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Vol. 24 No. 14
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Schools serve students’ needs Organization focuses on those with social and emotional issues in Elmont, at St. Boniface Catholic Church; a high school at the Church of the Blessed SacraMost students in New York ment in Valley Stream; and a resstate make steady academic idential program in South Ozone progress, and advance through Park, Queens. two or three differTrainor said ent schools by the that students maintime they reach age ly come to Martin 14. Joseph Trainor, De Porres schools executive director because of defiof the Martin De ciencies in their Por res Schools, educational abiliexplains. ties, a need for speIn contrast, cial education most students at needs and histories Martin De Porres of “languishing” in S c h o o l s, wh i c h regular academic serve those with settings. The facilieducational, social, ties are part of the e m o t i o n a l a n d JoSEPH TRAINoR state’s so-called 853 behavioral issues, schools — created Exec. director, Martin often jump among by Chapter 853 of s eve n o r e i g h t De Porres Schools the Laws of 1976 — schools by age 14, for students with Trainor said, due disabilities. to their unique challenges. Trauma as contributor “It’s almost the exact oppoMany students who end up at site,” he said of the contrasting such a school, Trainor said, have experience of students who suffered trauma — not a “catatransfer from district-run clysmic event” in a student’s life, schools to Martin De Porres but the trauma of a regular Schools, which are state-funded school setting, which, he said, is private schools for those ages 13 “diffuse and complex.” to 21. “Our kids get to us because of Founded in 1972, the organiza- early languishing in school that tion has three locations: an elementary and junior high school Continued on page 4
By RoBERT TRAVERSo rtraverso@liherald.com
W
Robert Traverso/Herald
GRoCERy SHoPPERS AT the Franklin Square Stop & Shop said they couldn’t help but notice the continuing increase in food prices.
Shoppers feel food price hikes Single-year increase is largest in four decades By RoBERT TRAVERSo rtraverso@liherald.com
Local shoppers are expressing frustration with the increase in food prices, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that those prices rose nearly 9 percent between February 2021 and last month, the largest 12-month jump in over 40 years. “It’s up,” Maxine Smith, a Valley Stream resident shopping at the Stop & Shop on Franklin Avenue in Franklin Square, said wearily. A poll conducted in mid-February by Morning Consult found that nine out of 10 Americans reported noticing a rise in food prices, and a recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans who consider inflation a
major problem rose from 7 percent last November to 10 percent in March. “Everything has gone up,” said Smith, agreeing with 90 percent of 2,200 people polled by The New York Times recently who said that the prices of all varieties of food have risen in recent months. She pointed to global economic and political concerns as drivers of the increases, and specifically to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine combined account for 25 percent of the global wheat market, according to the New York Times, and Ukraine was the world’s largest exporter of wheat before the war. “I’ve noticed that the prices have gone up,” Henry DeHart, of Queens Village, said after Continued on page 9
e’re here to see them as a human being and see the total package of who they are.