys and Girls Club.