The Levittown Board of Education got together for their first meeting of the summer on Wednesday, July 5 at Levittown Memorial Education Center. There were no presentations of any sort by students or faculty, as is the norm during the school year, but two rather large pieces of business were attended to during the evening.

The board held their organizational meeting to declare who would be filling which positions for the 2006-07 school year. Most notably, former Secretary Gina Interdonato will take over as board president. Also, John Garvey will be the new vice president, while Roseanne Gullans will take over as secretary.

James Moran had held his post as president for three years before this change and Diane Shapiro was vice president for 10 years.

Following the organizational meeting, Levittown residents flocked to the podium at the LMEC Board Room to discuss various issues in the Public Be Heard.

First off, Mary Celentani and Terri Tom from the MacArthur Football Parent's Club inquired about the status of a new snack shack to be built near the football field. The old shack was torn down when the new bleachers were installed after last football season. Since then, Celentani and Tom have been proactive in getting a new shack built, as it is an important part of their fundraising endeavors. The board initially said there would be something up by lacrosse season, but now the main goal is to have it for football season.

"It's six weeks until the start of football practice and we still haven't heard anything," Celentani said.

Superintendent Dr. Herman Sirois is confident that ground will be broken by the next board meeting on Aug. 9.

The main topic of conversation this evening centered around the Salk/MacArthur Traffic Study. In a special meeting on June 21, representatives from Nelson & Pope Engineers & Surveyors explained their findings from a traffic study in front of Salk Middle School and MacArthur High School.

They stated several statistics and showed both their recommended and alternative designs for improvement in the area.

While their analysis is very complex, the main concepts are that the new bus drop-off would be between Salk and MacArthur, and the Salk circle would be redesigned for more general parking, which will in turn take the congestion off of Old Jerusalem Road. The tennis courts would be scrapped in favor of more parking, however the courts, as well as the practice fields would be relocated.

While these changes are still not definite, it was the opinion of Nelson & Pope that major reconstruction is necessary. Their statistics included over 700 cars in one hour enter and exit the two schools and 22 more acres of land would be necessary if the schools were to be built today.

The total estimated cost would be between $1-1.5 million.

Levittown residents are on both sides of the fence in regards to the ideas. Parents seem anxious to get something going, while the firefighters from the Wantagh Fire Department are skeptical. Some of the plans by Nelson & Pope could severely increase the response time of firefighters trying to get out to respond to fires due to increased congestion behind the firehouse.

Another concern was the entrance of the student parking lot at MacArthur that was switched to the Wantagh Avenue side approximately four years ago. This has accounted for 13 more accidents a year due to the necessary U-turn to be made by Hunt Road.

This also creates more congestion in front of the firehouse in the morning. Wantagh Fire Department Chief Dan Kipnis voiced his discontent with the recommendations. He said he would provide the board with a chart of how many calls they generally get during the drop-off and pick-up times at Salk and MacArthur, so they can work together with the board on a solution that will work for both sides.

"We have waited long enough and we need to get something done now," Trustee Diane Shapiro said.

New President Gina Interdonato echoed that sentiment.

"We have some things we can get done immediately that won't cost a tremendous amount of money."

She was referring to the drawing of lines for the new bus drop-off in between the schools, among other things.

A $25,000 grant made possible by the efforts of Nassau County Legislator David Mejias should help with the start of construction, however a more significant amount of money will be needed to reconstruct the Salk circle.

The Levittown Board of Education will reconvene on Aug. 9 for their next regular meeting. For more information, please log onto www.levittownschools.com.