On Dec. 3, Great Neck residents were asked to vote on a proposition costing $9.7 million that would add eight classrooms to E.M. Baker and Lakeville Schools. At the exorbitant price of more than $1.2 million per classroom, the reliable parent “yes” vote had to turn out if the proposition were to pass and the district wanted the proposition to pass.
Fortuitously for the district, parent-teacher conferences were already scheduled for Dec. 3 at E.M.Baker, Lakeville and Saddle Rock Schools so it was decided that the $9.7 million proposition vote should be scheduled on Dec. 3 when the schools would be flooded with parents interested in their children’s academic progress.
The district’s contention that scheduling the vote and parent-teacher conferences on the same day was purely coincidental is ridiculous and indicative of contempt for the voter and the process: the process being the role of the district to provide valid information and equal access for all voters. Instead, the District utilized tax-funded facilities and a legitimate teacher-parent conference which may have skewed the vote.
To be fair, Great Neck is not the only school district that has resorted to questionable tactics in an effort to secure funds.
Many Long Island school districts consumed by the insatiable demands of teacher and administrator unions, resort to similar tactics for ordinary building maintenance and improvements.
The Nassau County District Attorney’s Bureau of Public Corruption may want to revisit the law that prohibits “electioneering within the polling place or in any public street within a 100-foot radial measured from the entrances designated by the inspectors of election…..” New York Election Law.
Rather than teach children the concepts of fair play and respect for the rules, the very people that parents entrust with the intellectual and ethical development of their children do “whatever it takes” to win.
The very people entrusted to investigate possible violations of law seem to be curiously uninterested in possible illegal electioneering. In another time, such behavior would be described as corruption.
Laurann Pandelakis
Manhasset
