Bethpage-Tribune_1974-08-29

              BETHBAGE
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B T R 5
btTHPAGE PU8 L16
47 POWELL AV
(JCTHPAGE NY M 7 I4
OLD BETHI*GE
also serving
^LAINVIEW PUINEDGE
SEAFORD
Thursday, August 29. 1974
Ekthpage Expands
10 cents per copy
i^VINE URGES MIDDLE INCOME USE OF TAP - A w e - J ^ T
Stuart R. Levine (R-Bethpage). right.coip«»oroi t l £ ^ £ 5 £
Assistance l*otram <TAF* I. *Sm^S^SS^Zm?cS
stance Cook, chairman of the A ^ b l y flSSTS^
SBTV22SLt o **?*,-*& ******»•*•« TAP W I M . for a,*
, ' Provl<"»nmancUfaia't©^am,llie»Ji».fir6vidmg for the cc
education of their children.
Educational M&Ieetfmis
By Ray T. Blank
Superintendent of Schools
The Bethpage School District is
expanding their programs in two
important areas for the coming
school year. The Special
Education Program and the
Industrial Arts Department will
both have sprouted new growths
m 1974-75.
In accordance with the
philosophy of the Board of
Education and the Superin­tendent
of Schools to educate as
manyof the Bethpage students as
possible within the home district
a class of Special Education will
be instituted at the Senior High
level for the 1874^75 year. The
program was developed under
™e ******* °* .Mr- Arthur
Hecht, Administrative Assistant
to the Superintendent.
Continuous Special Education
programs will now be available
fa Shari Miller
for Bethpage students from the
elementary through Senior High
levels. Special Education
programs in the District are
made up in two small classes,
allowing specially trained staff to
concentrate on all areas which
are important to the social
emotional, and academic
development of these students.
cJPie,P£ii08°Phy behi«d the
Social Education Program in
^ p a g e js indeed a very special
one. The program is designed to
educate the students to make the
most of their abilities so that one
day, if possible, they will be able
to return to a regular classroom
situation.
In the coming school year
Bethpage High School will also
host an expanded Industrial Arts
Department. An additional full-time
industrial arts teacher will
be added to the department's
present staff.
The expansion of the depart­ment
is due to the overwhelming
success during the 1973-74 school
year of the new half-year elec-
Uves which were introduced.
These included power
technology, small engine repair
basic metal, wood, printing,
offset and electricity. With the
enthusiastic reception by the
s t u d*nl* of these courses, the
Bethpage Board of Education
saw fit to increase the Industrial
^rts Department's staff. The
Opportunity for participation in
this greatly-expanded elective
program can now be offered to a
greater number of Bethpage high.
Sicb*^atud«nt^,;-: • - "^y? • r '
On September 4, Plainedge and
other school districts' children
will be returning to another year
of school and, hopefully another
year of learning.
The previous expression was
purposely used because the
specific action of attending
school does not, in itself, assure
that education is adequately and
realistically taking place. Some
have to do With all the various
individuals otft participants
engaged in the activities", and
Others with serious and
provocative external factors
whose situations' or conditions
impinge on and affect the orderly
process.
For school to be effective and
meaningful there must be overt
intention and action on the part of
both the student and the school
district to see that something
worthwhile will happen.
Resistance or lack of proper
intent on the part of either can
shift the balance from a positive
and productive experience and
relationship to one that can be
much less so. Other factors, often
beyond our control, also enter
into the situation and have their
dramatic effect.
One of the more striking of
these forces which effects our
students, is the highly irregular,
improper, or even illegal ac­tivities
occurring on the national
scene. Unfortunate situations
such as Watergate provide the
motivation to sway impressional
young men and women from the
influence and guidance of the
more mature, experienced, and
controlling element of our society
and, what they often call, the
"establishment." In addition,
these kinds of things can and do
lead children to believe that, not
only is the establishment not to be
trusted, and has nothing to
contribute to their welfare or to
the improvement of their
situation, but that it can actually
harm them. This then, all too
often, spills over to the schools,
which, in turn, suffer their
rejection as a "tool of the
establishment," and, therefore,
are also not to be trusted, for the
student, scandals that occur in
government or within other
groups of public and private
leaders, which by all rules of
morality are supposed to be
sacrosanct, present unusually
strong means for negative
motivation. Such scandals
provide quite attractive cir­cumstances
for competition to
take our children's attention
away from the good things that
are occurring in our society.
Further, they supply the basis or
means for securing youthful
allegiance to causes and actions
that work in opposition to lear­ning
taking place in, die formal
school setting. Under these
conditions, the young mind
makes its analysis, primed only
by a limited set of sharply
irritating circumstances, and with
little experience or maturity to
understand or deal rationally or
intellectually with them and
place them in proper perspective
to the totality of life. That
analysis too often is that,
somehow the morality of all the
people may be in question.
Student speeches at high school
and college graduation often take
on this unfortunate and
destructive line while seldom
providing suggestions for
solution or improvement.
The writer is not finding fault
(Continued on Page 16)
.';*%. Richard Wood
Contract negotiations between
the Plainedge School District and
the Plainedge Federation of
Teachers remain at an impasse.
With the teachers asking for
roughly a 9 percent wage in­crease
plus 2 percent in in­crements,,
the board offering 5
percent in wages and 2 percent in
increments, and the New York
State Public Employment
Relations Board super fact­finder
recommending. 7 percent
and 2 pecent respectively, the
issue remains unresolved,
School Board President Don
Kanter's only comment at the
Plainedge School Board's August
22nd meeting was: "We have not
come to terms with the teachers
or custodians, but we believe we
are still within our bounds
Nothing has been settled, but
we're hopeful...We believe we
can settle before school opens."
He also pointed out that the
teachers rejected the state fact­finder's
report "in its entirety,"
reminded those in attendance
that the teachers had taken a vote
to strike last June, and that
salary was "the predominant
factor involved."
In a somewhat awkward
sequence of events, the school
district only learned of the fact­finder's
recommendations "after
the teachers had rejected it."
The teachers' union received
the report the week of August 5th.
The district only realized the
report existed after it received
the union's rejection, forcing the
district to go to Albany to get
their own copy of the report.
The district has accepted the
report, according to Kanter,
"with the exception of four terms
,...on which the district is willing
to negotiate."
The four items are a multi-year
vs. a one-year contract, certain
definitions contained in the
report, the use of faculty rooms,
and the working period of
guidance counselors.
NEWBUSWG
ItEQtHR^pKftfS 7 -
At the board's August 22nd
meeting the board also passed a
resolution in response to the state
legislature's amendment of
Education Law, Subdivision l of
Section 3635 of Chapter 755 of the
1974 Laws requiring tran­sportation
of nonpublic school
'^^&A^myM^mabed'/ Sep­tember
3rd as the "latest per-missable
filing date (for those
pupils affected) for. the 1974-75
school year/'.
The new law will cost the
district about $5,000 in additional
— — r — , transportation costs of which,
pupils living up to fifteen miles (according to the board, ninety
from a legally attended school, percent will be reimbursed by the
As the statute becomes ef­fective
September 1st, making it
impossible for any resident to
make application by the April 1,
1974 filing date, the board waived
the April 1st date "for those
pupils living more than ten but
not over 15 miles from school, but
state. So far twenty-two students
have applied for transportation
within the ten mile limit.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
The district's attorney, LeRoy
Van Nostrand, discussed the new
Freedom of Information Law
(Continued on Page 16)
Area Schools-at
a Glance
BETHPAGE-WSTRICT
NO- 21
Opening Date-Tuesday,
September 3rd.
New Tax Rate-$13.63; per
$100 assessed valuation for
the School District and
$0.50 per $100 assessed
valuation for the Library
Budget.
Names of Board
members - Anthony Lo-faso,
President; Anthony
Cotton, Vice President;
Michael Verderosa;
Joseph Parisi; Lee Shuck-man;
Harold Resnick; and
Salvatore Ianello.
ISLAND TREES-DISTRICT
NO. 26
Opening Date-Tuesday,
September 3rd.
New Tax Rate-$15.22 per
$100 assessed valuation
" ($14.91 for the School
District plus $0.31 for the
Library).
Names of Board
Members-Richard Ahrens,
P r e s i d e n t ; John
Liberatore; Thomas
Mulcahey; William
Richter; James Burke;
Richard Melchers; and
Frank Martin.
PLAINEDGE-DISTRICT
NO. 18
O p e n i n g Date-
Wednesday, September
4th.
New Tax Rate-$17.24 per
$100 assessed valuation
(includes School and
Library taxes).
Names of Board
Members-Donald M.
Kanter, President;
Dominick F. Gagliardo,
Vice President; Michael J.
Cimino; Fred H. Conklin;
Robert G. Galante; Jules
Teck; and Irving Weber.