Friday, January 5, 2018
Vol. 94, No.14
FOUNDED 1923
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Winterfest
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
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This week at Rotary PAGE 24
School Board Trustee: Elections can bring danger into schools
SWIMMING TO VICTORY
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
The Garden City Boy’s Varsity Swimming and Diving 2017-18 season is off to a 1-1 record. On December 19th, the team lost to Plainview with a score of 48-52; however, on December 22nd, GC was able to handily defeat Herricks 99-77. See pages 46-47
Open casting call for Community Theatre
Actors — adults and children — mark your calendars for an open casting call for the pring 2018 musical production of The Garden City Community Theatre. Auditions will take place on Friday, January 12th at 8:00pm and on Sunday, January 14th at 2:00pm at the Garden City Community Church, 245 Stewart Avenue, Garden City. Please use the Church entrance that can be accessed from the doors on Whitehall Boulevard. All interested in participating in the play should bring a ‘head-shot’ photo of
themselves. The show will take place over the weekend of April 13th, 14th and 15th. Any questions concerning auditions can be directed to Brad or Ruby Gustavson at 516-398-3431. The Garden City Community Theatre is a part of the Garden City Community Church. The theatre group was formed in 1996 as a creative outlet for the many talented individuals living in the Church community and also as a means to fundraise for the Church. The Garden City Community Church is part of the United Church of Christ
and is an Open and Affirming congregation. Worship services are Sundays at 8:30am in the chapel and 10:30 am in the sanctuary, with church school for children and a crib room for infants and toddlers, during the latter service. The Garden City Community Church is located at Stewart Avenue and Whitehall Blvd. For more information, call 746-1700 or visit our website at www. gardencitycommunitychurch. org
The Garden City Board of Education heard a review of safety on school grounds by interim Superintendent Dr. Alan Groveman at the district’s December 13 meeting. At the meeting the Board approved a school safety audit contract with Covert Investigations & Security Inc. of Suffolk County, at a price of $6,400. But one particular type of activity that takes place in Garden City school buildings and in schools across the country – bringing in hundreds of visitors, at times during a school day – was discussed by School Trustee Robert Martin. In an update, Martin looked back to Election Day 2017 (Tuesday November 7) with the turnout of voters entering school district buildings. One jarring incident, in which a voter got into an altercation with a poll worker, required the Garden City Police Department to be on-scene. Attendees of the December 13 board meeting heard Trustee Martin’s account of conversations in-district and also an agenda for the “super” Legislative Affairs Committee, a group with representation from the boards of education in the Garden City, Manhasset and North Shore school districts. “In our district’s legislative affairs committee, we specifically discussed the incident at Homestead School on Election Day. The police were called to the scene and a police report was filed and this occurred in the school building. That brought our committee together to discuss why our local polling locations are inside schools. Also we considered ‘how many students are in our schools during the times elections occur?’ As you know this impacts a number of schools, not just Homestead. We drafted a letter to send to the new Nassau County Executive (Laura Curran) – we hope to have a little more traction with her as she was on the school board in Baldwin, and I know they have voting locations in the Baldwin district,” Martin explained last month. The November 2017 Election Day was also parent-teacher conferences inside Homestead School and classes weren’t in session. Martin told his fellow board members there are other examples in Garden City of an open-door policy for voters entering school buildings, including each year in mid-May when the community votes on the school district budget and board member elections. “That annual election is held in the high school and our high school is in operation (students in classes and activities) that day…We are all aware of very serious incidents that have See page 19
Senior Duplicate Bridge players celebrate Christmas GCHS Varsity Basketball improves record PAGES 48-49
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