Dr. Ronald Friedman, superintendent of the Great Neck Public Schools, took the floor with a specific goal in mind. In front of the assembled members of the Village Officials Association, who had spent most of the previous hour focusing their energies on eviscerating what they perceived as the misconceptions of the report issued by the Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, Friedman made it his priority to dispel what he saw as misperceptions about the operation of the school district. Some of what he had to say elicited gasps from the assembled audience, which consisted of people who one might not expect to be so easily shocked by local statistics.

After remarking on the unqualified success of the recent passage of the school budget by 81 percent and thanking the community for its support, Friedman asked those present how many bus routes they thought the school district used to satisfy the needs of not only the public schools, but also those students who attended private schools but were still entitled to local services such as buses. "Zero to 25?" "25 to 50?" Some hands went up. "50 to 75?" The majority of the hands went up. "75 to 100?" The remaining hands went up. "100 to 125?" The hands went down.

The revelation that the district utilized over 100 bus routes for Great Neck students clearly shocked the attendees. Friedman went on to explain that he has made it a priority of his and the school board's to ensure that the Great Neck Public Schools enjoy a close relationship with the private schools, as a means of ensuring efficient interactions and cooperation with them on many matters. He said, "We embrace all these kids as our responsibility...their parents pay taxes too. We don't have divisiveness here that other communities have."

Friedman also took the opportunity to explain the district's policies on students whose entitlement to be served by the Great Neck Public Schools are in doubt. Contrary to the belief of many, Friedman stated, the children of immigrants who reside in this country illegally are permitted to attend the public schools, as long as their parents or legal guardians meet the proper residency requirements.

However, the district is cracking down on the cases of students whose parents or legal guardians do not reside in the district, and therefore are not under the aegis of the Great Neck school district. What is often the case with these students is that they are enrolled in the school district with a relative, who happens to live within the boundaries of the school district, and who acts as their guardian; in some instances, the parents may sign an affidavit that states that these relatives are responsible for the child, and in many cases the students temporarily live with these relatives.

Friedman went on to detail the methods by which the district has gone about dis-enrolling these students and preventing future cases. This has included revamping the registration process and, in order to catch current students with fraudulent residency information, contracting with a private detective office to acquire the visual proof (such as photographs and film) needed to prove that these students are not, in fact, Great Neck residents. So far, the superintendent explained, they have dis-enrolled 12 such cases, with another two pending. According to Friedman, the only exceptions to these rules are students whose parents could not care for them due to physical or mental problems, and whose care and custody has been legally turned over to another party.

But the issues that attracted the most attention from the audience, and upon which Friedman placed the greatest amount of energy, were the widespread misconceptions about the demographic makeup and distribution within the Great Neck schools. Friedman explained that, contrary to the perceptions of many, Great Neck North High School is not losing students; but it is true that Great Neck South High is growing at a rapid rate. One potential solution to this which Friedman discussed was the school board's creation of an optional attendance zone, which runs through the middle of Great Neck and allows parents to decide which high school and middle school they would prefer to enroll their children in. Since making this option available, 35 youngsters' families have opted to go North.

The most "myth-busting" had to be done with regard to the evolving demographics of the Great Neck Public Schools. Whereas in 1975/76 the district was 90 percent White, with a 5.5 percent Black population, a 3.1 percent Hispanic population and only a 1.4 percent Asian population, since then there has been a large increase in the Asian population. Currently, the racial makeup of the schools is 68.2 percent White, with 23.2 percent Asian students, 7 percent Hispanic and 1.6 percent Black.

While many people, according to Friedman, assume that South High School is primarily Asian, the truth is that the Asian population of Great Neck South High School is about 35 percent. And while some believe that Great Neck North High School is made up of mostly Persian students, the percentage of Persian students at Great Neck North is also approximately 38 percent, with an Asian population of a little over 8 percent. (In national statistics, Persian students are considered White, though the District itself does keep track of them as a separate ethnic category.) The Asian population on the North side is also growing - Baker Elementary School now has an 8.5 percent Asian population and Kennedy School has 11 percent. Mandarin Chinese classes have recently been added to North Middle School's curriculum.

As Friedman explained, the major difference between the Asian and Persian populations with regard to statistics was the fact that the number of school-aged Persians in the district has been staying relatively constant over the years. On the other hand, the number of Asian students is continuing to grow at a pronounced rate, indicating that the demographic distribution between the various public schools will continue to evolve to reflect that fact.