School Board Election results can be found on lIHerald.com.
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HERALD
Vol. 72 No. 22
A dance for the ages
Music and fun at student craft fair
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MAY 23 - 29, 2024
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D.A. Donnelly is special guest at library forum
hate crimes, but identifying those who are responsible for these offenses is often extremeNass au County District ly difficult. “If someone wakes up in the Attorney Anne Donnelly was the guest speaker on May 15 at morning and there’s an offensive symbol, a swastika, painta meeting of the League of Women Voters of East Nassau, ed on their fence,” Donnelly where she dissaid, “well, trying cussed such topics to figure out who as the increase in did that is somehate crimes. times next to imposThe purpose of sible, unless you get the public event, the right ring camwhich took place at era.” the Levittown PubAccording to the lic Library, was to state’s hate crime inform the commureport for 2022, Nasnity on how the dissau County made 19 trict attor ney’s arrests out of the 61 of fice operates, hate crime inciaccording to league dents reported that member Barbara year. Epstein. Audience mem“We think it’s PEggY StEIN bers also discussed fantastic,” Epstein League of Women their concerns with said, “because it Voters of East Nassau protests, such as the gives the people in pro-Palestinian the community the marches in the city opportunity to hear what she and the Proud Boys march in does, what her office does, and Rockville Centre two years ago. some of the issues that she’s Donnelly said that police are concerned with.” allowed to break up these proOne of her more pressing tests if the demonstrators are issues is hate crime, which has being disruptive, such as when seen a rise in Nassau County, they block off a road. Donnelly said. She added that “The right to peacefully proher office will receive cases and test is protected,” Donnelly charge suspects who commit
By CHARlES SHAW
cshaw@liherald.com
W
Courtesy Levittown Public Schools
MacArthur High School student Aidan O’Hara with Principal Joseph Sheehan. O’Hara is one of many students with special needs in the school’s 5-Star program, where they learn daily living and vocational skills to help prepare them for life after school.
Stars shine at MacArthur High
Program teaches special-needs kids vocational skills By CHARlES SHAW cshaw@liherald.com
At MacArthur High School in Levittown, teachers are working with special-needs students on critical life skills to give them every opportunity to succeed after they leave school. The 5-Star program, named for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, teaches students with disabilities the skills they will need to function independently. Each star represents a goal of the program: academics, daily living skills, community experience, vocational training, and transition. “Our goal is to try to give the students the business experience as much as possible,” special education teacher Desiree Mendoza
said. Mendoza remembers when the program was created in 2010, and there were a total of four students. Now, she said, there are 25 students in the program, in four classes. It has been rewarding for her to watch the program grow. “It’s been nice just to see what we’re doing with the students, and what we’re able to do,” Mendoza said. “We’re constantly trying to reinvent things and come up with new ideas. It’s very rewarding.” According to Stephanie Addona, the district’s special education chair, younger students in the entry-level class focus on functional academics, such as math and reading, and work on their daily living and pre-vocaCOntinued On PAge 5
e advocate for voters, we provide information for voters, and we do voter registration.
COntinued On PAge 7