By Angela Marshall
A delayed start due to criticism from both sides of the transcript provided of the first meeting kept the center from presenting its entire case last week. The tentative continuation date is July 1. No location has been set.
Lawyers said parts of the transcript were inaccurate and some sections were missing. Both sides want the record corrected in case they appeal the zoning board's decision.
Thomas Levin, lawyer for the center, built his case in sections, saying that no one piece alone proves that the center meets the village's school definition, but that taken as a whole, it clearly does.
Levin, of Meyer Suozzi English & Klein, began his case by giving a history of the center and its dealings with the village over the years. He cited document after document in which village employees and boards called and treated the Childhood Center as a private school or private nursery school.
The Childhood Center's status as a school is being appealed by a group of residents, the RVC Citizens' Association, who do not feel Rosa Lee Young should be allowed to open a new facility in a Residence A zone at 35 Woods Ave. They say that Rosa Lee Young is a daycare center, not a school. When the Rockville Centre superintendent of buildings, Steve DeClue, ruled that the center meets the village's definition, the association filed an appeal and raised more than $30,000 to hire an attorney, Wayne Edwards, from the law firm Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman of East Meadow.
The Woods Avenue location is currently occupied by an empty restaurant, which neighbors hoped would be replaced by residential housing when it was sold. It still could be. Developers continue to approach the Childhood Center with proposals to build one-family homes there.
Levin denied rumors that his clients have sold the property. He said Rosa Lee Young is the owner of the property and is proceeding with plans to build there. A developer said Monday that he submitted a contract to purchase the property the day after the hearing, but had not heard whether it was acceptable to the center. Levin could not be reached for comment on the potential contract.
Center administrators want to move from their current location at 180 North Village Ave. to a larger facility, which would allow them to better serve the growing waiting list for their services. Levin said they had looked at a number of buildings, but, finding none that fit their needs, purchased the Woods Avenue location in July 2001.
At the time, the village didn't allow non-public schools to build in Residence A zone and rejected the center's building permit application. The center sued the village, citing New York State case law showing that private and parochial schools cannot be treated differently than public schools. The village board immediately began procedures to update the code, saying that it had been aware of the need to make the changes since 1999. Hotly contested legislation, including the code revisions and a definition of school, was adopted in September 2002 and, Levin said, the suit was dropped.
DeClue informed the center that it met the new definition and could go to the Planning Board for site plan review, a requirement enacted by the legislation. But before a review could be scheduled, the neighbors appealed.
After completing the history, Levin moved on to describe other ways the center meets the village's definition, including the New York State Education Department's decision to grant a provisional charter.
A spokesman from the Education Department told the Herald that the center is considered a school, but members of RVC Citizens say they were told by a different state education representative that it is not and that the charter status should not be considered for zoning purposes.
Levin also provided the board with the center's curriculum. These documents were different from those Edwards presented to the board at the previous meeting. His expert, former East Meadow superintendent Frank Saracino, said after looking at the earlier documents, the education of the teachers and the age of the students, that the Childhood Center is clearly not a school.
Saracino was not present at last week's hearing to see the new curriculum, which Jeannine Rey, acting director of the center, said had been created in the past few months. Edwards has asked to be able to bring in rebuttal witnesses at a future date.
Rey, who has a master's degree in early childhood education, was Levin's first witness, and she described the day-to-day activities of the different age groups at the center. She also talked about the educational backgrounds of the center's staff. The board members were provided with resumes of all the center's teachers.
At the last hearing, Saracino had said the lack of certification by some of the center's staff would not allow it to meet public-school standards. Although the village's definition does require schools to furnish instruction similar to public schools, the village board deliberately did not require teachers to be certified. Instead, it substituted the word qualified, after at least one board member said many schools have trouble finding certified teachers.
During cross-examination, Rey said yes to Edwards' question of whether the center will continue to be a licensed day-care center. Edwards then asked Rey if she thought the center's toddler, proposed infant and summer programs meet the definition. She said yes to each.
Rey said she believes nursery school is anything below kindergarten. She also described a New York state early childhood education certification program expected to begin in 2004 that will be given to those educated to teach children from birth to second grade.
Rey hesitated when it came to describing the educational component of the center's summer program, but said the children take field trips, do craft projects and other teacher-directed activities including science experiments.
Because the definition requires schools to be limited to nursery school or prekindergarten through grade 12 the Zoning Board's decision could come down to whether its members believe the center's summer, toddler and proposed infant programs can be considered part of a nursery school. Levin argued that because the village board failed to define nursery school, the Zoning Board must side with the property owner's interpretation.
Levin's second witness was Dr. Peter Lynch, a former assistant superintendent in the Baldwin School District and a professor in Molloy College's graduate program. He has a doctorate in children's learning styles. He said the center's curriculum is carefully aligned with that of the New York State Education Department and said it was similar to that used in public schools. He called it rigorous.
When asked by Edwards, Lynch said he had studied the written curriculum but had not observed classes at the center.
Prompted by Edwards, Lynch also explained how an infant can be educated with specific activities that the average parents wouldn't know to do with their child.
Levin's third expert will be called at the July 1 continuation. The meeting's location will be announced later. Edwards will then call rebuttal witnesses, and both sides hope to submit another set of briefs before the zoning board makes its decision.
