__________________ SEAFORD _________________
HERALD $1.00
Fundraiser helps police officers
Crisis Center shines a light
legislator Walker sworn in, again
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Vol. 70 No. 4
JANUARY 20 - 26, 2022
No pre-K in Seaford schools District officials conducted ‘intensive review of criteria’ to operate program By MARiA CesteRo and KAte NAlepiNsKi mcestero@liherald.com
Courtesy Jim Hayden
Coats? Blankets? We’ve got ’em. Nineteen-degree weather last Saturday didn’t stop Seaford BSA Troop 581 from hosting its annual Coat and Blanket Drive, directed by Assistant Scoutmaster Frank Padavan. Over 500 pounds of coats and blankets were donated to shelters in Nassau County, with guidance from the troop’s sponsor, the Seaford Lions Club.
The Seaford Union Free School District does not plan to use federal funds to provide a universal prekindergarten program for eligible children at this time, district officials announced this month. Last July, state officials announced that New York planned to invest $970 million in state-administered pre-K programs, according to the State Education Department. The 2022 state budget includes $105 million for pre-K for 4-yearold children. The total is expect-
ed to grow to nearly $1 billion by the end of the 2023-24 school year thanks to state expansion grants, according to an April 2021 presentation from the Association of School Business Officials, New York. In an emailed statement, Seaford’s deputy superintendent, John Striffolino, said that following an “intensive review of the criteria to operate and fund a UPK program within the Seaford School District,” the district determined that it did not have adequate space for such a program. District officials also spoke with Seaford-area preschools Continued on page 12
Chabad Center for Jewish Life expansion is under way By JoRDAN VAlloNe jvallone@liherald.com
The Chabad Center for Jewish Life, also known as the Chabad of Merrick-BellmoreWantagh, recently raised over $500,000 in five days. The donated funds will be used to expand the chabad’s school building, which serves its Jewish Early Learning Center preschool, a Hebrew school and a summer camp. The campaign — “Building a Dream: Investing in the Future” — went live online at www.chabadjewishlife.org, on the morning of Dec. 9. Five days later, the community had raised $518,888. Expanding the preschool had
been under discussion for a while, but because the chabad operates as a nonprofit, the funding had to be donation-based. With over 100 children on a waiting list for the school, a handful of donors approached Rabbi Shimon Kramer and his wife, Chanie, the JELC director, and offered to triple any donations received from the community. “The directors and teachers of the preschool are all on the front lines, doing a fantastic job,” Rabbi Kramer said. “The only way we could expand was if the community could contribute and help. Some donors came forward and wanted this to be a community event.”
The names of the donors and matchers were kept confidential, out of courtesy, but Kramer added that almost every parent in the school gave something to the campaign. Though the expansion will make it possible for roughly 100 more students to attend the preschool, the chabad’s Hebrew students will also use the added space in the afternoons during the week and on Saturday mornings. During the summer, it will be available to the summer camp. This is not the first expansion of the preschool, Chanie Kramer explained. The program started with four children in 2008, and it
operated out of the Kramers’ home. “We’ve had many expansions,” Chanie said. “The first big step was moving it out of the house.” The chabad opened a tworoom preschool at its Hewlett Avenue location in 2015, and added two more classrooms and a multipurpose room in 2018.
The multipurpose room now serves as a temporary classroom. “Right now we have no proper multipurpose room,” Kramer said. “It’s really important to get this done as soon as possible.” Plans for the expansion were in the works before the fundraising campaign even began. The original goal was to raise Continued on page 13