Seaford School Board meeting 11.3.2011

The November 3, 2011, meeting of the Seaford School Board opened with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:30 p.m. in the Harbor School.  About sixty residents attended.  All five trustees were present.
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A potential buyer has toured the Seaford Avenue school, with consideration to use the building for the firm's office space.  The broker and district continue to market the school, which for decades has not been used as a district school, but has been leased at various times.
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In 1961, fifty years ago, ground was broken for the Seaford Harbor school, which welcomed the first students in 1963.
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The board received donations to assist the schools in this year of a contingency budget. Save Seaford Sports presented a check for $43,000, to be used to restore winter sports and middle school sports.
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The superintendent outlined the much-changed procedure and calendar for determining the 2012-2013 budget. One deadline is Mach 1, 2012, when the district must present to the state the Tax Levy figure.  Note that the 2% cap is on the Tax Levy, not directly on the budget.  It is said that New York State will provide in January or early February the amount it intends to provide to each district, so that the Tax Levy could be computed.  The entire procedure is quite different from other years, and it offers uncharted challenges.  Again it has happened that some new State mandates provide no funds to accomplish what is newly required.
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The Board discussed the membership and necessary work of the Audit Committee and the Budget Committee.  This writer has noticed that the meetings and preparatory work done by volunteers of the Board or for the Board has increased in recent years.  Instead of meeting just monthly, they and their helpers have invested much more time in preparation for decision-making.  Notice of these additional committee meetings are posted at the Seaford Public Library and on the district website.

School for sale

For a limited time (perhaps until 6/30/2012, the last day of the current School Board), the Board of Education has selected Geiner-Maltz as exclusive broker for the sale of the unused school at Seaford Avenue and Waverly Avenue.

Seaford School Board meeting 9.1.2011

The school board meeting began at 7:35 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.  The State of the District presentation and several academic issues are well covered by Patch.com, linked here.  I will try to mention other issues that arose at the meeting.
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Seaford Middle School was offered to the county's Office of Emergency Management as a shelter during Irene.  However, the county and the Red Cross did not call for its use, perhaps for lack of air-conditioning (which Wantagh High School gym apparently has).
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The status of real estate taxes on the Sunrise Highway Bast Chevrolet property were explained.  It is the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Authority which brokered a deal by which (if my notes are correct) the new owner will pay taxes or use PILOTs for three years at the level that Bast was paying, then gradually over the next seven years increase to market-based assessment.  (I recognize that this is a bare-bones account of the issue.  One must first learn what Payments in Lieu of Taxes are and how they are used.  An important point is that school districts to not valuate property.  The County does.  School districts do not broker a deal with property owners.  The Town does that, through the IDA.)  If I understood correctly, the Bast property is among the three top commercial properties within the Seaford School District.
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The not-yet-signed contract with Greiner-Maltz regarding the Seaford Avenue school was discussed.  The school attorney explained the status of various items that may be in the contract.  From my view, the goal is to sell the property.  I admire the successful construction of homes built near Beach Street and Walters Avenue in Wantagh (1993 construction on the site of a closed elementary school), and I do not know the range of neighborhood objections that arose there during planning.  Greiner-Maltz will attempt to find a buyer for the Seaford Avenue school.
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Candidates to replace the resigned trustee have been interviewed, and the replacement will be selected soon. Three trustees were present at the 9.1.2011 meeting.

Harvest Fair, September 25, 2011

The Seaford Historical Society Harvest Fair will be held on the grounds of the museum (Waverly Avenue in Seaford - just across from the Firehouse.) Date: Sunday Sept 25th

Time: 11am-4pm Rain or Shine

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Featuring: free magic show ; Seaford High Jazz Band ; Raffles including Grand Prize Flat Screen TV ; Food court ; Vendors selling handcrafted items ; pumpkins,mums and cornstalks for sale at the pumpkin patch ; Fire Dept displays and much more ! 

On the Bay

Most photos may be enlarged by clicking on the photo.
On Tuesday August 23, 2011, the Seaford Historical Society hosted a fascinating, well-planned, and succinct talk by Nancy Solomon, author of two editions of On The Bay: Bay Houses and Maritime Culture. First published in 1992, the new revised edition is available from Long Island Traditions.  The book includes photographs, explanations, history, and personal narratives.
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The Seaford Historical Society's museum had a capacity audience of about eighty, many of whom, it was obvius, knew of the bay shacks first-hand.  Their presence in Seaford goes back more than 120 years.
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Below are some of my notes from the meeting, but the notes may contain errors.  I will be glad for corrections.

Seaford Historical Society meeting 8.23.2011.  Bay Houses.

Nancy Solomon spoke about bay houses or bay shacks .

She published a book in 1992,  "On the Bay: Bay houses and maritime culture on Long Island's marshlands."  A second, revised edition has just been published, available from http://www.longislandtraditions.org/

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An audience of about eighty filled the museum.  Ms. Solomon presented her talk succinctly, with the help of a powerpoint projection.  Much of the presentation concerned the subject matter of the 1992 book and what has changed since then.  I noted that about half the audience knew much about the bay shacks, and some 25% or so may have been owners or family members.

There are about 35 bay shacks now left in the Town of Hempstead waters, and (if I heard correctly) about 35 more in Town of Islip waters.

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Many shacks fall in the category of vernacular architecture, that is, structures built by the users themselves according to their own needs and often with found materials.  Example: one was built mostly of old wooden doors, some of the 1950's era from surplus crates from Grumman, another from a garage. 

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Until the 1920's, most of the homes were owned by baymen, fellows who caught crabs, clams, scallops, killies (which often were then sold to fishermen as bait).  During Prohibition, there was trade with rum runners.

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About 1950, there was a boom in people building bay shacks, until they numbered about two hundred.  Then the Town of Hempstead, mindful of environmental concerns and new movements about wetlands, began to insist that no shack be replaced.  Leases from the Town would expire with the passing of the owner.  Leases could not be transferred.  A date of 1993 was set for the destruction of all bay shacks, but a movement of interested parties (concerned about the loss of a local tradition) brought a changed attitude in the Town government.  Now, leases may be transferred within the family, particularly to the next generation.

LIRR ticket office hours

The Seaford ticket office has been closed for about a year.

In addition, effective July 20, 2011, Massapequa and Wantagh ticket offices are open only on Mondays and Wednesdays. What follows is from Train Talk of the LIRR.

Some Ticket Window Hour Changes in Effect July 20
Labor Agreement Helps Retain Ticket Offices
As of July 20 ticket office hours at seven LIRR stations will be revised as follows:

Station	Open (Effective July 20)	Hours
Amityville	Mondays & Thursdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Bayside	Monday-Friday only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Flushing-Main Street	Mondays & Fridays only	6:15 AM-1:55 PM
Long Beach	Monday-Friday Saturday & Sunday	6:10 AM-1:45 PM 10 AM-6 PM
Lynbrook	Mondays & Thursdays only	5:45 AM-1:45 PM
Massapequa	Mondays & Wednesdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Wantagh	Mondays & Wednesdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM

Ticket office hours will change or be reduced at seven LIRR stations as part of an effort to prevent some ticket windows from closing and to retain the current level of cleaning services. LIRR management and leaders of the LIRR’s Transportation Communications Union agreed to temporary changes in contract rules, providing savings sufficient to avert the planned layoff of 17 ticket clerks, closure of ticket offices and a reduction of ticket window hours at over 18 stations. The LIRR hopes to discuss extension of this temporary nine-month agreement to avoid shutting ticket windows and laying off employees in 2012. The revised ticket office hours at seven LIRR stations take effect July 20, as shown in the above chart.

Water Tower Proposal

About 230 residents attended a meeting on the evening of July 12, 2011, concerning Aqua New York's proposal to construct a water tower on their property on the north side of DeMott Avenue, Wantagh, just west of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway. The meeting was informative despite the frequent interruptions. A person, for example, would ask a question of one of the two representatives of Aqua, and then cut off the reply with argumentation. The audience, obviously, was almost totally against the construction, citing loss of home value, and the lack of water-pressure problems at present.

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After about an hour, county legislators Dennis Dunne and David Denenberg spoke.

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Aqua New York is asking approval of the sale of its Long Island operations to American Water Works, which supplies water to Lynbrook. It appears that the rates in Lynbrook are similarly high.

Seaford School Board meeting 7.7.2011

About twenty interested spectators attended the reorganization meeting of the Seaford School Board in the high school band room Thursday evening, July 7, 2011. After the Pledge, there were two surprises: The president was chosen by a 3-2 vote, whereupon one of the negative voters, John DelGuidice, resigned from the Board. This is well related in the Wantagh-Seaford Patch, linked here.

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The new air-conditioned band room provided a comfortable setting, but it was a bit difficult to hear those who spoke without a microphone. I stayed about an hour, including a discussion about the State requirement that school districts on contingency budgets charge fees to groups using facilities, fees that must cover the costs.

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There was also a discussion whether Patch could be an official newspaper similar to Newsday and the Citizen, which receive legal notices.

Seaford school budget is defeated

On June 21, 2011, the Seaford, N. Y., school budget (2nd try) was defeated by a vote of 1,479 to 1,278.

Ninth grade cohort of 2006

Today's Newsday (6.15.2011) gives a summary of high school graduation rates in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The NYS Education Department has released these figures and more in the pdf file linked here.
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The "2006 cohort" is those students who began ninth grade in 2005-6 and ordinarily would have graduated by August 2010 after four years of high school. I have not yet found an explanation of how transfers-out and transfers-in are counted, and whether the cohort includes the same students at the start and at the finish. Not in Newsday but rather in the file linked above is the size of the 2006 cohort. Seaford's 2006 cohort is 193 students, 88% of whom graduated by August, 2010. Wantagh's numbers are 285 students and 99%. Massapequa: 636 and 96%. Plainedge: 279 and 94%. Bellmore-Merrick: 1,015 and 94%. Island Trees: 231 and 90%. Levittown: 648 and 93%.
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I have not located NY State figures for non-public schools, where again I feel that the size of the beginning cohort and the transfers are important information.
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My previous post on the 2005 (graduating in 2009) is linked here.

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Today's Newsday also contains a chart of "College prep indicators." This link leads to a fee wall, but many readers will be able log in.

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In Seaford, 55% of the 2010 graduates earned an advanced Regents diploma, in Wantagh 76%, in Massapequa 64%, in Plainedge 62%, in Bellmore-Merrick 68%, in Island Trees 45%, and in Levittown 65%.

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Seaford Museum will be open Sundays 1 to 4 p.m.

The Seaford Historical Society's Museum will again be open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., thanks in good measure to the the work of Eagle Scout candidate Nick Johns.  The Museum is located on Waverly Avenue between Washington and Southard Avenues.