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Friday, April 5, 2019
Vol. 7, No. 14
GUIDE TO SPRING
FLOWER HILL ADOPTS $4.15M BUDGET
COUNTY REFUNDS $150M
PAGES 41-64
PAGE 12
PAGE 6
School district mulls stricter visitor policy
BOOK BALLOT
Would limit item drop-offs to campus BY T E R I W EST The Manhasset school district has dedicated nearly $400,000 over the past year to reinforcing security by placing new vestibules at school entrances, and two additional vestibules will be on the capital reserve ballot. Now, the Board of Education is preparing to take on security through a change that would cost little but affect the routines of many: updating the district’s visitor policy. From restricting opportunities for parents to drop off items to managing how visitors can enter the buildings for meetings, the proposed policy would alter the way those who do not study or teach at the schools can enter them. It is a change that would take some getting used to but eventually become routine – all to reinforce the safety of the community, Trustee Patricia Aitken said at a board meeting last Thursday at which parents, teachers, principals and a
county police officer discussed the policy that the Board of Education has drafted. “We’re not an island here. Everybody else is really doing the same kind of thing, unfortunately,” she said. “This is the kind of thing that has to be done in today’s world.” Based on the current draft, the policy would require parents and community members who want to meet with a teacher to plan the meeting in advance so they could be added to a list provided to campus security guards. It would also create an hourand-a-half-long window in the morning for parents to drop off items for their children at school that would then be placed in a box at security. Manhasset Secondary School would have both a morning drop-off period from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and an afternoon window from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Food drop-offs would be prohibited. “During the lunch periods at the secondary school last month Continued on Page 87
PHOTO BY MYLES GOLDMAN
Mukul Puri (left) and William Hannan speak at the Manhasset Public Library candidates night. They are facing off for a seat on the library’s Board of Trustees. See story on page 2.
Library budget expands investment in materials BY T E R I W EST
for the coming year maintains and boosts its ability to invest The Manhasset Public Li- in new materials, the director brary remained a top lender to said last Thursday. With the library proposother county libraries last year because of its robust collec- ing a $113,000 investment in tion, and the proposed budget books and $139,800 invest-
ment in electronic media and e-books in the new budget, it is upholding a commitment to maintaining and expanding its stock, Director Maggie Gough told the library’s annual budget Continued on Page 87
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