Close to 100 teenagers and adults expressed concerns that the scheduled renovation of the Main Branch would result in drastic cuts to the Levels program at the Great Neck Public Library at a special meeting of the board of trustees on Thursday.
“This community reflects that it needs Levels,” said Alan Schwartz, chair of the music department at Great Neck South Middle School and an alumnus of the 40-year old Levels program. “I’m the teacher I am because of Levels. I am Levels.”
Those gathered at the meeting asked trustees not to cut three-part time Levels’ employees, saying that it would hurt the quality of the program that seeks to give Great Neck students a place to produce plays and movies.
“Downsizing it is absolutely wrong,” Schwartz said.
Marietta DiCamillo, president of the library’s board of trustees, said she was not sure where residents concerns were coming from as the board has not made any determination on which staff members would be terminated during the renovation of the Main Branch.
“We’re still in the process of evaluating,” DiCamillo said.
Library officials have said that some staffing cuts will take place during the year-long renovation of the Main Branch’s infrastructure, in an effort to save money.
The library’s 2014-15 budget calls for a $934,000 decrease in total employee salaries for the current fiscal year, which started on July 1 and goes to June 30, 2015.
“Every department is going to have to make sacrifices,” DiCamillo said.
DiCamillo added that the board is “committed to keeping the [Levels] department as robust as possible.”
The Levels program is scheduled to be moved to Saddle Rock Elementary School, located at 10 Hawthorne Lane, on weekdays and the library’s Station Branch, located at 26 Great Neck Road, on Saturday after the Main Branch closes in November.
Repairs to the Main Branch include a new roof, insulated windows, a revamp of the building’s HVAC system and new lighting.
People at the meeting said Levels’ employees should be exempt from personnel cuts during the renovation period.
One teenager told the board that Levels needed the six staff members it currently has – three full-time and three part-time – to support the number of students in the program.
“The fact that [Levels] runs on six employees is a miracle in and of its own,” he said.
Neil Leiberman, husband of Great Neck News columnist Karen Rubin, said he wished to see the board commit more funding to Levels.
“Levels should be expanded, not downsized,” he said.
Great Neck Plaza trustee Pamela Marksheid also expressed her concerns for the fate of the program.
“I think that the young people in our community love Levels,” she said. “When we talk about our library system, one of the highlights is Levels.”
Another Great Neck teenager said Levels was the “last place for the youth to go.”
“So many things have been shut down,” the teenager said.
He added that going to Levels had helped him change from a shy child to an outgoing teenager.
“I would not be who I am today if it wasn’t for Levels,” he said.
Library Trustee Michael Fuller said in response to the residents’ concerns that the board is planning several fundraisers for Levels, including an event where teenagers will put on a show for elected officials.
DiCamillo said the Levels room will a “better place for all of you to go into” after the renovation of the Main Branch was completed.
