Friday, March 31, 2017
Vol. 77, No. 13
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School Board reviews educational goals
DUNE DAY 2017
BY GARY SIMEONE
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino recently joined with Town Officials, Islanders’ legend Bobby Nystrom and caring Volunteers at the 2017 Dune Stabilization Project at TOBAY Beach. Since 1989, the Dune Stabilization Project has been an initiative to help protect TOBAY Beach. This recent event included many caring volunteers working side by side for a great cause. Planting dune grass goes a long way in stabilizing the construction of dunes as it enhances and protects the beach’s environment. Supervisor Saladino (fourth from right), is pictured with Town Councilwoman Michele M. Johnson (third from left), Councilman Louis B. Imbroto (center), New York Islanders’ legend Bobby Nystrom (right) and just a few of the many volunteers who came out for Dune Day 2017 and helped make a difference.
LIRR parking garage in disrepair BY GARY SIMEONE Mahash Abdullah has been a long time commuter at the Hicksville train station. He has always parked his car in the Town of Oyster Bay’s parking garage but says that came to an end a few months ago when he returned to find his car covered in soot. “I looked up at the ceiling in the garage and saw that it was falling apart,” said Abdullah, a Hicksville resident. “I couldn’t
believe it because I never had problems before.” He said he was astonished that the garage, which had only been built a few years ago to ease parking restrictions at the station, was already in a state of disrepair. “After finding that soot on my vehicle I started looking closely around and saw a lot of cracks in different areas of the ceiling and even saw some concrete that had fallen on the ground from above. I
don’t how it got in this condition this fast.” Last weekend, workers were sent to the garage to install support posts to help support the ceilings on the two lowest underground levels of the four story garage. The supports, called screw jacks, are also used to prevent further expanding and contracting of the cracks in the ceiling. See page 5
Hicksville School Superintendent, Dr. Carl Bonuso and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, Marianne Litzman, discussed the district’s 2016-17 goals and objectives at the monthly Board meeting last Wednesday night. Goals included development of effective partnerships in and with the school community, evaluation and future needs of each of the districts buildings and implementation of the new Pre-K program. “Tonight we just wanted to give the community a thumbnail sketch of how we are coming along with some of those goals,” said Dr. Bonuso. In the first goal, Litzman focused on the Pre-k program and RTI (Response to intervention) and AIS (Academic Intervention Services) plans and gave some specific academic points that have been addressed throughout the year. “These plans were put together to meet the needs of all learners with emphasis on early intervention in literacy,” said Litzman. She said that the two a.m. and p.m. sessions of the Pre-k program have been going along smoothly at Woodland and Burns Elementary schools. “We’ve also partnered with the Child Care Council of Nassau this year and that’s been going on monthly,” said Litzman. “We also have started a special Pre-k conference day for teachers.” In the area of expanding and effective partnerships with the school community, some of the goals have included maintaining and continuing the Industry Advisory Board and expanding school presence in community with posters, students art, exhibits /work and community service. “Many of our students fine artwork can be seen on the entrance to IKEA throughout the month of March,” said Dr. Bonuso. Dr. Bonuso said that he also wanted to continue and build upon effective “communication tools” such as the Supe’s On initiative and involve community stakeholders in areas such as finance (Audit Committee) and Facilities (Bond Committee.) As far as facilities is concerned, some of the main goals listed to provide students and staff with a safe environment for learning included having the security committee evaluate the immediate and long-term needs of each building and exploring the possibility of having an in-house safety officer in district buildings.
A beautiful rendition at Hicksville MS PAGE 4 “Seuss-tastic” at Woodland School PAGE 6