1970-06-04

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POWELL HOUSE 1700 FARHINODALE OBSERVER
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RECORDED WEEKLY
An Official Newspaper of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale — Serving Greater Farmingdale, Bethpage and Melville
Vol. 7 No. 41 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, June 4, 1970
10,437 ELIGIBLE TO VOTE
ON WEDNESDAY
District 22 voters will go to the polls this coming Wednesday, June
10 between the hours of 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. at Weldon E. Howitt Junior
High School to vote on a school budget; select four school board
trustees out of a field of nine candidates; vote on a shortened tran­sportation
proposition from one and one half miles to one mile for
students from grades seven through 12 and vote on a public library
appropriation.
Incumbent trustee A. Terry Weathers who has served on the school
board for 12 years is being opposed by Stanley D. Martyna; In­cumbent
Trustee Mrs. Lucille Ii. Goulding who has served for six
years is being challenged by Leonard F. Kafka; three- year, in­cumbent
trustee Robert S. Campbell is being opposed by Nicholas B.
Aleshin.. RaymondE. Parcels, Robert Weiss and Edmund P. Kennedy
are battling for the unexpired two- year post created by the
resignation of Leroy D. Mollineaux Sr.
Martyna, Kafka, Aleshin, and Parcels are running as a team and
are endorsed by DEBT, a group which has been publishing a
newsletter for the past several years mainly in opposition to school
board policy and expenditures.
When the quartet were asked at the PTA sponsored candidates
forum held on Wednesday night at Weldon E. Howitt High School, how
they would effect economics, neither of the four candidates came up
with specific answers. They did imply that they would cut in the areas
of music , art, foreign language on the elementary level, if they had
to.
Goulding and Weathers, who are running as a team, pledged to
" maintain and improve the district's educational program, while
striving to achieve a fairer and more equitable way of school finan­cing."
The Weathers- Goulding team pointed to the Massapequa and
Plainedge teacher contracts which called for an $ 8,000 starting
salary, while Farmingdale negotiated a $ 7,900 starting without a
strike and still are among the lowest in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
Weathers pointed out that the total expenditure per pupil in Far­mingdale
was below that of 36 of Nassau counties 56 school districts.
Terry Weathers, who has been fighting for more equitable
financing of public school education on the New York State level and
who is Vice President of the New York State School Board
Association, posed a question at Wednesday's meeting, which went
unanswered, " What program for tax reduction have the negative
critics advocated other than hurting the educational program?"
The sometimes heated forum also drew questions from several Mill
Lane Junior High School students. One question aimed at Martyna by
a student was where he would make cuts, if elected, brought the reply
, " The administration and the board have access to records". To
which Mrs. Goulding later replied, that the records were always
available to taxpayers.
Mrs. Florence DeHaan, school board trustee, asked Kafka
why he did flot submit an interim report on busing when he served as a
chairman of a citizens bus transportation committee, which resulted
in other committee members completing the report, Kafka admitted
that the social commitment that he made in preference to the report
was more important to him. He said that the social activity had a
bearing on his job. Kafka is employed by a steamship company.
Kennedy, an assistant chief of Airway Facilities at Kennedy Air­port,
who served on the Citizens Finance Committee stated that he
was running as independent candidate when asked how he was going
to vote on the budget, replied in the ' negative'. Kennedy said that he
favored returning busing to one mile rather than having it at one and
one half mile. He stated that the DEBT and FACT groups were
polorizing the community and that it looked like votes would be cast
not for a person but for an organization. He said that he had no
organizational muscle or money, but was running as an independent
candidate.
When Parcels was asked what he meant when he said that the
school district was on the verge of moral bankruptcy", he replied,
that the teachers were openly discussing their negotiation contracts
in the classroom which was not morally correct."
Most of the questions were directed at Kafka and his running mates
after all candidates made their presentation.
Oyster Bay Town Attorney, David Weinblatt was the moderator.
Voters on Wednesday will vote on a proposed budget of $ 21,670,086
an increase of $ 2,396,730 over the 1969- 1970 budget for an estimated tax
rate of $ 11,970 per $ 100 of assessed valuation in the Town of Oyster
Bay secjtor of the school district and $ 18.62 in the Babylon sector. In
the Oyster Bay sector, the increase amounts to $ 1.27 and $ 2.29 in the
Babylon sector.
The Farmingdale Public Library appropriation of $ 405,000 is up for
voter approval.
A proposition being offered to the voters which "* will provide a one-mile
walking distance in grades 7 - 12 instead ot the present one and a
half miles. Passage of the proposition would add an additional
$ 145,744 to next year's budget, but approximately $ 109,000 would be
returned to the district in 1972 in state aid. The net cost of the
proposition to the local taxpayer would be $ 36,700.
Under a change in voter qualification for the Wednesday, June 10th
elections, a resident no longer need to own, lease or be in possession,
under contract of purchase real property in the district, nor does he
have to be a parent of school age or have a child of school age residing
witii him. He must be 21 years of age and a citizen in the district for a
period of 30 days prior to the vote.
A total of 762 new voters registered on Wednesday, June 3 making a
total of 10,437 eligible voters for Wednesday's vote.
On Tuesday, January 9th District 22 School Board will meet at 8: 30
p. m. at Weldon El. Howitt Jr. High School to discuss the school budget
and public library appropriation for the coming year.
Rockefeller To Deliver Address At State University Graduation
Governor Nelson A.
Rockefeller, will deliver the
principal address at the 51st
Commencement Exercises to be
held at ( lie State University
Agricultural and Technical
College at Farmingdale, on
Friday, June 12.
Rockefeller is expected to
discuss the need " to involve
youth in a positive and con­structive
way in building our
society."
The largest graduating class in
the school's history, an estimated
1,300 will receive diplomas.
Mortimer Gleeson, Chairman
of the College's Council since
1958, will preside over the
exercises to be held outside the
Allard Field House, starting at
10: 00 a. m. In the event of rain,
the exercises will be held indoors
at the Allard Field House and
Roosevelt Hall.