Seaford NY public school enrollment

In November, 2016, the enrollment at the Seaford, New York, public schools was approximately this, grade-by-grade:

Kindergarten  161
Grade 1            148
Grade 2            178
Grade 3            145
Grade 4            170
Grade 5            171
Grade 6            169
Grade 7            191
Grade 8            185
Grade 9            186
Grade 10          158
Grade 11          180
Grade 12          185

Figures from 2007 and 2012 may be found HERE.

Veterans' Day in Seaford, 2016

Veterans' Day, 2016, in Seaford, New York.

Sorry, but I caught only this photo, after Taps.

Presidential voting in Seaford, 2016

This afternoon, 11.9.2016, Newsday's website has an interactive map giving many of the voting tallies, election district by election district.  That is, you can zoom in on an ED, click, and get the raw vote and the percentages.  In this post, I will cover only the presidential race.
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All of Seaford went for Trump, most Election Districts with about 65% of the votes for him. The highest percent I could find on the map for Seaford was 72.4% on either side of South Seaman's Neck Road (AD 14, ED 107), south of the canal, Venetta Lagoon, that is, south of Niami Street.
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Where were the nearest Election Districts that voted for Mrs. Clinton? To the west, Merrick. To the east near County Line Road.  To the north, Hillary's 50% topped Donald in ED 39 east of Holiday Park Drive, Wantagh.

Autumn six years ago

From November 3, 2010:

Along Paddock Road.

On John Lane, looking east.

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

Down-ballot in Seaford on November 8th

Usually at this time of the year, the League of Women Voters of Nassau County distributes on newsprint a voters' guide showing the ballot on election day.  For some reason, I have not seen a copy of it, nor is it available on the LWV website.  Below will be an attempt to list the options "down-ballot," particularly the choices that may suddenly present themselves when we enter the firehouse or other polling place on General Election Day.
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Judging from yard signs, there seems to be a contest for a Judge of the Family Court, involving Eileen Daly-Sapraicone , incumbent Judge Conrad Singer, and six others.  Apparently, voters are asked to choose four of the eight. A list appears far down on this page of Ballotpedia. Scroll down to Nassau Family Court for the list of eight contestants.
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On the same link, look to the next group, Nassau District Court. There are two incumbents and two not yet on that court. Voters are asked to choose two of the four.  An explanation of what District Court does is given on this page.
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For the 14th Assembly District, incumbent David McDonough's opponent is Mike Reid.
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For the 8th State Senate District, it is incumbent Michael Venditto (who makes superfluous, annoying robot telephone calls at taxpayer expense) vs. challenger John Brooks.
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For the United States House of Representatives, incumbent Peter King has DuWayne Gregory as opponent.
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For the United States Senate, Charles Schumer is opposed by Wendy Long.
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Fortunately, Google's Blogger or Blogpost allows editing, so I will add more information as I find it.  The gaps are in minor party candidates or the judgeship races.
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There seems to be no referendum on the ballot. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Natalie Naylor described one-room school houses

The Seaford Historical Society must be commended for inviting Natalie Naylor, professor emeritus from Hofstra University, to present her well-prepared slide program on “One-Room School Houses on Long Island” Thursday evening, October 6, 2016.

In 1657, the Town of Huntington designated its first school teacher, but he had no building.  As for a school building, the first seems to be the Voorlezer’s House in Staten Island, a one-room school house in the Richmondtown Museum site. From 1787, we have the Clinton School in East Hampton.  An 1826 school house from Manhasset Valley has been moved to the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

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That Manhasset Valley school house raised a question which Professor Naylor answered.  I wondered when school districts received numbers, as both Seaford and Manhasset bear #6.  She explained that the numbering by towns began in 1821. In the Town of Hempstead, the Hempstead village schools are District 1, Uniondale District 2, Westbury District 3, Seaford District 6.  In the Town of North Hempstead, Manhasset is District 6.

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Members of the audience pointed out that we were meeting in a room that had been built for two classrooms, grades 1-4 and 5-8. The museum is the third school house in Seaford, the first being on Merrick Road.

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For most of the 1800’s, schools for grades 1-8 were called Common Schools. In New York State, they charged fees until about 1857.  The 1860’s saw the change from male to female staffing, and the salaries dropped.

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Some of us recall the statement the students had to sign when finishing a Regents examination in the 1950’s, to the effect that we had at least five recitations were week.  That expression was a hold-over from multi-grade rooms, where students often had to memorize their work and then recite it to the teacher at her desk.

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Professor Naylor distributed a very helpful description of each slide in her presentation, together with the addresses of Long Island schoolhouses, and an extensive bibliography.  Many thanks!

Temporary detour at Jones Beach

The regular entrance to Field 6 is being widened. During this construction, drivers are instructed to use a detour through an employees' parking lot. Fees are collected only on weekends, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Eight talking arrows, for safety's sake

The New York State Department of Transportation must be commended for installing loudspeakers in the button boxes of the eight pedestrian signals at Sunrise Highway and Washington Avenue, Seaford. Each emits softer beeps to help direct visually handicapped people to the button. When the large button is pressed, a loud speaker commands "Wait" and identifies which street one has requested to cross. When the visual walk signal appears (a white figure), the loudspeaker announces the street name ("Route 27" or "Washington Avenue" and declares "Walk sign is on the cross." Immediately, loud count-down beeps begin, which soften when the pedestrian signal reaches zero. 

Because there are four corners and a walker may cross in two directions from each corner, there are a total of eight buttons at this intersection.

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In my experience, in Seaford it is safer to cross Sunrise Highway (at signals maintained by the N.Y. D. of T.) than at the pedestrian signals along Merrick Road (maintained by Nassau County).  For some reason, drivers have more flagrantly cut in front of me, a pedestrian, at the Merrick Road crosswalks than along Sunrise. 

United Methodist, Seaford, NY.

The 250 years refers to the October 12, 1766, first meeting of the Methodist congregation in New York.
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Please see the parish's website for a history of Methodism in Seaford, New York. On the stone, the date 1860 refers to the church built on Merrick Road.  In 1923, it was physically moved away from the Sunday traffic noise to the corner of Waverly and Washington Avenues.

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For my earlier posts about this church, please click on the label Methodist church below.

Street lighting

About two weeks ago, I encountered a fellow changing street light bulbs inside the globes of the stanchion lights in our neighborhood.  His truck carried the name of a private contractor, presumably hired by the Town of Hempstead.  The pink-orange sodium vapor lamps were replaced by LED lamps inside the same globes.
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Because these are enclosed, I am unable to determine what each bulb looks like.  I suspect they resemble the one in this link, as it has a screw base socket. Also, the new lights appear concentrated in a bulb, unlike the LEDs that the Town of Hempstead has affixed to utility poles.
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The photos below show a variety of street lights in and around Seaford. Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.

Of the new LED street lighting around Seaford, the type in the above two photos seems to prevail. There are five LED bulbs in an X formation, plus a bar of 8 buttons or smaller lights, the purpose of which I don't know.  On Oakland Avenue, this type does not illumine the width of the street.

Maybe six or seven years ago, the Town of Hempstead installed these decorative "bishop's crook" lamps along five or six blocks of Merrick Road.  The other night, some glowed a pinkish-orange, suggesting that the lights were high-pressure sodium vapor lamps.  I'm not too sure whether the whitish lights were mercury vapor or LEDs.   A 2009 article in the New York Daily News priced similar lamp posts at $10,000.

It's somewhat difficult to see that the above Seaford Avenue lamp has twice the LED's than the insufficient Oakland Avenue lamp in the previous photo.  Each position on the X has two adjacent bulbs.

I am fairly certain that the towns supply street lighting along Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road, resulting in a change of illumination for eastbound drivers when they pass over the town line at Tackapausha Park, the creek being the division existing for 200 years or more.  From about 1985 until 2015 something then shocked the eastbound motorist: traffic signals displaying yellow in Massapequa (Town of Oyster Bay) were the same color as the street lights!  With the recent introduction of brilliant white LED street lights, it is again possible to see all three aspects of signals.
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One old sodium vapor bulb was left on Saddle Path, Seaford, surrounded by new LED lights shining white.

Independence Day Parade, 2016, Wantagh

The parade went north on Wantagh Avenue, east on Island Road (where these photos were taken), and south on Beech Street to the elementary school.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

Just Sixties

On Saturday evening, June 25, 2016, about two hudred people gathered in the parking lot near the Seaford Library to hear the band "Just Sixties." Any  photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The library board honored a deceased leader, Robert Coughlin.  His family received the citation in his place.

Memorial Day, 2016, rain

In 2016, Memorial Day fell on May 30th, the date for Decoration Day for many decades prior to 1971. Unfortunately, a moderate rain swept through Seaford about 7 a. m. and caused the cancellation of the Washington Avenue parade.  I presume some ceremony was held at Seaford Middle School.

Some projected enrollments

On May 5, 2016, in a chart on school spending, Newsday reprinted the Estimated Enrollments for each school district in the coming September, as listed by the NYS Education Department. What follows is merely a selected comparison of enrollments for some of the school districts.

19,000 Brentwood, largest in Suffolk
17,028 Sewanaka incl. elem. districts
9,190 Valley Stream incl. elem. districts
7,899 Hempstead
7,897 Bellmore-Merrick incl. elem. districts
7,383 Levittown
7,277 Freeport
6,979 Massapequa
5,230 Hicksville
2,996 Wantagh
2,963 Plainedge
2,236 SEAFORD
2,100 Locust Valley
1,976 West Hempstead
1,735 East Williston, Wheatley
1,603 Oyster Bay, East Norwich
1,375 Carle Place
1,190 East Rockaway

Seaford school budget passes, 1,197 to 432

Seaford's school budget passed in yesterday's voting, with 1,197 yes and 432 no votes. The total vote was 1.629, which is about 200 voters fewer than in 2015. Incumbents Janice Baldwin and Bruce Kahn, unopposed, won another three years on the Board of Trustees.
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At the Harbor school a different entrance and voting room was used.  Signs directed voters to the rear parking lot and a doorway to an east-west corridor, then west along the corridor to the half-gym, where the voting personnel and equipment were.  We filled in ovals and used one large sheet of paper per voter. The old lever machines (used as recently as 2014?) did not consume paper, but apparently they are no longer stored and maintained by the Nassau County Board of Elections.

Seaford Library budget passes 84-14.

On April 20, 2016, the Seaford Library budget passed 84-14 (98 votes cast, 47 votes less than last year).

Wantagh LIRR station rehab coming

New LIRR schedules go into effect March 7, 2016.  I note that this link refers to upcoming rehabilitation of the Wantagh station platforms.  Previous work at Seaford and Massapequa took almost two years for each project, but in Wantagh there is the constraint of working with hoists from Railroad Avenue.
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Please note this press release dated March 31, 2016. The estimated cost of the renovation is $23.9 million.  We will get an elevator and a new escalator.

Leap Year Day in Seaford, N.Y.

We had a clear sky on the morning of February 29, 2016.  These are views from Seaford, Long Island.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

Eight inches of heavy snow Feb. 5

Through the morning of February 5, 2016, Seaford received eight inches of heavy snow. The temperature was in the mid-thirties. In the afternoon, the skies cleared.

Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.

Demolition & construction

A wood-framed senior community is replacing the structural steel and brick Seaford Avenue School. The above view of Seasons at Seaford, looking southwest from Waverly and Locust Avenues, shows the lower floor and the girders of what may be the Club House. Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

 
Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

A retirement community will replace the Seaford Avenue School.

Huge Gershow trucks are hauling away the debris from demolition of the school.

This was the north exit from the first floor corridor.