By Scott Brinton
Sucoff's daughter graduated from Kennedy High School in Bellmore and the prestigious Nassau County Board of Cooperative Educational Services' High School for the Arts in Syosset last June. She is now a dance major on a scholarship at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Sucoff came to the board meeting at the Brookside School in North Merrick to speak out against the Central District's plan to eventually cut off all funding for the School for the Arts, meaning Bellmore-Merrick will no longer send students there for dance and film studies, as it traditionally has done.
In 2009-10 the Central District will send four students, all seniors, to the school, whereas in the past it has sent as many as a dozen. In 2010-11 the district will stop sending students to the school, where the annual tuition averages $13,500 per student, plus the cost of transportation and other expenses. Central District officials say the cut will save up to $20,000 per student per year. The Central District would like to create its own dance program in order to save money, although board members said they do not yet have a firm plan to do so.
About a dozen parents like Sucoff said they believe the Central District is incapable of replicating the dance program at the School for the Arts, where students can select from among some two dozen dance classes and receive intensive instruction from a staff of professional dancers and choreographers. Additionally, parents said, the school has guidance counselors that specialize in helping students get admitted to the country's top college dance programs. Typically, they said, high school guidance counselors are skilled at helping students get into college, but they lack specialization in such fields as dance.
Sucoff asked whether any of the Board of Education members had visited the School for the Arts before deciding on the cut. The assistant superintendent for personnel, Dr. Irene Halpin, said she had, but no one on the board responded. Trustee Susan Schwartz said she had seen Bellmore-Merrick dance students perform at shows and acknowledged that their skill level was high.
Sucoff compared the BOCES school to the LaGuardia School for Music and the Performing Arts in New York City, which was featured in the 1980 movie and subsequent TV series "Fame." "You're cutting something you've never seen," she said. "Kids really sing and dance in the halls" at the Nassau BOCES. "Once things are cut, it's so hard to bring them back."
Dorothy Medico, owner of Dorothy's School of Dance in Bellmore, which has produced a Tony Award-nominated dancer, among many other acclaimed performers, said, "Our children dream of participating" in the BOCES program. The Central District, she said, is "denying future dancers [the opportunity] to fulfill their aspirations." Medico added that any attempt by the Central District to reproduce the BOCES program would likely fall short and would be costly. A new dance floor for one room, she said, can cost upward of $100,000, because it requires special cushioning that regular floors do not.
Victor Langaro, Bellmore-Merrick's assistant superintendent for instruction, said that of the 44 districts with high schools in Nassau County, 33 send students to the School for the Performing Arts. But, he noted, most send one to four students per year, not the dozen the Central District has sent in the past. The largest number Langaro could find was in Freeport, which sent six students this year. He had not heard back from a number of districts on how many students they send, however.
Debbie Ellis, another dance parent, said, "Why are we going to be in the minority?" among districts that send no students to the arts school. "It's very upsetting."
Ellis noted that the district receives an average of 34 percent of students' tuition in state BOCES aid the year after they attend the School for the Performing Arts, so in effect that tuition is reduced by thousands of dollars. Trustee Nina Lanci responded that while it gets funds back, the Central District must front the money.
Dance parents collected 200 signatures on a petition calling on the Board of Education to reinstate the BOCES program, and sent 80 letters to the Central District administration.
Board Trustee Janet Goller said she empathized with parents, noting that her daughter is a dance educator. "We're listening," Goller said. "We've read everything you sent." But, she added, "We're at time when everyone's hurting financially. We can't promise anything, but we all do the best we can."
Ellis asked why the board would cut funding for the arts while instituting a district pre-engineering program.
Board President Ted Tanenbaum, who is retiring from the board this year, said, "The budget is a mosaic of programs. There are a lot of programs that we would like to add to the budget," but cannot because they are too costly.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
