Rifle team gets one more shot

The Valley Stream Central High School District rifle team has had its fair share of success in recent years, winning seven consecutive state championships. On July 9, the team had its biggest cause for celebration: funding for at least one more season.

The Board of Education voted 6-3 in favor of financing the team next season in a limited capacity, for a maximum of $10,000. The squad will compete only in air rifle events, and use non-lead pellets, which will eliminate the need for lead abatement in the district’s rifle range at Memorial Junior High School. It will no longer compete in .22 caliber small-bore competition. After next season, the team must raise money each year in order to keep the program alive.

Superintendent Dr. Bill Heidenreich said the district was awarded $100,000 in “bullet aid” from the state — $75,000 from the Assembly and $25,000 from the Senate. School board Trustee Tony Iadevaio, the board president for the school year that just ended, met with state representatives in Albany in recent weeks, seeking additional aid to reinstate the rifle and bowling teams. Iadevaio was the lone “no” vote when the school budget was adopted in March, because those teams were not included.

Facing rising mandated costs, the district had to cut $2.65 million from the 2013-14 spending plan to stay within the state’s tax levy limit. Teaching positions, custodial staff, several electives and clubs were cut. So, too, were the rifle, bowling and golf teams.

The board had discussed cutting the teams since January, and heard dozens of public comments on the issue in the months leading up to — and the weeks after — the May 21 budget vote. At a work session in May, the board asked Heidenreich to look into funding the rifle team at a cost of $8,000 to $10,000. At its July 9 meeting, the board also discussed reinstating the district’s three bowling teams, at a cost of $30,000, but the motion was voted down, 5-4.

“I am not recommending this,” Heidenreich said prior to the votes. “I’m recommending that we use the additional state aid that we’ve received to lower class size and restore some of the programs that have been lost and eliminated.”