By Brian Zanzonico
On Feb. 8, Lucito walked out of a meeting shaking her head.
Lucito, along with other parents, was happy the school board kept its word and expeditiously amended the decade-old sex offender notification policy to include the entire community. But parents said that despite its efforts, the school board's work is not yet complete.
With the board's unanimous adoption of the sex offender amendment at the Feb. 8 meeting, residents of the Franklin Square School District joined principals, PTA presidents, door monitors, security personnel, athletic and extracurricular supervisors, bus drivers, custodians and cleaners as people who will be notified by the board when a sex offender moves in. The omission of teachers from the list spurred parents to ask the board to further amend the policy to include them.
School attorney Bill Cullen said that because teachers' duties don't extend beyond the classroom, they "don't need to know" when a registered sex offender moves in. Parents contend that since teachers are outside every day after school to release students for pick-up and often go on field trips, they should be privy to the information. "It doesn't make logical sense," Lucito said.
Linda Forte of the teachers' association defended the board's decision to leave teachers out. "The need for teachers to know is nonexistent," Forte said. "My job is inside the building. Teachers in classrooms are not in need of this information."
Method of mass communicating
Under the new policy, when the school district is alerted by the local police precinct that a registered sex offender has moved in, school officials will mail out postcards to every home in the district. The preprinted cards will include the phone number of the Nassau County Police Department and two sex offender registry Web site addresses that have detailed information about the offender. But the postcards will not name the criminal or the severity of the crime, which is what some parents want to know.
"Why don't they adopt the same policy as Valley Stream District No. 13?" Geralyn Maloney, a Polk Street School mother, asked after the meeting. "They send a photo, a name, in a sealed envelope home with the kids."
Valley Stream District No. 13's sex offender notification policy, on the books since 2003, states that the mug shots, names and streets of residence of Level 2 (defined as having a moderate risk of re-offending) and Level 3 (a high risk of re-offending) registered sex offenders are sent home with students in sealed envelopes, according to Denise Michaels of the District 13 superintendent's office. Staff members, including teachers, also receive the information. Willow Road School, part of District 13, is in Franklin Square.
Michaels also said the Nassau County Police Department gives each school district discretion to disseminate as much or as little of the detailed release as they see fit. District 13 Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Lison said her district had a policy similar to the new one in Franklin Square, but school board members wanted to give more.
"As a leadership team, we felt neglectful whenever a sex offender moved in because we didn't tell parents where they lived," Lison said about the old District 13 policy. "We spoke to our attorneys and agreed that all the information we received for Level 2 and 3 offenders should be sent home."
Cullen said that keeping the postcard vague is a way for the district to protect itself against litigation in the event that the information it receives from police is inaccurate. "If the released information is incorrect, the school district might not have immunity, and taxpayers could be subject to a lawsuit," Cullen said.
Superintendent Dr. Tim Lafferty said that if residents want access to the same details about sex offenders the school district receives, they can fill out a Freedom of Information Law form and request a copy.
"That's fine," a parent said after the meeting. "We'll all march down to his office en masse and make our request."
A chance to gripe
Board members said that parents who disagreed with the amendment should have attended the board's Feb. 1 work session, when the details were fleshed out. With the exception of a few meeting regulars, board member Dr. Roger Roess said, the only people at the work session were board members.
Parents argued, however, that the school board said at its last regular meeting in January that they would review the policy on Feb. 8. According to the minutes of the Jan. 28 meeting, "The board of education indicated it would review its policy, take into consideration the comments of the parents, and address this topic at the Feb. 8, 2006 board of education meeting."
Other parents said they heard around school that work sessions are not open to the public. Maloney said she didn't attend the work session because the back of the school district's calendar states, "No regular public agenda items will be addressed in Work Session only meetings." The administration page on the school district Web site posts the same message, and lists Feb. 1 as a budget work session.
But Roess said the school board encourages attendance at work sessions, and never stifles the public's opinions. "We always allow comment at work sessions," he said.
A day after the meeting, Lucito, who has been an unofficial spokeswoman for parents on this issue, said she could finally exhale after starting her policy change campaign in December, when a story in a local newspaper reported that a Level 2 sex offender had moved to 3rd Avenue in Franklin Square. Lucito and other parents wondered why the school district failed to notify the community about it, which is common practice among neighboring districts, and learned that it was not Franklin Square School District policy.
"I'm 95 percent pleased with the policy change," she said. "I'm upset with the teachers issue, but overall I'm pleased."
The board did not anticipate making any additional changes in the near future, but Lafferty said the policy can always be amended further. "It can be reviewed and looked at in terms of how it works," he said.
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