By LARRY MAIER
Mary Ramo and several other North Merrick parents broached the Roosevelt issue at a recent North Merrick School Board meeting. Ramo asked district officials to allow a letter supporting the state Senate-passed legislation to be sent home with school children so that parents who wished to sign and forward it to elected officials could do so. Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) had introduced the measure in the Senate. As of Tuesday, Nov. 27, the district had not informed Ramo if the letter would be allowed to go home with students.
Action needs to be taken now to garner support for the bill, say many parents, because of recent reports from a November state Board of Regents meeting. According to Regent Robert Johnson, the board recently authorized state Education Commissioner Richard Mills to move forward with breakup of the Roosevelt School District if a review panel decides it hasn't made satisfactory progress toward solving its academic and financial problems.
Ramo had also hoped to receive support for a letter-writing campaign from local civic organizations, but so far has not.
The fledgling South Shore Joint Council of Civic Organizations, a conglomerate of community civic associations, held a meeting Sunday, Nov. 25 to consider whether to participate in a letter-writing campaign.
Council Chairwoman Vicki Rosenberg, who is president of the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association, said the group decided that any letter-writing campaign at this point would hinder efforts of state legislators working to find a solution to Roosevelt's school problems.
Letter writing could also create an undue hysteria among many South Shore residents, Rosenberg said, and raise the specter that favoring a state takeover is racially, not educationally, motivated.
According to Rosenberg and several other local civic leaders polled, the best course of action for residents now is to allow legislators to do their jobs without interference from a letter-writing campaign.
In the past, some have argued that the real reason many are against a breakup of the Roosevelt School District is because they don't want black students attending their predominately white schools, a perception Rosenberg wants to guard against.
"Race won't be an issue until we make it an issue," said Rosenberg. "The minute it becomes an issue, all of the work [of legislators] will be undone."
Ramo said she does not see the point in taking a wait-and-see approach, especially because the state Legislature is due to reconvene in early December.
"It's a time issue, and people need to be educated," Ramo said. "It's not about race, it's about education. And it's about where the state has been, and it's about these poor children who are not getting an education."
Any outcome other than a plan that allows Roosevelt to maintain a viable school district for its children would be "devastating to children's education there and here," Ramo said.
Ramo said that after she and others collect the signatures supporting the legislation, they will send them to Fuschillo, Johnson, Mills, Gov. George Pataki and various state Assembly members.
