_________________ WANTAGH ________________
HERALD
May 16, 2024
with a focus on programs and activities
Vol. 72 No. 21
Earning the top playoff seed
Summer learning in arts academy
Page 6
Page 10
MAY 16 - 22, 2024
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School district focuses on budget plan a pair of propositions that will address the district’s five-year building condition survey. Seaford school district super- Proposition 2 would allow for intendents zeroed in on capital $4.5 million of its capital projects at a discussion of next reserve to be used to replace the week’s budget vote at a hearing roof and upgrade the gymnasion May 9. um ceiling at Seaford Middle At the hearing, in the high School. school library, Superintendent The roof, Casale said, is at Adele Pecora and Andrew Casa- least 60 years old, and repairs le, assistant superover that time have intendent for busibeen made with a ness and operafoam spraying solutions, detailed the tion. He displayed $83.5 million spendphotos showing the ing plan, which was extent of the deteriadopted last month. oration, with cracks It is 3.73 larger than and weather-worn the current budget, spray foam. and has a tax levy “You’re just basiincrease of about ANdREW CASAlE cally spraying foam 2.27 percent, which, Assistant on the top of the according to Casale, superintendent roof, which is really is the second-lowest for business and not the best way to for the district in operations handle it,” Pecora seven years and is said. “So it hasn’t below the Nassau County and been completely taken off and Long Island averages. re-tarped.” The capital projects will “You just can’t, obviously, include districtwide upgrades keep spraying and spraying,” of security and door systems, Casale said. “There comes a restroom renovations and point, as you can see from the asphalt work at Seaford Harbor pictures and walking these Elementary, and upgrades of roofs, where they need to be the high school football field’s replaced.” press box and sound system. If the proposition is In addition to the budget, voters will be asked to approve Continued on pAGe 9
By CHARlES SHAW
cshaw@liherald.com
I
Courtesy Kerri Stallone
Wantagh High School sophomore Faith Stallone with her mother and troop leader, Kerri Stallone. Faith will receive the Girl Scout Gold Award at a ceremony next month, for a project that focused on educating the community about food insecurity.
Faith Stallone goes for the Gold
She’ll be given prestigious Girl Scout award in June By CHARlES SHAW cshaw@liherald.com
A crusade to educate the community about local food insecurities has earned Wantagh High School sophomore Faith Stallone the Girl Scouts’ prestigious Gold Award. Stallone, a member of Wantagh’s Girl Scout Troop 3305 for 12 years, began her Gold Award project last October, hosting a food drive at Viking Graveyard, a haunted house charity in Seaford that collects canned goods for those in need. She also spread awareness of food insecurity to those in attendance to let them know that the concern hits close to home. “(The project) was about educating others that food insecurities are here in our town,
and that we can help,” Stallone said. “And then teaching them how to help.” As part of the project, she donated food to Long Island Cares, a non-profit organization created to help feed the hungry on Long Island. The organization, based in Hauppauge, also helped her understand the extent of food insecurity on Long Island, where around 250,000 people go hungry, and she learned that about 500 pounds of food could feed 382 families. Stallone helped raise around 700 pounds of food at the Viking Graveyard, according to William Gonyou, Long Island Cares’ community events and food drive manager. “All of us at Long Island Cares are incredibly proud of her for seeing a cause, believContinued on pAGe 7
t’s a good budget. I’m very confident in it.