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Valley Stream Herald 09-08-2022

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

FO OT BA LL PROSPECTS

’22 for the

SEASON

27 Schools

LO OK

INS FOR IDE TH SCHSEASOE FUL EDU N L LE

Dominick Novello

HERALD 2022 FooTBAll

Mepham High School’s

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Vol. 33 No. 37

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Stalemate in redistricting

High School Preview - Inside

1184923

202 2 HIGH SCHO OL SPORTS PREVIEW

VALLEY STREAM

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SEPTEMBER 8 - 14, 2022

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Mayor wants MTA to revamp LIRR station By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com

Tim Baker/Herald

WEAkENEd oVERPASSES WiTh rebar showing through, peeling paint, and rusted metal are found all over the Valley Stream Long Island Rail Road station, concerns officials say have gone unaddressed.

Crumbling concrete, weakened overpasses, rusting rebar. It’s a fact of life at the Valley Stream Long Island Rail Road station, Mayor Edwin Fare says. But that kind of deterioration is dangerous — and exactly why intervention is needed. And fast. Fare took his battle right to the source last week, joined by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips. There they made the

case for urgent, long-sought station upgrades. “We are demanding that the Long Island Rail Road take a look around at what Valley Streamers have to look at every day,” Fare said. “Every day we have concrete, some kind of slime oozing down, falling on people and cars on a daily basis on some of our overpasses.” Blakeman urged the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the LIRR, “to fix this rail station and make it presentable.” A walk around the station reveals some obvious eyesores Continued on page 19

Superintendents talk new school year in the new normal By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com

Classes are back as schools across Long Island embrace a return to normalcy following more than two years of pandemic disruption. But while extended lockdowns, enforced mask-wearing, and remote learning are largely a thing of the past, administrators must now help students settle back into the classroom and make a determined effort to catch up on learning lost to the coronavirus. Don Sturz says his District 24 is “looking forward to getting back to more of what it was like

pre-pandemic.” With the easing of restrictions by the Center for Disease Control and the state education department, “we will no longer need to cohort (students), allowing for greater teamwork and interaction.” Shedding these pandemic-era restrictions also frees up classrooms for better arrangement, moving around to better suit the specific learning needs of students, the superintendent said. Sturz’s counterpart in District 13, Judith LaRocca, also eyes a pivot toward getting students back on track as far as learning is concerned. The district is determined to stay on

course to reach grade level by the time these students reach third grade. “We have also updated our math program (for third through sixth grade) this school year, and expanded our pre-kindergarten program from four to six classes,” LaRocca said. But while pandemic restrictions may have loosened — with the state education department giving districts more leeway to determine their own Covid protocols — Sturz and LaRocca made clear that a layered prevention strategy to minimize the spread of Covid remains in place. “Our schools have multiple

measures such as optimizing ventilation, cleaning, and disinfecting protocols — and a supply of Covid test kits available for our students and staff,” LaRocca said. School districts also are bracing against other pandemicrelated issues, not least of which include soaring inflation in everything from transportation

to paper that may put a sizeable financial dent in the districts’ coffers in the coming years. “Increased federal monies — the g rant funds, and the increased state aid we have received over the past several years” have cushioned the impact of increased costs, Sturz said. Continued on page 4


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