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Vol. 29 No. 24
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longtime barber shop closes doors
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_______ Malverne/West HeMpstead ______
JUNE 9 - 15, 2022
School security ramps up after shooting By KYlE CHIN kchin@liherald.com
Kyle Chin/Herald
THE flAg oUTsIdE Malverne High School was flying at half-staff following the deadly Texas school shooting.
In the wake of recent mass shootings that have left nine grocery shoppers, four grocery store employees, 19 school children and two teachers dead, residents of Malverne and West Hempstead are once again asking what is being done to prevent tragedies like these from happening on Long Island. Continued on page 4
West Hempstead board gives school budget another try By KYlE CHIN kchin@liherald.com
The West Hempstead school board warned residents that significant program cuts are looming if the board’s revised budget is voted down. During a May 31 meeting, assistant superintendent Joel Press unveiled to the West Hempstead school board a revised budget of $71.2 million, a reduction of about $190,000 from the board’s first proposed budget, which was voted down on May 24, the only school budget on Long Island to fail. If the revised plan also fails,
the school district would be forced to adopt a contingency budget, a reduction of nearly $1 million. Press said that under a contingency budget, the average single-family homeowner in West Hempstead would pay roughly $153 less in taxes than under the revised budget. Several board trustees stressed that this sum is small compared to the potential cuts to services that would occur under a contingency plan. “It’s two pairs of shoes,” said board vice president Patricia Greaves. “Or a cheap cup of coffee,” Press added, “at 43 cents a day.” Press and the board described
what could be lost for the price of “two pairs of shoes.” Press said that under a contingency plan the district would have to consider increasing class sizes due to staff reductions, eliminating athletics, clubs and extracurricular activities, reducing elective course offerings and limiting the use of district facilities by outside groups. “And we’d have to look at transportation very, very closely,” Press said, adding that reductions to transportation could see the district introduce “centralized pickup” for students going to school out-of-district, with fewer buses taking them from
fewer central locations. Several community members raised concerns about the role of reserve funds in the budget. Unused funds from previous budgets are generally placed into reserves, rather than reinvested in other projects. One member of the public even hinted that the district was “hiding something” in the use of funds. Press
said that state law restricted the allocation of that money, and that new budgets are generally drawn and adopted before the end of the fiscal period when the board can see what funds have not been used. “This is a very transparent process,” said trustee-elect Byars Cole. “I know how efficiently we Continued on page 15