When asked about when the Board of Education would conduct the traffic study that was approved at the May Board of Education meeting, the public was informed that the study was already done on May 24.
The administration was informed of our concerns about choosing dates in May or June for this traffic study.
Since AP exams are given earlier in May, with makeup days being given on May 23, 24, and 25, many seniors are not required to attend classes before and after these exams and arrival and departure times would therefore not be representative of what they are for most of the school year.
The purpose of the traffic study was to examine whether the influx of 100 more student-driven cars will cause a more chaotic and unsafe arrival and departure time at the Great Neck North High School.
By conducting the study when not all students arrive at 8 a.m., or depart at 2:33 p.m. would certainly skew the results.
It would seem that since the Board of Education made its final decision to conduct a traffic study, after listening to a year of complaints from the nearby residents who were not properly informed about the expansion of the parking lot, the fair time to conduct the traffic study would be at the beginning of the school year – or at least to be done on multiple dates.
Relying on one day for a traffic study would mean this day must represent the majority of typical traffic patterns throughout the year. Picking a day in May, at the end of the year, is not a fair choice.
We have photographed the student parking on Beach Road, west of Polo, for many of the days in May, and discovered that students have regularly come after 8 a.m.
Will this be recorded in the ‘traffic study’ that was conducted? Will the “traffic study” correlate its data with the attendance records of Great Neck North High School juniors and seniors from May 24, and examine how many juniors and seniors arrived late?
Will the study compare the same attendance numbers of juniors and seniors to a randomly chosen day in any of the other months that do not have AP exams?
Handpicking a date for this traffic study to make it appear that there is no traffic issue at this dangerous intersection confirms that this board has an agenda: to build this parking lot whether or not it poses a safety hazard to local residents, and whether the majority of the nearby residents approve of it or not.
All residents that live near any of the Great Neck Public School facilities should be put on notice and learn from this sorry episode in Great Neck Public School history: If the school wishes to build something that is incongruous with your neighborhood, they will not seek the neighbors’ approval or input.
They will put the onus on you, to attend every meeting and examine every line of every document because they will most certainly not be a good neighbor.
Robert Mendelson
Great Neck
