At the end of the last New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board meeting a resident complained that the information on the agenda is too vague and that the board votes on items that the public has not been given any knowledge of prior to the vote. The resident said she has been coming to board meetings for six months to find out what is going on and she said, "I still don't know what is going on!"

Board vice-president Robert Nugent, after the meeting ended, stated to many residents that the board was not able to give the information out about the items until after they had been voted on.

However, in the past, prior to the current administration, one resident remembered that names were provided on the agendas and if not voted on the public was simply told to delete the item from the agenda. Further, it was pointed out that other school districts do post specific names on their agendas.

School Board President Patricia Rudd introduced the new school board clerk, Patricia Olive. At the same time the resignation of school board treasurer Christina Nicastro was announced and a search will be conducted for a replacement.

Trustee Joan Romagnoli gave the report from the Sewanhaka Central School District meeting.

She announced that New Hyde Park Memorial's valedictorian is Tracy Shigh and the salutatorian is Laura Palazzola.

She also reported that parents at the meeting complained about the lack of advanced classes and the board will look into the complaint.

She also said that the state funding for central high school districts has been decreased by 4.24 percent and the Sewanhaka School Board members are petitioning to have theme monies restored so that they reduce the tax level to 5.3 percent.

The next Sewanhaka School Board meeting will be held on March 13 at the Sewanhaka Administration Building, behind Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park.

Giarratani reported that at the meeting, those in attendance were given an overview of the governor's proposed budget and property tax caps which will affect residents adversely. A copy of this report can be obtained at the office of New Hyde Park/Garden City Park Superintendent Dr. Regina Cohn.

Giarratani said, "Basically, they will be putting a cap on property tax state aid. In '07-'08 we received 13.3 percent and in '08-'09 we will be receiving 8.02 percent. The point they mentioned since money they were taking from us would fund the rest of the state. This is something we as a community, not just the school district, but taxpayers alike, can rally. We need to send a message to New York State, along with our officials in Nassau County. Several months ago New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and the Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi promised us a consortium where we can save money: not consolidation of school districts, but consolidation of services. We were also promised this would be around budget time. Somewhere along the line the consultant who was hired to prepare this report at our expense, fell short. We are told this report will be ready around May 15 which is five days until we will vote on our budget.

"Therefore, on March 1 there will be a rally in Farmingdale. If anyone is interested in going, please contact the superintendent's office for time and directions and if we all get together we can show the state that we mean business."

Trustee Giarratani then turned the meeting back to President Rudd, who in turn turned it over to Superintendent Regina Cohn.

Dr. Cohn said, "The school district has, by law, three auditors. An external auditor, an internal auditor and a claims auditor. Tonight we will have the opportunity to hear from our claims auditor, Ernest Patrick Smith."

He said, "As Dr. Cohn pointed out there are three different audit processes. We also have now an audit committee, which is part of oversight which was put in place by New York State several years ago.

"I am here to talk about the claims audit process. Prior to having to appoint a claims auditor, this was the duty of the board of education, to go over all the claims individually. What has happened over the last few years, this process has been outsourced."

Smith then went into great detail [about] the steps they take to make sure that all the purchases and claims match up. They determine that the charges are not duplication of items already paid and that all the vouchers matchup to items purchased. He said that his company presents monthly reports and presents them to the board of education.

Smith ended his report by saying, "There are no weaknesses in the process. There is always room for improvement, but on an overall basis you should be very pleased with the claims audit process you have in place."

The meeting was then turned back to Dr. Cohn who introduced Director of Technology Judith LaRoca, who explained about SMARTBoards in the district. She said that currently in the district there are 17 SMARTBoards that have the ability to integrate with the Internet.

Diane Bolmarchich then gave a rather long, but informative presentation of how the SMARTBoard works and what a wonderful teaching tool it is for the students.

After the presentation, members of the board asked many questions about the use of SMARTBoards in the district.

Dr. Cohn said that more SMARTBoards have been included in the technology budget and grants are being applied to try to get even more SMARTBoards so that eventually all of the classrooms in the district will have them.

The board then heard the monthly report from Dr. Cohn (published in the Feb. 15 issue of The Illustrated News).

Then personnel-instructional and non-instructional items were voted on, with no names and no indication of what the board was voting on including a social worker, classroom aides and monitors.

Trustee Giarratani questioned several of the items, but to the general public her inquiries were meaningless without information.

The board then voted to accept donations from the Hillside Grade School PTA, a check from Target, a grant applied for by Susan Sohmer and a check from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation. No amounts were given, except for the grant which was in the amount of $1,000.

The board approved sixth grade class trips for the Hillside Grade to go on Nautical Cruise Line and for Manor Oaks to go to Chelsea Piers; no amounts were listed for either of the trips. There were discussions led by Trustee Giarratani regarding the trips. However, neither the trustee nor the superintendent could be heard.

The board then adopted the following second reading policy list: Minutes, Orienting New Board Members, Use of Parliamentary Procedure, Board Member Training on Financial Oversight, Accountability and Fiduciary Responsibilities, Membership in Associations, Professional Service Procurement, Fingerprinting of Prospective School Employees and Attendance Policy (revision).

The next review of policies was for a first reading:

Regular Board Meetings, Agenda Format, Business of the Annual District Election, Committees of the board, Compensation and Expenses, School, Board Self-Evaluation, School Sponsored Media, Relations with Municipal Governments, Public Expression at Meetings, Student Participation.

After a review of the policies, the board will approve these policies at the next meeting.

The board approved the renewal of the Intermunicipal Agreement with the Town of North Hempstead, the school district calendar for '08-'09, and membership in the New York State Association of School Attorneys. It also provided approval for President Rudd to attend a conference and they approved a consultant contract for Diana Biehayn to help with the transition of the new school board clerk.

The board then adopted the specifications for the new school superintendent. These specifications were published in the Feb. 15 issue of The Illustrated News.

Trustee Giarratani complained about the traffic problem at the Hillside Grade School. She said that since she lives so close to the school she is affected with people parking in her driveway or blocking her driveway and she feels it is a safety problem. She said she hates the thought of having to call the Third Precinct since they are so busy. She suggested that perhaps people could be more considerate about where they are parking when dropping off their children.

A second resident complained about the lack of information on the board agenda. Further, she said she was not given any information about the superintendent search.

Another resident said she wanted to make sure the board would hire a full-time aide for the Kindergarten.

A resident said that the qualifications drafted for a new superintendent sound like the resumé of Dr. Cohn, and she said she hopes the board will make sure that whoever is hired will have the ability to obtain as many grants as Dr. Cohn has obtained for the district.

Finally, after a very long, long meeting, the board adjourned announcing that the next meeting will be on March 3 and it will be a Budget Presentation from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Manor Oaks School.