20 The Herald Courier, Friday, March 31, 2017
HC
Sewanhaka awaits state aid package School district needs final amount before solidifying 2017-18 budget, superintendent says BY S A M U E L GLASSER The Sewanhaka Central High School District is still waiting to hear how much state aid it will receive before it can finalize the budget for the coming school year, Ralph Ferrie, the district superintendent, said Tuesday. The final total will not be known until the state budget, due April 1, is in place. “If state aid is unchanged we will still need to cut $1.3 million [in spending] to stay within the calculated tax cap,” Ferrie said. State funds account for 19.2 percent of the proposed $192.8 million budget for the 2017-18 school year. The district cannot increase revenue from property taxes by more than 4.75 percent under the state’s tax cap law. Ten teachers and one administrator decided to take advantage of a retirement incentive, which is expected to reduce expenses by $1 million, John Capozzi, the assistant superintendent for personnel, said in an interview. The district invited members of the state Legislature to hear the administration’s concerns about policy and budget issues at an invitation-only forum held at H. Frank Carey High School on March 9. School board Trustee Jean Fichtl, who organized the meeting along with Cheryl Champ, the assistant superintendent of curriculum, said the district’s concerns were well received by state senators Elaine Phillips and Todd Kaminsky, Assembly members Edward Ra and Michaelle Solages, and Board of Regents member Roger Tilles. Fichtl said that a major issue was unfunded state mandates, along with other financial issues, including the state’s method of allocating federal aid. The length of time it takes to get approvals and deci-
PHOTO BY NOAH MANSKAR
Sewanhaka school district Superintendent Ralph Ferrie is seen in 2016. sions from the state Education Department was also discussed. School board members from the four component elementary school districts – Floral Park, New Hyde ParkGarden City Park, Elmont and Franklin Square – also attended, Fichtl said. Most of this year’s proposed spending increase is driven by increased debt payments on the district’s $86.5 million bond, which voters approved in 2014 to fund various building projects. Ferrie gave a progress report Tuesday on the third and final phase of those construction projects, which he said are on schedule and within budget. At Floral Park Memorial High School, the foundation
for the new auditorium is in place. The steel work is expected to be completed within three or four weeks, Ferrie said. At New Hyde Park Memorial High School, the auditorium is completed and the rooftop solar panels will begin generating power over the next two weeks, Ferrie said. The panels are expected to supply 35 percent of the building’s electricity. At Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, the steel structure for the new cafeteria, gymnasium and related facilities is up and the project is expected to be completed by the opening of school in the fall, Ferrie said. At Elmont Memorial High School, the walls for the new gymnasium are up and the gym and the auditorium are expected to be completed in time for the new school year, he said. The three art classrooms across from the main office were relocated and the space is being converted into guidance offices, which should be ready after spring break. At H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square, the new auditorium is finished and the new natural gas supply line will be installed soon, Ferrie said. Window replacement is underway and the new parking lot is finished. The Sewanhaka school board also voted Tuesday to apply for $800,000 available through the state’s the SMART Schools Bond Act, which funds technology purchases across the state. Christopher Nelson, the district’s technology director, said the funds would purchase 1,600 iPads for the incoming seventh-grade class in the fall and 76 Chromebook laptops for incoming seventh-grade students at Notre Dame School in New Hyde Park and the Our Lady of Victory School in Floral Park. Both are private Catholic schools.
Howard Blankman, PR icon, dies at 91 BY ST E P H E N ROMANO Howard M. Blankman, a fixture among public relations professionals, who wrote and produced a television show starring Johnny Carson and composed music for off-Broadway productions, died in his home in Port Washington on March 17. He was 91. Donna Blankman, his wife of 50 years, said he died of natural causes. Blankman was the CEO and founder of the Blankman Group, a public relations and marketing firm based on Long Island, working with the Long Island Rail Road, the Archdiocese of Rockville Centre, Cablevision and others. In 2004, he sold the firm, which he started out of his living room in 1968. “He has always been full of ideas,” Donna Blankman said. “He was always busy and always coming up with something. He never stopped thinking or planning. That was his nature.” Following his divorce from Daisy Adams, Blankman married Donna Blankman on Oct.
22, 1966. After writing the music for the off-Broadway production “By Hex,” which was being performed near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Blankman met Donna, who auditioned to be a dancer in the show. “He kept asking me out, and I kept saying no,” Donna Blankman said. “After a while, I realized the only way to get rid of him was to go out with him, so I did, and it was a wonderful time. I had a lot of fun.” He also composed the music and lyrics for “Cool Off.” He also write the music and book for a musical adaptation of “Treasure Island.” Stationed in Texas after enlisting in the Army in 1948, Blankman used his free time to compose musical pieces for the troops overseas. From 1957 to 1963, Blankman was a writer and associate producer for the TV game show “Who Do You Trust?” that starred Johnny Carson. Donna Blankman said he loved the arts, and he served as the president of the Great Neck Symphony Society and then vice chair of the Nassau Symphony Orchestra.
Howard Blankman He was also a member of the Manhasset Bay Opera. Donna agreed to move to Port Washington after they were married to join Blankman, who had moved there around 1958, Donna Blankman said. “He loved being by the water, and just liked that it was a really small community,” Donna Blankman said. “He developed a love for a small town, but it was also close enough to New York City and all the excitement. It had a hometown feel that he
loved.” Blankman served on a number of town and Nassau County boards, including the North Hempstead Planning Board, North Hempstead Housing Authority, the Nassau County Task Force on Young Adult Housing and the Nassau Legislature’s Commission on Revenue Generation and Economic Development. Blankman was chosen by Gov. George Pataki to serve on the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council. He was also a member of the county’s Board of Assessors and the county’s Planning Commission. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1925, Blankman played music from an early age, taking up the piano and trumpet in school. Blankman was an Eagle Scout and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult, at a time when only 800 people in the country had received it, including President Gerald Ford. “He was very proud of his Eagle Scout work,” Donna Blankman said. She said he loved to travel,
and loved seeing the Long Island Philharmonic and going to the Metropolitan Opera. “We would go into the city and go to the opera or go to the theater and always have dinner before,” she said. “We really enjoyed that.” Furthering his writing career, in 2015 Blankman wrote “Hope Can Make it Happen,” a self-published children’s book. “He was just an amazing man,” Donna Blankman said. “He just kept going and if it was there he would probably try it.” Donna Blankman said she visited her family doctor 10 months after she and Blankman were married, and he asked if she was trying to keep up with her husband. “Of course I am because I am his wife,” she said. The doctor replied, “Don’t. No one can keep up with Howard.” Along with Donna, Blankman is survived by his children Deborah, Michael, Diana, Matthew and Sarah and her fiancé, David Trzaska; three grandchildren, Hannah, Sam and Alexandra; and his ex-wife, Daisy Adams.