At the last New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board meeting both the New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board budget and the Hillside Library budget were presented for approval by each of its boards and for discussion by the public.

School Board President Suzanne Wenz, the chairperson of the Annual New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board Meeting announced that the vote on the budget will be held on May 19 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Manor Oaks School and that Florence Lisanti has been named chairperson of the election. Wenz urged anyone with any questions pertaining to the budget to please contact Superintendent Rudaitis at the Manor Oaks school prior to the May 19th election.

As discussed at prior meetings, in length, the bottom line of the school board budget is projected to be an increase of 99 cents per $100 assessed valuation or approximately $53.44. The complete budget or an overview may be obtained at all of the schools in the district and at the libraries, for those who did not receive it in the mail.

School Board Superintendent Joseph Rudaitis went through the budget in detail and then the board went into executive session, to discuss a personnel matter and the Hillside Library Board took over and presented its budget to the public. The bottom line of the Hillside Library Board budget is two cents over last year's budget or $1.40 per $100 assessed valuation.

The increase of the Sewanhaka Central School District budget is an increase of 69 cents.

Richard Bursig, Hillside Library President, was the chairperson of the meeting of the trustees including Ruth Bauer, Steven Cipot, Debra Murphy and Maura Rossi. He, too, went through the budget and except for fuel and utilities, and the retirement fund every line pretty much stayed the same in the library budget. The library budget may be obtained at the library for any residents who did not receive a copy of the Hillside Library newsbriefs.

At the end of the library budget presentation resident Donald Barbieri wanted to know if there were ongoing talks with the school district and the library about library space. Library board president Bursig said there were talks, but that the present forum discussing the budget was not the place to discuss it and said that perhaps Barbieri should come to the next library meeting scheduled for May 20 at 8 p.m.

The residents of the district must also vote on the Sewanhaka Central High School budget and each budget is voted on separately. These three numbers added together are the sum total of what the New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board residents will pay as an increase in taxes for the 1998/1999 school year.

Residents must also vote for school board trustees and this year the candidates include incumbent trustee Martin Cernese, who is running unopposed; vying for James Parla's vacated seat are two candidates, Tricia Sheridan and James Kane and running against incumbent trustee Joseph Cilia is Curtis Axelsen. All challenged candidates have been profiled in the Illustrated News.

The school board then returned to the dais and called the regular meeting of the board for the month of May into session.

Trustee Martin Cernese, who is the president of the Sewanhaka Central School Board, reported that the last Sewanhaka meeting was devoted to handing out awards honoring the students in the district. He said that the Model UN team of the district competed in New York City and of the 13 highest awards; seven were won by the district.

The next Sewanhaka Board meeting will be held on May 26, at 8 p.m., and at that meeting there will be a report concerning graduation requirements. The report will address the requirements as they are outlined today. The state has made various changes in graduation and the fifth grade class of today, reported Cernese, will require that each student attain a Regents diploma in order to graduate. Until that time local diplomas will be given out, but they will be gradually phased out. There will be two types of Regents Diploma's required to graduate; a regular Regents, which will require five Regents to graduate and then there will be an Advanced Regents Diploma, which will require more students to graduate. Further, Cernese said that Sewanhaka will be reinstituting a policy called "gateways" in which it will require to move from one grade to another. Cernese explained that the Board of Regents still have not settled on all the requirements, so the district is faced with trying to 'hit a moving target.' He went on to say that the main issue in all of this is how to deal with Special Education, which will be addressed at the next board meeting.

Superintendent Rudaitis reported on the success of both the Wellness Fair, under the direction of Sandy Castiglia and the District Arts Festival which gave an opportunity to view the children's art work and listen to their musical talents in both band and string instruments.Rudaitis then announced a request for childcare leave for Regina Walsh and Joan Dane and for Lisa Meyer for extension of childcare leave. The following substitute teachers were approved: Rachel Bennett, Maria Morelli and Rhoda Boltax. Laurie Ferrera resigned as a summer reading teacher and Michele Jackman was hired. The resignation of Laura Marks, a teacher at the Roads School, was also accepted. The appointment of substitute cleaner Dennis Gigliotti was approved as were the following substitute cafeteria monitors: Carmela Veltri, Maria Contrada, Linda Chiofolo and Immacolata Masini.It was reported that the teacher's themselves are involved in approving, for adoption, the textbooks that are to be used in the Language Arts program for grades four, five and six and that at next month a full recommendation will be made for the materials to be used in the program.The plan and drill have been reviewed. The only changes made have been the names of certain personnel. In conjunction, there will be early dismissal drill to take place on May 29. The times for the four district schools are: 2:45 p.m.; Notre Dame: 2:15 p.m.; Holy Spirit: 2:25 p.m. and for the new Hebrew Academy: 1:45 p.m. Board president Wenz wanted to know if the parents would be informed regarding this time and Rudaitis assured her that letters have already been sent out to all parents who have children in the district.Superintendent Rudaitis said that he changed the very first item on the guidelines section for the Internet to read: Parents must give written permission for their child to use the Internet. President Wenz said she wanted to commend trustee Joseph Cilia who read and reread the policy and made many suggestions. She said personally both she and trustee Helen Gilmartin were very concerned about the parental consent aspect of the policy. Further, she said that she felt the board would like to get some feedback on how the Internet is working in the district. Cilia wanted to know what sites would be appropriate for the children to visit. Rudaitis said he thought one mandate would be that no one would take children to a site that has not been previewed by either the teacher or some other adult. Rudaitis said that he would give the board a monthly update on the Internet policy. There was a first reading for a homework policy that has been revised from the original policy that was written years ago with the help of the Building Level Teams and the District Advisory Team and then a draft of a revised policy was submitted and may be obtained from the superintendent's office describing in detail the outline for home for grades one, two, three, four, five, and six and for the parent's role in making sure that homework is completed.

In the New Business portion of the meeting trustee Lawrence Montreuil suggested that the district enact a policy of re-registering the students every year as a way to prevent children from attending the school illegally. President Wenz agreed that it would deter parents from trying to sneak students into the district when they did not live in the district.

Superintendent Rudaitis said that when children enter the district for the first time there are strict guidelines they must follow. He said to re-register a district does have some negatives attached to it such as cost. Wenz then asked Superintendent Rudaitis to look at it and see if it could be implemented for the fall and could there be any legal issues and maybe by the next meeting we will have a clearer picture of what this would entail.

President Wenz announced that the space committees are all working very hard and will have a report to bring to the board shortly.

The meeting was closed with Wenz reminding everyone to get to the poles on May 19 and to vote for the budget and for the trustee of his/her choice.

The next New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board meeting will be held on June 8 at the Manor Oaks School at 8 p.m.