A casualty of the budget cuts the Mineola Board of Education made in order to adopt a contingency budget, the board voted to restore late buses.

Once the proposed budget for the 2005-2006 school year failed in May, the Mineola Board of Education elected to adopt a contingency budget. In order to do so, the board had to cut $1.8 million from its proposed budget. Part of those cuts were the late bus runs and the pre-kindergarten midday buses.

As part of the budget cuts, the board chose four full-time equivalent 12-month bus drivers to be 10-month, eight-hour drivers. It was learned that these drivers can be further reduced from eight-hour drivers to five-hour drivers at a savings of approximately $72,000.

The board then discussed if it would apply the savings to restoring some of the cuts it made to transportation. The plan for restoring the mid-day pre-kindergarten bus runs called for parents or guardians to drop the student off at their home school and then a bus would bring the students to the Willis Avenue School for pre-kindergarten instruction.

The reason for the plan to only provide transportation from the home elementary schools to Willis was because the plan would require less buses and less hours and therefore cost less to the district. However, the prevailing thought of the board of education was that implementing the plan for the midday pre-kindergarten transportation would not be fiscally prudent. The estimated cost of the plan was $75,000.

Board of education member Steve Siwinski commented that if parents are going to get in their cars to drive pre-kindergarten students to their home elementary schools, the students might as well be dropped off at the Willis Avenue School instead of having to take a car and then a bus.

The board instead opted to restore the late buses at a cost of $25,000. The thought among the board members is that the late buses affect middle school and high school students as well as private school students. It is estimated that 85 public and 45 private students use late buses daily.

Another prevailing thought on the board is that providing late buses opens the door for students for after-school and extra-curricular activities since students may be dissuaded from joining activities if their was no transportation.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli recommended to the board that the board restore late bus runs although he acknowledged that not restoring midday pre-kindergarten bus runs would provide a hardship to some families.

The board unanimously passed a resolution restoring late buses.

The next meeting of the Mineola Board of Education will take place Thursday, Sept. 8. Instead of 8 p.m., the public portion of the meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. At that meeting, the board is expected to discuss board goals and administrative leadership goals. District Doesn't Get Downgraded From Moody's The Mineola School District recently got rated by Moody's and the district received an A2 rating. The district, therefore, did not receive a downgrade.

Submitted by Janet Stoner

The kindergartners in Mrs. Levi's and Mrs. Stoner's class at the Willis Avenue School became pen pals with soldiers in Iraq during the 2004-2005 school year.

One soldier wrote, "There is nothing as special to us as hearing from our children back home. You make us very proud."

As a thank you to the class, the "Flying Tigers" division sent the class a flag as a momento. The flag was actually flown in combat over Iraqi cities for over five hours.

Erik Morschhauser wrote, "I came upon this flag and immediately thought of you as it holds the deepest sentiment for us and symbolizes the great pride and loyalty we have for our country, our families and the people in our nation who touch our lives each day."

The flag is now in a display box in Mrs. Levi's classroom.