Issuu

Former H-W Superintendent dies at 83

Remebering Bert Nelson

Ogden elementary welcomes new principal

Celebrating growth at the Chabad of Hewlett

The Chabad of Hewlett celebrated another milestone in its growing history with its gala on June 9, bringing together supporters for an evening focused on community, gratitude and celebration.

Guests enjoyed a lively cocktail hour featuring an expansive smorgasbord and cocktails while reconnecting with longtime friends and welcoming new faces. This year’s event honored Chabad’s

monthly donors, recognizing their ongoing commitment to the organization and its expanding programs.

Rather than formal speeches, attendees reflected on Chabad’s journey through a presentation by Rabbi Nochem Tenenboim, who shared rare photographs documenting the congregation’s evolution — from its original home off Broadway, through the challenges of Superstorm Sandy

and the COVID-19 pandemic, to its successive locations and its continued growth.

The evening culminated in the dedication of a new Torah scroll donated by David and Bella Abramov. The celebration trans -

formed into spirited singing and dancing as attendees welcomed the Torah, marking the occasion with traditional Jewish joy and reinforcing the strong sense of community that has defined Chabad of Hewlett. — Melissa Berman

Story

Courtesy Chabad of Hewlett

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Ogden elementary welcomes Reina Hall as its new principal

By MELISSA BERMAN mberman@liherald.com

Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools

has appointed longtime district educator Reina Hall as the new principal of Ogden Elementary School, bringing nearly two decades of experience in the district to the leadership role.

The Board of Education approved Hall’s appointment at a special meeting on July 20, and she officially began serving as principal on July 21. She succeeds former Ogden Elementary School Principal Nicola Lynch.

For Hall, the new position represents an opportunity to continue serving a community she has been part of for nearly two decades.

“It really feels like an extension, honestly, because it’s within the same district,” Hall said. “It’s such a dream. I know this community, I know the staff and I know what makes Ogden such a special place.”

Superintendent of Schools Dina Anzalone said Hall distinguished herself among a strong pool of candidates because of her leadership skills, commitment to students and deep understanding of the HewlettWoodmere community.

“Among a highly accomplished and talented pool of candidates, Mrs. Hall distinguished herself as the exceptional leader to serve as the

next principal of Ogden Elementary School,” Anzalone wrote in a statement. “Having served the district for the past 18 years, Mrs. Hall has built meaningful relationships with our students, families and staff, earning the trust and respect of the entire community.”

Anzalone said Hall’s experience

and dedication make her uniquely prepared to guide Ogden into its next chapter.

“Strong schools are built on relationships, consistency and a shared commitment to students,” Anzalone wrote. “Mrs. Hall embodies each of those qualities. She is a thoughtful, compassionate and highly respected educator who leads with integrity, listens carefully and always puts students first.”

Hall has more than 23 years of experience in education, including the last 18 years as a teacher and administrator in Hewlett-Woodmere. Most recently, she served as assistant principal at Hewlett Elementary School, a position she held since 2024.

Before moving into administration, Hall spent 16 years as a special education teacher in the district’s Integrated Co-Teaching Program and Self-Contained 12:1:1 Program. She also served as assistant principal of the district’s Summer Learning Academy in 2022 and 2023 and as technology integration lead teacher from 2023 to 2024.

Hall began her teaching career as a fifth-grade teacher at PS 14 Fairview School in Corona from 2003 to 2008.

Hall said her decision to apply for the Ogden position came from her desire to continue helping the district succeed.

“Ultimately, I want our district as a whole to succeed,” Hall said. “I’ve been here as a special education teacher for 16 years, then as assistant principal at Hewlett Elementary, and I felt like I knew I could do the job.”

Her years working alongside educators throughout the district have helped her build relationships that she hopes to continue strengthening.

“I know a lot of the staff because we worked together as teachers,” Hall said. “We learned and grew together throughout our educational careers, so I know what a special place this is.”

As she begins her first year as principal, Hall said her goal is to preserve Ogden’s traditions while continuing to build on the school’s strong foundation.

“Ogden has such a strong foundation,” she said. “They have traditions, they have a strong culture and they are a team here. My role will really be to continue to foster those traditions and build upon what already is a strong foundation.”

Hall described school leadership as a responsibility centered on serving students, families and staff.

“This position is a job of service,” she said. “You’re here to serve the community — teachers, staff, students, families and the district as a whole.”

A.B. participates in annual National Drowning Prevention Day

By JACK LEVEY Intern

The sixth annual National Drowning Prevention Day was observed on July 25, raising awareness of the importance of water safety and highlighting the effects of drowning globally.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning claims over 300,000 lives each year, with almost 25% of those deaths being children that are under the age of five. Additionally, drowning is among the top ten leading causes of death for children aged 5-14 around the world.

Over 90% of drowning happens in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels, and swimming pools in low/middle income countries. Children and adolescents that live in rural areas are also found to be disproportionately affected.

The global advocacy event was originally declared on July 25, 2021, by the Nations General Assembly after recognizing drowning as a global priority. The event has the goal of reducing drowning to 35% by 2035 through the Global Strategy for Drowning Prevention which calls on all sectors and levels of society to bring awareness. Since 2021, the annual event carries a theme. This year’s theme was ‘Unite to Turn the Tide.”

The WHO encourages people to take action by sharing online how to prevent drowning in their communities and to use the Turn the Tide ToolKit, which can be used by social media users to support the

Alice Moreno/Herald EMT’s, EMT-CC, fire departments, paramedics and rescue squad trainees learn how to flip a boat over during the Water Safety and Rescue Training for EMS agencies training in 2025.

campaign on their respective platforms.

The WHO have additionally released other resources to encourage water safety such as the “Seven strategies to prevent drowning: technical package for policy-makers,” the “Global status report on drowning prevention 2024,” and “Hidden depths: the global investment case for drowning prevention.”

The National Drowning Prevention Day

(NPDA) has also released multiple resources in preparation for the annual observation which highlights the need for the world to work together to prevent drowning deaths. These include pool safety tips along with a seminar, a monthly drowning analysis, and the Take Back the Water Challenge, which is a free mobile experience that helps children and families understand the importance of having a des-

ignated adult Water watcher to improve safety.

Nat Etrog, who has been vice chairmen of the Nassau County Water Rescue Association for over 25 years, wrote in a statement that lifeguards should talk to swimmers about having heightened sense of water safety, situational awareness and to adhere to the five layers of protection as permitted by the NPDA.

These five layers include always swimming near a lifeguard, identifying Water Watchers, having general swim competency, learning CPR, and always wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) while being on a boat.

“We, celebrate this important day in part by asking our Village Lifeguards to have discussions with residents,” he wrote. “Regarding several components of water safety situational awareness and their role in drowning prevention here in the Village and wherever there are bodies of water.”

Additionally, the Village of Atlantic Beach will be hosting its 13th annual Water Safety and Rescue Training for EMS agencies, EMT’s, EMT-CC, fire departments, paramedics and rescue squads on Aug. 30. The training will include how to handle EMS patients during a water-related emergency, self-rescue in water procedures and rescue operations for both those apart of EMS and the fire department. The handson experience will be hosted at Atlantic Beach Rescue Headquarters at 1 Rescue Road.

Courtesy Reina Hall

Reina Hall has been appointed the new principal of Ogden Elementary School.

HERALD EDitoRiAL

There’s always someone downwind

There’s a particular quality to the light when the smoke arrives. It goes flat and white, the sun turns into a coin you can look at directly, and the air smells faintly like someone three houses down is burning leaves. It has happened enough times now that Long Islanders recognize it.

The fires are in Canada. Ontario mostly, sometimes the prairie provinces — a thousand miles and more from here, far enough that the smoke spends days in transit before it reaches us. And it reaches us anyway. It settles over rockville Centre and garden City and Long Beach. It gets into the lungs of kids at day camp in Merrick who have never heard the phrase “boreal forest.”

There is something clarifying about that, if you let it be.

We are accustomed to thinking of our lives as local, and with good reason. This newspaper exists because the things that shape a day here — the school calendar, the traffic on Sunrise Highway, whether the field will be playable Saturday morning — are decided close to home by people you might run into at the deli. That proximity is the texture of life in a place like ours. The distance between a thing and its cause is usual-

ly short enough to walk.

Smoke from a forest a thousand miles away is a different phenomenon. It did not come from anything anyone here did or failed to do. And at the end of that very long chain sits your daughter’s soccer practice.

Why more of it, and why now? Because the climate is warming and the northern forest is drying out as a result. Spring snowpack melts earlier than it used to. Summers run longer and hotter, and the peat and duff beneath the trees turn into something that holds fire the way a sponge holds water — slowly, deep down and for a very long time.

Fires that once burned themselves out now smolder underground through the winter and surface again in spring. More fire, more smoke. And the same atmospheric machinery that has always carried Canadian cold fronts down to the Northeast now carries the smoke with them.

The smoke isn’t doing anything unusual. It is riding the same currents that have brought us our weather since before there was a Long Island to bring it to — the northwest flow behind a front, the same air that gives us a crisp October morning and the frigid air of January. We have always been downwind of Canada. We simply had no

occasion to notice.

That’s what makes this worth sitting with. Not the fires themselves, but what they reveal about connection. Something we didn’t do, in a place most of us have never been, is now a feature of summer on Long Island.

And what we do continues downwind. The exhaust from the Meadowbrook, the fertilizer that leaves a lawn in Wantagh and ends up in the bay, the plume from a stack in Island Park — none of that stays put, either. Our runoff is someone else’s smoke.

There is a version of this line of thinking that curdles into helplessness, and we would steer away from it. Being connected to a place you cannot influence isn’t the same as being powerless. It is mostly an invitation to pay attention — to the bay, to the air, to the small local things that are, somewhere downwind, someone else’s inherited condition.

The sky has cleared — but it will haze over again. If not this summer, then next. And each time it does, it is worth taking a moment to notice the strangeness: that we are downwind of a forest we will likely never see, and that somewhere, someone we will never meet is downwind of us.

L E tt ER to t HE ED ito R

To the Editor:

Barely a day goes by that I don’t receive at least one mailing from John Ferretti expounding on all of his successes as Town of Hempstead supervisor. He claims that he is hard at work for the people of the town. He claims to have lowered town taxes, that he is working to ensure that our water is safe to drink, and is working with Nassau County to protect religious institutions. Just because he makes these claims doesn’t mean they aren’t just alternative facts.

The truth is that since he became supervisor — with the questionable means by which he was made the incumbent for his election — town taxes have increased 12 percent, our water rates are up 33 percent, and our energy rates continue to climb. Due to the lack of transparency, we have no idea where our hard-earned tax dollars are going or to whom.

I met Ferretti’s opponent, Joe Scianablo, for the first time when he attended a parlor meeting at my home. I was impressed not only with his background, but also his sincerity and his desire to continue serving the public. Scianablo has spent his entire adult life as a public servant. He served multiple deployments in the Marines in East Timor, Eritrea, and Iraq, then was a New York City police officer, focus-

ing on domestic violence cases, in which helped victims find safety and justice. He is a former prosecutor in the Queens district attorney’s office, where he advocated for survivors of domestic violence.

I believed Scianablo when he said his focus would be to ensure that our tax dollars and resources benefit all the people in the Town of Hempstead, not just the favored ones. He isn’t a career politician, but will be a politician who has made a career of service. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to meet him to do so. I think you will come away as impressed as I was.

CHErIE FEINBErg Lawrence

News brief

Hewlett residents present their 1935 Ford

Hewlett residents Martha and Sheldon Gharland showcased their 1935 Ford Series 48 during the July 16 Summer Cruise Night in downtown Lynbrook.

The Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce will be hosting their annual Cruise Nights, a classic car show which will be held weekly every Thursday through August 27th.

The event will have live music, food available from local bars and restaurants, activities for children and a diverse range of classic to modern cars. The event will be free to attend as well to showcase your own car. Hours are from 6 to 9 P.M. and is located at Atlantic Avenue Between Stauderman and Merrick. — Jack Levey

Stu Goldman/Herald Martha and Sheldon Gharland, of Hewlett, showcased their 1935 Ford Series 48 during the July 16 Summer Cruise Night in downtown Lynbrook.

OBITUARY

Former H-W Superintendent Bert Nelson dies at 83

By MELISSA BERMAN mberman@liherald.com

Bert Nelson, the former superintendent of Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools whose career in education spanned more than six decades, died on July 23 at the age of 83.

Nelson led the Hewlett-Woodmere district as superintendent from 1982 to 1998 after rising through nearly every level of district administration. During his 16-year tenure, he helped shape the district’s reputation for academic excellence while championing music and arts education, a commitment that continued throughout his career.

A graduate of Queens College, Nelson earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees there before completing a professional diploma and Doctor of Education degree at Hofstra University. His academic achievements laid the foundation for a career defined by educational leadership and public service.

Nelson began his career as a teacher and school administrator in New York City and Redondo Beach, California. He later joined Queens College as a lecturer in the Department of Education before beginning what would become nearly three decades with Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools. His career in Hewlett-Woodmere progressed from assistant to the superintendent to assistant superintendent for educa-

tional services and administration, deputy superintendent and ultimately superintendent. Under his leadership, the district became known for maintaining rigorous academic standards while placing a strong emphasis on music, arts and educational innovation.

Even after retiring from the district in 1998, Nelson remained deeply involved in public education. From 1998 to 2006, he served as executive administrator of the New York State School Music Association, helping to guide one of the nation’s leading organizations dedicated to music education.

Beginning in 2000, he also served for more than 20 years as a hearing officer for Long Island school districts, earning a reputation for fairness, thoughtful judgment and professionalism while presiding over educational matters affecting students, families and school districts.

Beyond those roles, Nelson shared his expertise as an adjunct professor at New York University and Hofstra University, served as an educational consultant to the

U.S. Office of Education, worked as education director for the New York State Narcotics Addiction Control Commission and served as an impartial hearing officer for special education appeals. He also advised the New York State Education Department through certification panels, leadership workshops and advisory councils.

A respected authority on educational administration, Nelson authored numerous articles on school leadership, finance, personnel and educational policy. His work appeared in publications including “The School Administrator”, “The School Music News”, “NYSSBA Journal”, “New York School Board” and “The New York Times”. His contributions earned widespread recognition throughout his career. Among his many honors were the Nassau Herald’s Man of the Year award, the National Association for Music Education’s Lowell Mason Fellow distinction, Administrator of the Year and Honorary Life Membership from the Nassau Music Educators Association, and the Sterling Service Medallion

and Distinguished Service Award from the New York State School Music Association. He also received the Distinguished Leadership in Arts in Education Award from the New York State Alliance for Arts Education, a Special Recognition Award from the Nassau County Legislature and numerous other state and regional honors.

Nelson was equally committed to professional service. He was active in the American Association of School Administrators, Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society, MENSA and Phi Delta Kappa. He also served on the Five Towns Community Council Board of Directors, was past president of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents and held leadership positions in several educational organizations across New York.

Colleagues and former students remembered Nelson as an educator whose integrity, humility and dedication inspired generations of teachers, administrators and students. His advocacy for music and arts education, coupled with his unwavering belief in the transformative power of public education, left a lasting imprint on HewlettWoodmere and schools throughout New York.

His legacy endures through the countless educators he mentored, the policies he helped shape and the students whose lives were enriched by his lifelong commitment to educational excellence.

BER t NELSoN

News brief

Gillen announced that she secured an advance of $125 million in funding for the Long Island in Bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2026.

Gillen secures $125 million for water project

Congresswomen Laura Gillen has secured an advance of $125 million in funding for the Long Island in Bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2026.

The act prioritizes bolstering flood risk management, storm damage prevention and coastal restoration in New York’s 4th Congressional District.

“This bill also authorizes new studies to mitigate flooding in Reynolds Channel and Atlantic Beach to dredge Bannister Bay and Lawrence,” Gillen wrote in a press statement. “I’m proud that this package includes my bipartisan bill, the Coastal Infrastructure Improvement Act, which would authorize the Army Corps to carry out research and development on innovative coastal erosion technologies to protect our environment, prevent erosion, and save taxpayers’ dollars.”

Some of the projects that will be funded include authorization of $130,000 to help mitigate flooding on Rock Hall Road; near Lawrence Avenue; authorization of proposed feasibility study for the dredging of Bannister Bay in the Village of Lawrence and authorization of proposed feasibility study for the Reynolds Channel project in the Village of Atlantic Beach to reduce coastal flooding impacts to public street ends, drainage outfalls, open spaces, and marine rescue facilities through bulkhead replacement and shoreline stabilization.

“Together these investments and policy proposals represent a comprehensive commitment to Long Island and to the South Shore’s water infrastructure and coastal resilience,” Gillen wrote in a press statement.

— Jack Levey

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EDITOR/REPORTER

Public Notices

LEGAL NOTICE

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT

COUNTY OF NASSAU

Citibank, N.A., as Trustee for New Residential Mortgage Loan Trust 2014-3, Plaintiff AGAINST

Robert Carpenter a/k/a Robert P. Carpenter; Ellen Carpenter a/k/a Ellen M. Carpenter; et al., Defendant(s)

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered January 12, 2018, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the North Side Steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court at 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY 11501 on September 1, 2026, at 2:00PM, premises known as 88 Troy Avenue, East Atlantic Beach, NY 11561. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with

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